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Saturday, May 2, 2026

Turned Tides: Employers feeling privileged that employees even ... - Business Observer

At the FIBA Shifting Trends event on Tuesday, hospitality industry experts shared insights into how to deal with the latest shift in recruiting.

A few gasps erupted Feb. 28 at the Bryan Glazer Family JCC in Tampa when attorney Katie Molloy shared that employees can sue for twice what they’re owed if an employer doesn’t follow wage and hour laws properly — an issue plaguing the hospitality industry at the moment.

“At the end of the day, you have to pay your employees, and you have to treat them fairly,” she says.

With staffing shortages, Molloy says there’s a lot more overtime being worked and off the clock hours being logged. Not to mention extra pressure on labor budgets and hours.

“These are all a recipe for disaster if an employer is not compliant with wage and hour laws.”

Molloy, a Tampa shareholder of the Greenberg Traurig law firm, was one of many speakers at the Florida Israel Business Accelerator’s Shifting Trends in Talent and Customer Loyalty event.

Clyde Smith, the general manager at Bilmar Beach Resort in Treasure Island, says it's one of the toughest times for the industry in terms of recruiting and retaining employees.

“The old-school feeling of being privileged that they’re working for you, it’s almost the other way around now,” he says. “We’re privileged that (employees) would even consider working for us.”

“I joke that we used to have a ‘no tattoo’ policy, but now it’s a mandatory tattoo policy,” he adds, noting the company has had to be flexible.

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