Elias Weiss

A couple of months after The Golden Margarita closed, an ongoing legal battle is raging between the business's former staff, who claim they are owed unpaid wages, and its owners, Saraj Gem Ray and his unnamed wife.

Two former employees filed a labor suit against the business in the U.S. District Court in Arizona on May 6, alleging that The Golden Margarita violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay employees their wages.

The popular Roosevelt Row Mexican restaurant and party bar abruptly announced on Instagram that it had closed its doors on May 9. During less than two years in business, the bar faced down community safety complaints, nearby shootings, and a months-long battle with the city of Phoenix over its liquor license.

Drama still plagues Ray's business. Chauncey Alexander, a bar manager and human resources administrator at The Golden Margarita from August 2020 to April 2022, and Megan Krajewski, who worked as a server at the business for three months before also leaving in April, joined 18 other former employees in pursuing unpaid wages.

The unpaid wages include overtime pay, owed tip credits to make up for subminimum wage for tipped employees, and a deduction of 25 percent of credit card tips that was redirected to the business owners. Former employees also claim they are owed reimbursement for customer walkouts, cash shortages, or inadvertent employee mistakes, which became the financial responsibility of employees.

This was all amid a...

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