A Connecticut Superior Court judge ordered a more than $1.3 million judgment last week in a class action lawsuit brought by servers who argued that the Chip’s Family Restaurant chain failed to pay them minimum wage.
Judge Cesar Noble ordered the judgment against the owners of the restaurants on Wednesday. It includes around $1 million in back wages and nearly $323,000 in interest related to the long-running class action lawsuit, first brought in 2017.
The case centered on allegations that the restaurants failed to pay servers minimum wage for time spent tending to non-serving responsibilities known as “side work.” That includes tasks like rolling silverware sets, cleaning, or restocking condiment supplies.
Like most other states, Connecticut law includes a “tip credit” or a sub-minimum wage for tipped workers. Restaurants can pay wait staff $6.38 an hour, for instance, as opposed to the full minimum wage, which is currently $15 per hour.
State law requires restaurants to make up the difference during shifts when tips do not add up to the full minimum wage. Until the state legislature adopted a new policy in 2020, it also required restaurants to pay the full wage for time spent on side work.
In their original complaint, the class, which included lead plaintiff Jacqueline Rodriguez and servers at the five Chip’s locations that were operating between 2015 and 2017, argued that the restaurants did not segregate the credit-eligible time spent serving from the time spent on...
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