Bob Evans Restaurants Took Improper Tip Credit Against Servers’ Wages, Lawsuit Alleges

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Bob Evans Restaurants, LLC and Bob Evans Farms, Inc. are the defendants in a proposed collective action filed over the companies’ policy of paying certain workers at 500 nationwide Bob Evans restaurants an allegedly impermissible tip-credited hourly wage.

Filed in Pennsylvania, the lawsuit says that an employer is permitted to take a tip credit against its minimum wage obligation under federal law only if certain criteria are met with regard to employees’ responsibilities and how the money is distributed. The suit points out that an employer may not take a tip credit when:

According to the lawsuit, Bob Evans ran afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by paying servers a tip-credit hourly wage while requiring the workers to perform non-tipped work that was unrelated to their tipped duties. The plaintiffs allege that servers should have therefore been paid the full hourly minimum wage. From the suit:

“Defendants regularly and frequently required Plaintiffs and the Collective Members to perform a number of non-tipped duties unrelated to their tipped occupations, including but not limited to: taking out trash; scrubbing walls; sweeping and mopping floors; cleaning booths; washing dishes and operating the dishtank; breaking down and cleaning the server line; ensuring the general cleanliness for the front of the house; detail cleaning throughout the restaurant; stocking stations throughout the restaurant; stocking and setting tables; bussing tables; answering the phone; working the cash register; greeting and seating customers; preparing salads; preparing deserts [sic]; baking bread; brewing coffee; cleaning the soda fountains; preparing specialty drinks such as lemonades; preparing individual servings of butters and dressings; and rolling bins full of silverware.”