Employer does not pay servers by the hour.

[Ethan138]

I started working at a privately owned little "Mom and Pop" restaurant about a month ago. The first few days I came in to train it was very informal, I just followed the other servers to get the jist of the restaurant's layout, menu, etc. All that was quite normal except for the fact that none of the servers ever clocked in or out. When I asked the owner about my training wages it was as if I asked for a million bucks. I asked other servers there about this and they sort of laughed and said good luck. I finally was paid for those initial training days after calculating my hours going online to find out the current minimum wage in the state of Florida and finally presenting this to the employer. He then proceeded to give me cash for the amount I calculated, not a check but actual cash. When I first started I was told that the servers were paid for their credit card tips each Saturday after the week they earned them. I was never once paid on time for the tips I earned, and more than once had to repeatedly ask for my paycheck. This whole time I never once received a pay stub or documentation of hours and compensation. Each paycheck was the exact amount of the credit card tips I earned for the corresponding week. There were no taxes or hourly wages accounted for. When I asked the owner about these issues I was at first ignored, then ultimately pushed out of the restaurant.

 

[presutin]

Your former employer is not acting ethically. File a complaint with your state's DOL so they can launch an investigation regarding their records. Also, consider talking to someone in your state's department of revenue so they can also pay a visit to find out what else he is not doing correctly. Good luck to you!

 

[cbg]

FYI - Florida does not have a DOL. They did away with it about 5 years ago. You can either go through the US DOL or you can file a small claims suit.

 

[presutin]

Cbg - you are correct. Thanks for catching the inaccuracy on the DOL!