Controversial practices appear to be becoming more common in the restaurant industry. Switching the tip percentages order on the POS tablet and being charged an additional 20% tip on the bill for bringing a baby into a restaurant are a couple of viral examples. Now, one former Umami Sushi server is sounding the alarm about a tipping practice he experienced at his previous job, among other questionable business methods.
Server tips based on performance?
“I worked at Umami Sushi All You Can Eat out here in Las Vegas for about four weeks before quitting,” TikTok creator Christopher Adams (@christopheradams_) tells more than 405,000 viewers. “I ended up quitting because the tips aren’t based off on what the customers left. It’s what they decide on what I should be earned based off my performance.”
What does this mean?
“The management is the one who decides on how much of the tip pool I deserve instead of giving me what I actually earned,” he explains. In addition to the way the business handled tips, another red flag rose when the content creator attempted to cash in his last check.
“After I deposited it, a few days later, my bank hit me with the ‘unable to locate account from that account number,” Adams shares, baffled. “That means the account doesn’t exist.”
Once he reached out to his former manager about the situation, it raised more questions about the situation upon reflection.
“When I first got the job there, and I got hired, I filled out a W-4. I did not fill out an I-9 at all,” he recalls. “The manager literally said, ‘Oh. Don’t worry about it.”
According to WellHub, a W-4 determines how much money the business withholds from the employee for federal taxes, whereas the I-9 determines eligibility to work in the United States. Nevertheless, the IRS states that all companies must complete an I-9 for all new hires.
“Now, I still have the fake check. I hadn’t received my final check from them. Also, I still haven’t received my tips from the last week that I worked,” Adams says.
Viewers express their outrage in the comments section
Several Umami customers vow never to give them business again.
“Removing umami from my sushi list !” one viewer wrote.
“That’s my fav. sushi spot but I won’t be going there anymore. They need to do better,” a second echoed.
“Vegas local here, I’ll never visit this place again,” a third agreed.
Furthermore, others urge the server to take legal action.
“These are labor law violations. Report it immediately. They are going to have to pay you with penalties,” one commenter remarked.
“HR admin here in Vegas. Please report this to the NV office of the Labor Commissioner,” another advised.
More shady business
After posting the original video, Adams reveals more suspicious behavior Umani allegedly practiced in a series of TikToks. In the next clip, he shows text messages between him and his former manager on the green screen regarding the sushi restaurant’s tipping policy.
“‘It will be up by your performance,’” he reads the message out loud. But the strange tipping ways didn’t stop there. “What I was told is that everyone, including the manager, was getting tipped out but the weird part was some people acted as the manager when the manager wasn’t there.”
As a result, it made it confusing to know who was in charge.
“I just don’t understand who the legal manager was on the floor half the time, either. I don’t feel like there was. It was just the servers,” the content creator says. “I don’t know what people clocked in as.”
On the topic of tips, Adams shares another way to earn tips at Umami in the following video.
“One little thing about the Umami situation, anytime someone leaves you a Yelp review, five stars, you get an additional $10 added onto your tips,” he says.
Servers weren’t the only ones able to reap this.
“The manager herself also says this to customers. She gets a ton of reviews ’cause she asks all the time, and she also gets an additional $10 every time she does it,” he recalls. “Seems normal but it is against Yelp’s guidelines. They don’t allow you to ask for reviews because it’s an inauthentic review.”
Indeed, Yelp will penalize establishments that do this by not recommending them. As a result, their overall score will drop.
Did Adams receive his paycheck?
In the most recent installment, Adams says, “The checks I just received are the same account number as the check previously that was an invalid account. So, I just deposited the checks.”
Is any of this illegal?
Managers are permitted to receive and keep tips. On the other hand, the Department of Labor states that they cannot participate in the tip pool or keep other employees’ tips. In the eyes of Nevada law, tips are the employee’s property. On the other hand, managers can distribute tips in the tip pool unequally.
Moreover, establishments can be legally liable for handing out a bad check. Because Las Vegas is located in Clark County, the district attorney’s office lists instructions on how to pursue legal action:
- Submit the bad check to the DA’s office and write a notice of dishonor to the business
- A check not paid within 10 days of sending out the notice can result in prosecution or restitution by filling out a Bad Check Complaint Form
- However, if the business wants to pay, send them to the Clark County District Attorney’s Office but accepting the payment will halt any restitution
@christopheradams_ Worked 4 weeks at Umami sushi in Vegas. Got a check from an account that doesn’t exist and tips were handed out based on “performance” — not what I earned. Filing a wage claim and documenting everything here. Part 1. #wagetheft #lasvegasjobs #restaurantlife #checkfraud #workersrights #storytime #umamisushi ♬ original sound – ChristopherAdams
The Mary Sue reached out to Adams via TikTok comment and direct message as well as Umami via email.
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