Ford’s Garage. The Hampton Social. Both are restaurants in metro Orlando that began paying their servers far less than the hourly minimum wage in recent years, sparking protests and questions on online forums like Reddit over whether a restaurant can legally pay a worker as little as a penny per hour.
Under state law, most Florida employees must be paid at least $14 an hour, or $10.98 if you’re a worker who receives tips. This is modeled on the Fair Labor Standards Act, a federal law. But increasingly, employers — particularly restaurants — are turning to a commission-based pay structure in which a server or bartender is paid anywhere from 1 cent (in the case of select Ford’s Garage locations) to around $2 an hour, plus a commission from sales.
Workers at the I-Drive restaurant Hampton Social in 2024 protested their employer’s unexpected shift to a $2 hourly pay for servers — down several dollars from the minimum tipped wage — describing it as “unfair” and a product of “greed.” The employer, however, argued that workers ultimately earn just as much or even more from this model, while allowing the company to “better manage its costs,” according to the Orlando Sentinel…