REPORT FROM THE US DOL – Castle Resorts and Hotels Inc., which operates the Kauai-based Bull Shed restaurant in Hawaii, returned $55,674 in tips and $2,959 in minimum wages to 17 servers for violating the wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Wage and Hour investigators found the company reduced the cash wage of tipped employees below the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
The employer unlawfully required servers to pay a portion of their shift tips to non-tipped hourly kitchen staff who were already paid at least the full minimum wage.
“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.”