Restaurant accused of illegally sharing workers’ tips with managers

By KDKA News Staff

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    PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A dozen workers are getting $41,000 back after a Pittsburgh restaurant illegally shared their tips, the U.S. Department of Labor said Wednesday.

Provision PGH at Federal Galley’s operator is accused of improperly using a tip pool, requiring workers to share tips with managers, supervisors and other employees not usually tipped by customers.

Employees had their tips seized to pay the wages of non-tipped employees, including managers, the Department of Labor alleged.

An investigation by the Wage and Hour Division allegedly found PGH LLC violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and led to the recovery of $41,560 for 12 employees.

“The FLSA allows employers to pay tipped workers as little as $2.13 per hour in direct wages, while taking a credit against the tips earned by the employee to make up remainder of the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour,” the department explained in a press release.

“The employer, however, must notify tipped employees of any required tip pool contribution amount, may only take a tip credit for the amount of tips each tipped employee actually receives, and may not retain any of the employees’ tips for any other purpose.”

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