MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – A Myrtle Beach seafood restaurant was named in a civil lawsuit brought about by three Horry County servers.
Servers at Captain George’s say the restaurant required they give a percentage of their tips each night to the house, and as a result, the lawsuit alleges the restaurant was paid more by their servers in misappropriated tips than they paid their servers in wages.
“Servers regularly had to pay either 2% or 3% of their total sales for a shift to the restaurant out of their tips. For example, if they generated $1,000 in sales, and were tipped $200 from their customers, they would be required to pay either $20 (2%) or $30 (3%) to the restaurant out of their tips,” the document states.
Servers had to share tips with managerial employees and kitchen employees who were not customarily engaged in customer service.
According to the complaint, servers were also required to work off the clock and spend more than 20 percent of their time at work doing non-tipped sidework.
When employees worked over 40 hours a week, they were required to work off the clock or they were paid at the incorrect overtime rate.
The suit alleges the restaurant failed to compensate the workers as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act and the SC Payment of Wages Act. Defendants said they paid servers tip credit minimum wage, which is $2.13 an hour, while they actually paid their servers $2.125 per hour.
“Even if Defendants had paid tipped minimum wage, Defendants failed to satisfy all of the requirements in taking a tip credit from servers’ wages,” the complaint states.
The civil lawsuit was filed May 19, 2017.
A month later, Captain George’s answered the lawsuit and denied the allegations.
