Posting this from an anonymous account for obvious reasons. I currently work at a non-chain restaurant that is privately owned. The management (besides the owner) and coworkers are great, the money is good, and it is not a job I would like to be forced out of. However, the owner of the restaurant is blatantly, unapologetically sexist and misogynistic. In the simplest form, he micromanages and critiques every female employee an incessant amount. In the worst form he calls them “bitches” to their faces and if he is put in an uncomfortable position with customers because of them, berates them with f bombs and cusses them out. The female staff is unanimous in confirming these issues and much of the male staff as well. They have been brought to the attention of the GM, a woman who also agrees, and she has bravely confronted the owner on multiple occasions. His answer is constantly that the female employees are too sensitive, and in the last instance he finished by storming out and saying he should just hire an all male staff (heard by 3 employees). I am tired of seeing my female coworkers belittled and even more tired of seeing the stress and anger they have to endure on a daily basis, and I want to know if there is anything we can do about this.
Some extra leverage in this situation couldn’t hurt, so I did some digging and if I understand the law in my state (Colorado) employers are given a tip credit to allow them to pay their employees less than minimum wage. However, if the employer requires tipped employees to “tip out” non tipped employees such as food runners and bussers, that tip credit is void and they must pay their employees minimum wage. I want to make sure I understand this correctly, as this restaurant pays all servers the tipped credit minimum wage while requiring us to tip out a solid portion of our total sales every shift. If I understand the law correctly this means a wage theft of $3.02 an hour for every server has been happening for years. I’m not nearly as concerned about this issue, but seeing as sexism is often difficult to prove legally, this could be the ace in the hole we need.
Most of us love who we work with, but this one person makes working for female employees unbearable, and male employees uncomfortable at best. If there is a way to handle this without getting fired that is ideal, but any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!