Starbucks employees in Massachusetts will receive $14 million plus due to illegal tip sharing policies that allowed tip sharing with managers. A Massachusetts law prohibits tip sharing with an employee that has "any managerial responsibility." As a result, some 11,000 baristas who worked at a Starbucks in Massachusetts from 2005 to 2011 will receive compensation.
Source: Huffington Post
To read more about this case and about tip sharing in Kentucky see Robert Abell's Kentucky Employment Law Blog: Tip Sharing: Starbucks Baristas Receive $14 Million Judgment.
Tip sharing and tip pools create issues where employees who are not usually tipped share in the tip pool. A common example is a restaurant where waiters, waitresses, servers and bartenders, who are usually tipped in the course of their jobs, share the tip pool with cooks and dishwashers, employees that are not tipped typically. Where the tip pool or sharing does not follow these rules, the tip credit cannot be applied lawfully to the waiters, waitresses, servers and bartenders, who usually are paid $2.13 per hour with the "tip credit" supposed to make up the difference between that amount and the minimum wage. In other words, the tip credit assumes that with tips consideres the employees will make the minimum wage.
Wage and hour including such issues as tip sharing along with overtime laws are among the most violated of employment laws. If you have questions about wages or overtime owed you, contact Lexington, Kentucky overtime lawyer Robert Abell at 859-254-7076.
