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Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Local Restautants and the Minimum Wage
I just learned from a friend that she had been working for a restaurant/diner for about 2 years and learned that she was under paid by her employer. While the minimum wage for tipped employees in Maryland is $3.63 an hour, she (and apparently every other waitress there) has only been receiving $3.29 an hour. After learning this she demanded to be paid in full for past due pay. While I won't mention the names of the people involved because of a possible lawsuit against the restaurant by it's employees, I won't stop the comments from mentioning the names of any and all restaurants who treat their employees poorly. Do you think people should patronize restaurants that don't pay their employees the minimum wage and break the law? What do you think?
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28 comments:
The employer has to have a poster in a place that all the employees can easily see it that includes minimum wage and other info. This poster also has to be changed/ updated to keep up with the current info.
Fine, but who enforces actually this "has to have"?
Fine, but who enforces actually this "has to have"?
@7:51 that would be no one.
The employees can contact the attorney general. They do not take these kind of things lightly.
I work at a restaurant in Pittsville that has been around for more than 20 years. He treats us bad and steals our tips. But what can we do when there are no jobs around?
Zia's? I heard those guys make their servers pay $1 for every credit card tip. No wonder why Olive Garden steals all their business.
Jobs are so hard to find..especially for the younger work force...that they are afraid to complain and lose their jobs.
Issues of underpayment isn't limited to just restaurants. I can only imagine how many businesses don't pay their hourly employees overtime at the rate of time and one-half for all hours worked over 40 as is required under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). That's why unions will always have a place in American labor: management's mismanagement and greed.
You can tell just by going into a restaurant whether the employees are underpaid or treated poorly. These are the employees who sit around complaining about their jobs in front of the customers, and these are the same employees who sit on their cell phones for their entire shift. They feel as though they are doing way more work than they should be for what they are getting paid, so they decide to slack off. I've worked at a place like this before, and the atmosphere is miserable.
4107420270 is the office of wage and hour. Skip Cook will help you. They investigate all issues related to violations of employers.
My former employer used to automatically deduct a 1/2 hour for my state required break that I seldom ever got, to make them look compliant. There are many ways for employers to abuse employees.
Right now, businesses know jobs are hard to find so they offer lower starting wages because they know people need jobs. That may help people to decide to continue collecting extended unemployment instead of excepting a shaggy, dive job.
I won't ever go into Zia's again knowing that...I always pay for everything with a debit card that I would hate for the waitress/waiter to have to pay a 1.00 for that convenience I have...what a scam! And god bless those folks not getting paid what they should be paid...waitresses and waiters work hard for their money and some people won't even tip...another loss for the waitress or waiter..
if you can absolutely confirm the "bad treatment" of employees; i think the restaurants should be posted for all to see. just like the sites that post reports on electricians, plumbers, painters, etc. i think one of them is named emilies list.
the problem is if an employee is "bad", then they could lie and give false info on the employer. not good.
It's THEFT. Arrest them and, of course, STRIP SEARCH them, too. I know a few restaurant owners and none of them --- NONE --- aren't living well, vacations 2 or three times a year, nice cars, nice homes, etc. Yet they CONSTANTLY are saying (total BS, too) that they can't afford to pay their wait staff more. They wouldn't be able to have their pool cleaned or their wife would have to drive a Chevy instead of the Benz. They want all the profits and want their CUSTOMERS to pay their help. How in the hell do our "leaders" justify paying a certain class of workers such crap for wages? Please don't say "tips". Sometimes there isn't one. Thats merely rationalization of inequality.
Zias has been a restaurant in the city for more than twenty years. If someone had a complaint about their pay or other subjects it should be taken up with the property authorities. People dont know easy it is to ruin a business by repeating hearsay. If you want to make sure the wait staff has their tip give it to them personally or leave cash on the table. The wait staff do work very hard and they do deserve the tip.
The people at Zias are good people. I enjoy eating there.
Not all who treat their employees badly are restaurants. I know of a local company who tried to rip off their employees by not paying them "scale" wages while working contruction at a local University. When the employees found out, they turned in the employer and the employer had to pay them for any back pay that was not paid at "scale"
Dave White at the Pittsville Dinette is one. I was there one time and gave left the waitress a good tip. The waitress asked me the next time I saw her if there was a problem with her service. I was told she never got her tip from Dave. Now I give the girls the tip directly if I go at all. The waitresses tell me that mice run all over the food in the back and Dave stool serves it.He is a nasty old man.
Brew River pays the minimum wage, but treats the employees like sh**. The GM has sex with employees and then gives them better shifts because of it. And employees are also told that work is more important than school. (most of the staff is college students) I feel sorry for anyone that works for the Hannas.
Must be a lot of disgruntled employees out there.
I believe nothing I hear and only half of what I hear.
Why have these restaurants been in business for years? The Health Department visit these guys twice a year. If there were rodents even ants they would insist they be exterminated.
Try again.
I think this article has opened up a can of worms and everybody is anonymously making comments that may or may not be true. I do not like to see negative comments on businesses that have been successful for so many years.
I agree! If someone has a problem report it to the proper authorities. We dont need to make statements about a business that may or may not be true. Now if it is reported and found true then the media will take care of them. Until then Have a good day.
anonymous 1:17. I know the person/employee AMD the restaurant involved. The story is factual and has been years in the making. People have been worried about their jobs and this small town dinette is run by a jackass who couldn't care less. IF he does not pay this employee back I can assure all of you he will be dealing with not only the state but I'm confident the IRS will be very interested in the percentages of tips he's been taking for many ywars now. Karma is a real biotch.
Sounds like the Board of Ed. Not a good place to work these days.
I work for an exterminating company and I promise you if you ever went in any of the above mentioned places, you would run out never to return.....they are the nastiest places ever....and the owners do not care until the health department comes in and threatens to shut them down....then they blame the pest control company for thier pest problems ....when its thier lack of cleanness that is the issue......
Unless you actually work for the eatery, you DO NOT know for sure what you are told is the truth. A dissatisfied employee tells their version, which may not be the full truth. Comments have been made to tell where to call to get results in correcting, what might be a problem. I would think it preferable to make a phone call - than to have most restaurants smeared on this blog as being guilty.
Actually, none of us have now been around too much recently.
Too busy.
I don't care to get involved with governmental discussions as I don't know easily think either part
is any better than the other.
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