CBS News reports that a labor advocacy group accuses 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.