Four NY Steakhouses Named in Former Employees’ Unpaid Wage Lawsuit

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A proposed collective and class action has been filed against the operators of four upscale restaurants in New York over alleged violations of state and federal wage requirements.

The two named plaintiffs in the suit were employed respectively as a server and bartender at several of the defendants’ restaurants – Rare650, Insignia Steakhouse, One North Restaurant, and Blackstone Steakhouse. The case argues that the workers were unlawfully paid at a sub-minimum wage tip-credited rate without receiving proper notice that the restaurants would be applying a tip credit to their hourly pay, a requirement under federal labor law for tipped employees. Moreover, the suit claims that the defendants applied this tip credit to one plaintiff’s overtime rate. In all, because their tipped wage failed to meet such requirements, the case continues, the plaintiffs’ time-and-a-half overtime rates were incorrect.

The plaintiffs say they regularly worked more than 40 hours per week during holidays and should have received time-and-a-half wages for the hours they worked in excess of 40.