“The FLSA does not permit an employer to transfer to its employees the responsibility for the expenses of carrying on an enterprise.”
Servers at a restaurant were granted their motion for partial summary judgment as to an employer’s liability for violating the FLSA by taking a $1 fee from their tips for silverware, pens, and things like that and requiring servers to surrender a percentage of their total sales per shift for an additional tip pool. As an initial matter, the employer conceded that the employees were entitled to partial summary judgment with regard to the $1.00 reimbursement fee. As to operation of the tip pool, because the agent who submitted an affidavit in support of the employer making distributions only to individuals who customarily and regularly received tips, did not have “personal knowledge” of its operation, the employer failed to prove it operated a lawful tip pool (Dugan v. Reservoir Restaurant Inc., No. 4:23-CV-01219-O (N.D. Tex. Mar. 3, 2026)).
The employees are former servers from the employer’s restaurant. While working as servers, they were paid an hourly wage of $2.13 per hour, which is less than the $7.25 minimum wage required by the FLSA.
Tip pool. For every shift the employees worked as servers, the employer took a $1 fee from their tips “for things such as silverware, pens, things like that[.]” Further, the employer required each server to surrender additional amounts from their tips equal to either 3.25 percent or 2.25 percent of each...
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