CBS News reports that a labor advocacy group is accusing the breakfast chain Waffle House of cheating workers out of a portion of their pay by requiring them to wash dishes and cook.
A complaint filed by the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW) with the Department of Labor (DOL) on Sept. 19 says the restaurant allegedly engages in “rampant wage theft, like performing non-tipped work for tipped wages.” The complaint continues to accuse the Georgia-based corporation of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act’s tip credit requirements by failing to pay servers the federal minimum wage, which has been paused at $7.25 since 2009.
The suit permits employers to pay part of the minimum wage obligation to tipped workers by taking a small credit – paying an hourly rate of a minimum of $2.13 as long as tipped employees who make enough in gratuities can earn the minimum. In June 2024, Waffle House CEO Joe Rogers III announced a base pay increase to $3.00 from $2.92 for approximately 40,000 servers, but some employees are speaking up for their colleagues, saying more needs to be done.
Cindy Smith, who has worked at a Conyers, Georgia location for close to 30 years, says a number of Waffle House staff live in motels and live paycheck to paycheck. She admitted that she often goes hungry to afford car payments and auto insurance. “It’s a bunch of hooey,” Smith said. “They say we are all family, but when your family needs something, they don’t care.”
The 50-year-old worker claims she spends nearly two hours of her eight-hour shifts cleaning and doing side work. As a result, she takes home between $80 and $120 in tips each day in addition to her $3 pay. Smith says, “They should compensate us for doing that labor.”
According to Axios, more than 20 former and current Waffle House employees interviewed by USSW said the company doesn’t keep dishwashers, kitchen helpers, or janitors on staff, resulting in servers doing the work and earning the tipped minimum wage. The complaint includes evidence of a flyer that details end-of-shift responsibilities for workers. “If there are only two people on staff, those duties include de-lime all coffee machines, changing dish machine water, and clean and stock restrooms.”
The restaurant chain has been involved in litigation involving its employees’ concerns. In March 2024, Waffle House was up for investigation for allegedly making policy changes to deduct mandatory meal costs from employee paychecks – regardless of whether they eat. Another petition filed by the USSW claimed Waffle House took close to $3 for each on-shift meal out of employees’ pay.
In South Carolina, workers went on strike over safety and wage issues, stating management undermined their concerns. Employees requested an increase in on-site security, regulated scheduling, and the suspension of mandatory check deductions for meals eaten or not eaten during shifts.
The privately held chain is open 24 hours a day and operates 1,708 corporate-owned restaurants across 25 states, so tipped workers are often exploited for wage theft. An analysis from the Economic Policy Institute found that tipped-wage U.S. workers are 2.3 times more likely to live in poverty than non-tipped workers.
An investigation by the DOL found that out of roughly 9,000 restaurants, 1,170 tip credit violations worth close to $5.5 million were found from 2010 to 2012.
