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Workers at the Bull Shed restaurant in Kapaa, Kauai, have had wages and tips restored following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Seventeen servers were repaid $55,674 in tips and $2,959 in minimum wage, for violations of wage provisions in the Fair Labor Standards Act by Castle Resorts and Hotels Inc., the restaurant operator.
Wage and Hour Division investigators found that the company reduced the cash wages of tipped employees below the $7.25 per hour minimum wage and unlawfully required servers to pay a portion of their shift tips to non-tipped kitchen staff, who were paid at least the full minimum wage, the Labor Department said, in a statement.
“We appreciate this employer’s full cooperation in resolving this matter,” said Terence Trotter, the division’s district director in Hawaii. “Employers cannot take a credit against their minimum wage obligation to tipped staff when they required a portion of those tips to be shared with traditionally non-tipped staff such as kitchen employees.”
