Mapo Tofu Facing Wage and Hour Complaint in New York

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New York eatery Mapo Tofu and two individuals who run the business are staring down a proposed collective and class action filed by a former delivery worker who claims the defendants failed to pay appropriate minimum, overtime, and spread-of-hours wages. Despite being categorized as a delivery worker in payroll records, the plaintiff claims that throughout his four-year employment at Mapo Tofu, which ended in September 2017, he was required to spend more than 20 percent of his work time performing non-tipped tasks around the restaurant. According to the plaintiff, the defendants applied an improper tip credit to delivery workers’ wages, thereby knocking their pay below the minimum hourly threshold.

The man then alleges he would regularly work more than 10 hours on Saturdays and Sundays, yet was only paid for seven hours of work for each of these days. Lastly, the lawsuit says the defendants, as a general practice, uniformly deducted from delivery workers’ pay five percent of all credit card tips, claiming it was necessary for tax reasons.

“[The plaintiff] and other delivery workers pool their tips together,” the case reads. “There were generally two or three delivery workers [to] share the tips. The five percent credit card deduction resulted in about $30 to $40 tip deduction for a week.”