Employer: Tito’s Taqueria LLC, 898 Putney Road, Brattleboro, VT 05301
Type of action: Administrative settlement
Investigation sites: Greenfield, Massachusetts
Keene, New Hampshire
Brattleboro, Vermont
Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s Northern New England District Office found Tito’s Taqueria, a counter service restaurant, illegally required employees at three locations to share a portion of their tips with managers and failed to pay workers time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours over 40 in a workweek.
The Fair Labor Standards Act forbids owners and managers from keeping any portion of an employee’s tips for any purpose,
Resolution: In an administrative settlement with the division, Tito’s Taqueria paid $62,452 in back wages and withheld tips as well as an equal amount in liquidated damages to 126 affected employees across three locations. The employer also paid the department $12,214 in civil money penalties to resolve its violations.
Quote: “The violations by Tito’s Taqueria to shortchange workers by misusing their tips to pay managers is a problem we commonly find in the restaurant industry,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Steven McKinney in Manchester, New Hampshire. “The Fair Labor Standards Act forbids employers from keeping employees’ tips for any purpose, whether directly from customers or through a tip pool.”
In fiscal year 2023, the Wage and Hour Division successfully recovered more than $29.6 million in back wages for nearly 26,000 food service workers nationwide and assessed $6.1 million in civil money penalties in the food services industry.