Pizza delivery workers for Domino's in New York have settled their unpaid overtime and wages suit for $1.3 million. The suit involved two very common violations of wage and overtime law: (1) improperly applying the tip credit to time worked by the pizza delivery workers when they would not get tipped such as cleaning ovens and the store; and, (2) simple wage theft, the refusal to pay at all an employee for hours worked. The case is discussed in the New York Times, Dominio's Delivery Workers Settle Suit for $1.3 Million.
The "tip credit" can be applied to employees that work in jobs where they typically receive tips such as servers, waiters, waitresses, bartenders and pizza delivery workers. Under Kentucky and federal law an employer may apply the "tip credit" to such employees and is only required to pay them $2.13 per hour, the idea being that the difference between that and the minimum wage is at least made up by tips.
But the "tip credit" is not properly applied to an employee that does non-tipped work more than 20% of their work time. That was one of the claims in this case: the pizza delivery workers did nontipped work more than 20% of their work time. Details about the proper application of the tip credit was discussed on another posting: The Tip Credit For Waiters & Bartenders: Does It Always Apply?
Lexington, Kentucky wages and overtime lawyer Robert Abell represents individuals and employees seeking to recover the wages and overtime they have earned but not been paid; contact him at 859-254-7076.
