I work for an ice cream franchise in CA that pays minimum wage (15/hr) plus tips for the entry level position. I was recently offered a promotion to work as a shift lead, and I accepted because I had heard from another shift lead at the store that the pay was 18/hr plus tips. I verbally asked the manager to confirm the shift lead pay, but he said that he didn’t know and would have to get back to me (he never did).
Flash forward a couple of weeks when I get my first paycheck after working as a shift lead. It showed 15/hr plus a lump sum of tips. At this point I reached out to the manager via text and asked again what the shift lead pay was to make sure my paycheck was right. He said that he didn’t know, and asked if he would like me to ask the owner. I said yes. He replied later than she would email me, which I thought was a little strange since she has my phone number and could text, but whatever.
In the email I got from her the next morning, she broke down my paycheck and explained that in addition to the 15/hr, the shift leads receive an extra 3/hr that comes from tip money, plus the additional amount of tips that is split amongst every employee. This feels really wrong to me, and this is what I’m hung up on.
From a google search it appears that in CA it is illegal to pay a wage (15/hr, 18/hr, etc) with money that isn’t originating from the employer (i.e. tip money), meaning that labor costs should be covered by the employer and not tip money from customers (which should be extra, on top of a wage!). This means that extra tip money that could be going to all of my coworkers is used to pay the wage of shift leads.
I want this to be corrected, because it just really doesn’t feel okay to me. How do I approach the business? What do I do here?
Also, for reference, they need me more than I need them. I could quit and rely on my second job without a problem. But I want to address this.