First Batch Hospitality Underpaid Tipped Employees, Lawsuit Alleges

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First Batch Hospitality faces a lawsuit filed by a former employee who claims he and other tipped workers were paid improperly.

The 32-page case more specifically alleges that defendants FB Hospitality, LLC; Brooklyn Winery LLC; DC Winery, LLC; and Chicago Winery, LLC, who collectively do business as First Batch Hospitality, and FB’s co-founders have wrongfully applied a tip credit to servers’ and bartenders’ wages without satisfying the strict federal requirements that would permit them to do so.

According to the suit, the defendants should have paid servers and bartenders the full hourly minimum wage and have thus violated both the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and District of Columbia Minimum Wage Revision Act.

The lawsuit relays that the defendants operate restaurants and wineries in New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago and pay their tipped employees at a “significantly reduced” sub-minimum wage rate, which is allowable under certain circumstances. Per the case, First Batch was not permitted to apply a tip credit as a means to satisfy its minimum wage obligations for tipped workers without first providing the individuals with proper notice of the tip credit. The suit alleges First Batch failed to notify workers of the amount of cash wages they would be paid and by how much their wages would increase on account of the tip credit; that the tip credit may not exceed the value of the tips they actually receive; that all tips are to be retained by the employees, except in the case of a valid tip pool arrangement; and that the tip credit does not apply to any employee who does not receive proper notice of it.

The suit further alleges that the defendants have required servers and bartenders to participate in an invalid tip pool in which employees who did not regularly and customarily receive tips—such as bussers, expediters, glass polishers and winery tour guides—were permitted to participate. 

Moreover, First Batch required tipped workers to pay for credit card processing fees that additionally reduced their wages and thus further violated the FLSA’s tip credit provisions, the lawsuit claims.

The case goes on to contend that tipped workers were improperly paid at a sub-minimum rate while performing untipped duties, such as taking out the trash, restocking and organizing inventory and performing other tasks while the restaurant was closed, that were unrelated to their tipped work. The workers were also required to spend more than 20 percent of their time on untipped duties that were related to their tipped work, such as wiping down, setting and busing tables; preparing garnishes; polishing glassware; rolling silverware; and other “side-work,” the suit says.

According to the case, tipped employees who spend a “substantial” amount of time, or a more than 30-minute period, on untipped duties related to their tipped occupation are entitled to the full minimum wage for that time.

The plaintiff, who worked at Washington D.C.’s District Winery between February 2020 and December 2021, claims that the defendants’ improper method of paying tipped workers was “willful and was not based on good-faith and a reasonable belief that its conduct complied with the FLSA.”

The lawsuit looks to cover anyone who worked as a bartender or server for First Batch Hospitality at any time during the past three years and was paid a direct cash sub-minimum hourly wage.

The suit also looks to represent anyone who worked as a bartender or server for the defendants in Washington D.C. at any time during the past three years and was paid a direct cash sub-minimum hourly wage pursuant to the D.C. Minimum Wage Act.

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