Overtime Lawyer Blog

Next time you go to an Atlanta sushi or other nice restaurant, notice the side conversations among the staff. Much of the time, it concentrates on tips, taxes, and other paperwork that most restaurant workers know little or nothing about.

If you work for tips, one of the more disliked conventions in the hospitality business is the practice of tip pooling, where the wait staff makes the tips and then is mandated to share them with the host staff, bus staff, etc. This is different from the wait staff voluntarily giving a percentage of tips to their co-workers, and has tax and other implications. This practice has its own set of rules for both employers and employees, and is easily abused by employers looking to save a few bucks here and there.

Continue reading "Tip Pooling under the FLSA" »

Two major amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act, one each by a Republican and a Democrat, could profoundly change several FLSA standards for overtime and minimum wages if and when they are passed into law.

The first, introduced in February by Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R. WA), would allow comp time in the private sector. The second, introduced last week by Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), raises the minimum wage for restaurant workers. Both bills are fairly controversial, but for different reasons.

Continue reading "Pending FLSA Legislation" »

No matter what, people have to eat. And restaurant employees will always be there to serve them.

There are over 7 million people employed in restaurants in the United States, a large percentage of whom work in fast food establishments. These jobs are often very transient, and the fact is that many fast food workers don’t realize that they have a number of rights under federal employment law.

Most large fast food restaurants are covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Any restaurant or fast food business with annual gross sales from one or more establishments that total at least $500,000 are subject to the FLSA.

Continue reading "Fast Food and Restaurant Workers and the FLSA" »

In what appears to be the first such case to reach a federal appeals court, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals (the federal appeals court for the federal district courts of Georgia, Florida and Alabama) recently affirmed a decision by a Miami federal district court, which held that the airlines’ practice of charging baggage handling fees for curbside check-in did not unlawfully deprive the skycaps of their tips. Pellon v. Business Representation International, Inc.

In the case, 53 skycaps had brought a collective action under the FLSA against Business Representation International, Inc., the baggage handling contractor for American Airlines at Miami International Airport, alleging that they had been deprived of millions of dollars in unpaid tips as a result of the baggage handling fees imposed by American.

Continue reading "Skycaps’ Claim for Tips under FLSA Grounded by Eleventh Circuit" »