Patrick Miller-Bartley
Thu, 06/01/2023
After more than a decade of litigation, Apple-Metro Inc., the owner of dozens of Applebees restaurants in the New York City area, agreed to settle minimum wage and overtime claims brought by over 1,000 of its current and former restaurant workers. Despite financial precarity brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, these workers managed to secure a one-million-dollar settlement, as well as a guarantee that, if the company becomes insolvent, they will be able to recover from two of the restaurant owners personally.
The workers alleged that Apple-Metro’s Applebees locations stiffed them on both minimum wage and overtime pay. On minimum wage, these Applebees paid the workers only the reduced minimum wage for tipped workers, even when their tips did not bring their hourly wage up to the federal minimum. While employers of tipped workers may pay their workers a reduced minimum wage—with the expectation that the workers will make up the rest in tips—these employers must then “top up” their workers’ wages if, after tips, they nevertheless fall short of the federal minimum. Regarding overtime, the workers alleged these Applebees locations artificially deflated their hours worked by tampering with time clocks and forcing workers to do certain tasks before clocking in or after clocking out. In doing so, these Applebees sought to avoid documenting that their workers were working over 40 hours in a week, in an attempt to avoid paying them time-and-a-half for doing so.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) guarantees every worker a minimum wage, and time-and-a-half for every hour they work over 40 in a week. While some of the rules about restaurants can be convoluted—especially those involving tips—nothing changes those two fundamental requirements. MSE has years of experience recovering for workers in the restaurant industry. If you believe that you are not being paid properly, or that your employer is not paying you for time that you work, do not hesitate to contact us.
