Servers + Bartenders

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We represent servers, bartenders, bussers, and other wait staff who face tip theft, wage violations, and illegal tip-pooling arrangements.

The restaurant industry has some of the most complex wage laws, and many employers get it wrong.

Common Workplace Issues

Illegal Tip Pooling

Massachusetts law strictly limits who can share in tips. Only non-managerial employees who serve food or beverages or clear plates can participate in tip pools. If you're required to tip out shift supervisors, bar leads, chefs, hosts, or managers, your employer is violating the law.

Employer Keeps Tips

Your employer cannot keep any portion of your tips, including service charges or automatic gratuities from private parties or banquets. All tips belong to the employees who earned them.

Below Minimum Wage Pay

If you're paid a tipped minimum wage, your employer must ensure your tips bring you up to at least the full minimum wage. If they don't, your employer must pay the difference.

Unpaid Side Work

Time spent on non-tipped duties like cleaning, food prep, or opening/closing tasks may need to be paid at full minimum wage, not the reduced tipped wage.

Your Rights

The Massachusetts Tips Act provides strong protections for tipped employees. The law prohibits tip sharing with managerial employees and prohibits employers from retaining any portion of tips.

When employers violate the tips law, they may be required to pay back all amounts tipped out to ineligible employees. They must also pay the difference between the tipped minimum wage and full minimum wage for all hours worked. All damages for tips law violations automatically get tripled.

Who We Help

Bar Lead Tip Pooling Case

We helped pioneer litigation to protect the wage rights of wait staff employees. In one such case, a server who worked at a popular Boston restaurant came to us because the restaurant was requiring her to "tip out" employees called "bar leads."

The bar leads performed regular bartending work making drinks, taking food orders, and so on but also had keys to the restaurant, handled and accounted for cash receipts, could send employees home if the restaurant wasn't busy, assigned servers to their stations, and generally acted as the "person in charge" in the absence of a manager.

The Massachusetts tips law prohibits such arrangements. Employers who violate that prohibition may be required to pay back the amounts the wait staff tipped out to the managerial employees plus the difference between the hourly rate they paid to the wait staff and the full minimum wage for all hours worked. On top of that, Massachusetts law provides that all damages for tips law violations get automatically tripled.

How We Can Help

Determine

Determine if your tip pool includes ineligible employees

Calculate

Calculate amounts you've improperly tipped out

Evaluate

Evaluate whether you've been paid proper minimum wage

File claims

File claims for tip law violations

Recover damages

Recover triple damages and attorney's fees

If you work in a restaurant and suspect your employer is violating tip-sharing laws or keeping your tips, contact us for a free consultation.