Started working at a local coffee shop a bit ago, and after about 2-3 months of working there I realized that the tips I was getting on my paycheck were lower than they should have been based on what I was seeing in the computer system. The boss kept all the tip totals behind a manager passcode in the system, but you could still see an estimation on your end of shift printout.
After asking around, I realized that it was because the boss’s daughter, who did non-tipped back of house work, was getting a cut of the tips when none of the other back-of-house people were. I’m fine with tipping pools, I think back-of-house employees deserve tips as well, but it was really weird to me that ONLY the boss’s daughter was getting cut in on the tips, all the other bakers/dishwashers/etc were just making barely above minimum.
To my understanding this is also illegal, if there is a tipping pool with non-tipped employees everyone is supposed to be notified, i shouldn’t have had to figure out where my tips were going by sniffing through the computer system.
I made a meeting with the boss, and did my best to be professional while explaining to him what the labor laws said about this and that I’d appreciate either fixing the policies and paying us the right wage (you can’t pay tipped minimum wage in my state if non-tipped employees are in the tipping pool) or that he should only allocate tips to the tipped employees.
His response was to threaten to lower my hourly wage to 30 cents, to lie to me about the labor laws, and to say he was “accepting my formal resignation” when I in no way was resigning. After about 20 minutes of this, I told him I was just going to contact the department of labor since they knew more about the laws than either of us. He again tried to “accept my formal resignation” and walked me out of the building.
2 hours later he texted me saying I was correct about the labor laws, and he was going to look into changing the policies. I figured that was the end of it, continued to show up to my shifts and do my job.
2 days later, I was notified by email that I had been fired due to my “abysmal and unprofessional” approach to my complaint, and for discussing what happened with that meeting with another employee.
I’m completely shocked and out of a job, I have our in-person conversation recorded on an audio file in my phone and nothing I did was unprofessional (I live in a one-party consent state so recording conversations is legal, just did it so I’d feel safe). I don’t think that this is a legal reason to fire me, but I know at-will employment doesn’t really need a reason.