Tips

[LegatoEspresso]

Jurisdiction

Florida

So I have been told by my employer I cannot receive tips because of processing and that its two weeks behind. The tips are being split between everybody for every single transaction wether it be cash or credit. Now, tip pooling is a thing and I understand, but I feel as if the tips are not all going to the right places. Let's also start with that this is not a traditional restaurant. The owners have another restaurant with almost all illegal immigrants working there as I have been told by others. They hired them, payed them low wages and banked off of their hard work because they're illegal and don't have to pay them much. The tips are two weeks behind and supposed to be paid every Friday but for some reason they are still not being paid out and money is owed. They are also paying for renovations for the restaurant for illegals and will get to come back to work. Money is owed to me.

 

[army judge]

Money is owed to me.

Not much you can do, pal, but report the matter to the state labor bureau.

In your state, that agency is known as "Department of Labor".

How do I file a complaint against my employer in Florida?

Florida does have an Agency for Workforce Innovations (AWI) which oversees unemployment compensation claims and provides various services to help workers find jobs.

Most of Florida's labor/wage complaints are farmed out to the federal agency (DOL).

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) handles violation of federal wage laws, BUT they do not handle violations of Florida wage laws.

You can call the Federal DOL's Wages and Hours Division (WHD) to see if you will be allowed to file a complaint.

Bear in mind, with the PANICdemic in FULL force, even if a complaint is taken, it might be MONTHS (maybe years) before you hear anything.

Make sure you have ALL of your information handy when you call 1-866-4USWAGE to determine if the agency will initiate the complaint process.

You can also call a regional office, or visit a nearby office if you want to speak to someone face to face.


The easiest thing to do is seek new employment working for a reputable, honest employer that obeys the law and never STEALS from any of it's hard working employees.

This article might be useful to you, mate:

3 Ways to Report Labor Law Violations in Florida - wikiHow

 

[LegatoEspresso]

So they can get away with stealing money from me?

 

[army judge]

So they can get away with stealing money from me?

The CAN is TRUE according to your recitation of events.


If you have evidence of our immigration laws being broken, contact the Department of Homeland Security at 1 866-DHS-2ICE (1 866-347-2423) but don't be surprised if they don't seem to care, too.


Until you try, you won't know if someone will help you, or ignore you.


The feds might be very interested in your employers, especially their propensity to hire and abuse those who choose to disobey the sovereignty of this nation's borders and scoff at it's immigration laws.

 

[Tax Counsel]

Money is owed to me.

Your choices are to report the failure to pay the tips to the government agencies as Army Judge indicated and/or to sue the employer to get what is owed to you. Of course, suing the employer might well prompt the employer to fire you. So if the job matters to you then you may want to wait a bit and see how things go before filing the court complaint. Note that with the pandemic it may be that filing a lawsuit right now is either not possible or that if it is it may take significantly longer than usual for the case to get to trial.

 

[LegatoEspresso]

Okay, well should i contact immigration for the illegals that have been paid with the restaurants money that is open of the two?

 

[LegatoEspresso]

Ah, sorry, I see the number. Thank you guys