the restaurant i work at had a couple full bulding buyout events going on feb 18 and 19. the managers had told the servers that they would all get a flat pay rate on their hourly check instead of a tipout from the event. the rest of us support staff asked again and again if we were also getting an hourly rate and the answers were always “you will be getting paid” or “you will be taken care of.” so, we were all under the assumption of being tipped out for this event as support staff has NEVER gotten hourly rate instead.
i finally received my payment for the buyout last night, mar 2nd, and it was on my hourly check. i looked up the tip pooling laws and if im correct, if i had been tipped out the latest they could’ve paid it to me was when i got my tip check for the week of 19-25 which i received on march 1. my thoughts are that they changed us from tipout to hourly last minute to avoid breaking the law.
i spoke to one of the managers last night about my check and he was very apologetic and basically placed all the blame on the owner of the restaurant, even though that manager is the one who does payroll. his explanation was that the owner just decided to do everyone hourly to make it all easier.
since i only made hourly and it was taxed i made basically the same or less than i would make on a regular night.
we all worked longer hours than usual, some employees working 19 hour shifts, we were servicing some a and b-listers, it was a multiple day two floor building buyout. but we all made roughly the same as always.
is there any sort of illegality to this ? the managers are always messing us around about our money but seem to just slip past the laws.