Currently working as a to-go specialist at the same chain restaurant for 3 years, making $10 an hour plus tip but recently I learned I was being underpaid thanks to the help of an ex-employee who got in contact with me. Try talking to my general manager hoping that she'll do the right thing and increase my pay. But instead of doing the right thing she tried to gaslight me by saying that the ex-employee must have lied and that it's impossible for anyone to make more than $10 an hour. So I spent the next couple of days contacting some ex-employees and sure enough, they all said they were hired at $12 an hour plus tip. One of them even went as far as to send me a picture of their old pay stub just to prove that they were making $12 an hour. I also made sure to ask the two new to-go employees what they were making and they both said they were hired on for $12 an hour plus tip. Well, after finding out the truth the general manager pulls me aside and says “It's against company policy to discuss wages with both your current and former coworkers” then she clocks me out and tells me to go home. The first thing I did when I got home was to update my resume and I'm currently looking for a new job. As of right now I still have a job there making $10 an hour and my hours got cut which I'm perfectly fine with. It just gives me more time to look for a new job. She's also made it very clear that she not going to pay me more which I'm totally fine with. If she wants to pay me $10 an hour then I'm going to act like a $10 an hour employee. I'm going to start refusing to run food for servers. I'm also going to stop rolling silverware during my downtime. From now on I'm just going to do the bare minimum until I can find a new job.
I'm sad because I really like working there. I like working with my coworkers. I like the other managers. I got along with pretty much everyone. All I wanted was equal pay and I would have happily continued to work there.
*I've actually worked at this restaurant for 6 years. Started off as a food runner at $9 an hour with no tip then they moved me to an expo with no pay raise. It was until after the pandemic shutdowns that my manager begged me to become a to-go specialist and that's when I finally got my first pay raise.
**The chain restaurant starts with a C and is known for it's baby back baby back baby back ribs
***I am aware that it is against the law to punish employees for discussing wages with other employees. I was not written up I was just told to go home. She also caught me off guard that day so I forgot to record the conversation. For now, I will be bringing my phone with me to work and if she tries to bring it up again I'm going to absolutely record her and report her. I've also made sure to inform the other employees about the right to discuss wages. I also can't really prove she cut my hours. I work at a restaurant so my hours constant changing. All I know is that she removed me from a couple of morning shifts.