The restaurant industry is a notoriously tough business. It is an environment of high stress, long hours, and often, very low pay. To protect their razor-thin profit margins, some restaurant owners and managers will resort to several unethical and sometimes illegal practices at the expense of their own staff. These dirty secrets of the industry create a difficult and often exploitative work environment for the people who are cooking and serving our food. Here are nine of the most unethical things that restaurants do to their staff.
1. Tip Theft and Illegal Tip Pooling
“Tip theft” is one of the most common and unethical practices in the industry. This can happen in a number of ways. A manager might illegally take a portion of the servers’ tips for themselves. They might also create an illegal “tip pool.” This is where they force the servers to share their tips with non-tipped, back-of-house employees like cooks and dishwashers, which is against the law in most states.
2. Making Servers Pay for “Dine and Dash” Customers
When a table of customers leaves the restaurant without paying their bill, it is known as a “dine and dash.” In a shocking but common practice, some unethical managers will force the server for that table to pay for the unpaid bill out of their own tips or their own pocket. This is illegal in most states, but it is a practice that still happens in the dark corners of the industry.
3. Refusing to Give Breaks
Restaurant work is a grueling, physically demanding job that involves being on your feet for hours at a time. State labor laws require that employees be given regular meal and rest breaks. However, in the chaos of a busy service, many managers will refuse to let their employees take their legally mandated breaks. This is a common labor law violation that is designed to keep the kitchen running at full speed.
4. Misclassifying Employees to Avoid Paying Overtime
To avoid paying the time-and-a-half rate for overtime, some restaurant owners will misclassify their employees. They might give a cook a “manager” title, even though they have no real managerial duties. This makes them a “salaried exempt” employee. This means they are no longer eligible for overtime pay, even if they are working 60 or 70 hours a week.
5. Charging Employees for Uniforms and Other “Fees”
Some restaurants will charge their employees for their own uniforms. They will deduct the cost of the uniform directly from the employee’s first paycheck. They may also charge them for other, more dubious “fees,” like a fee for a broken dish or a cash-handling error at the register. These fees can be an illegal and unethical way to nickel-and-dime their low-wage workers.
6. Ignoring Safety Hazards in the Kitchen
A restaurant kitchen can be a dangerous place. The floors are often wet and slippery. The fryers are filled with hot oil. The knives are sharp. An unethical owner will often ignore these safety hazards to avoid the cost of fixing them. They might refuse to buy new non-slip mats or to properly maintain their equipment. This creates a dangerous work environment for the entire kitchen staff.
7. Wage Theft through “Time Shaving”
“Time shaving” is a common form of wage theft. This is where a manager will illegally edit an employee’s timecard. They will shave a few minutes off here and there to reduce the total number of hours the employee is paid for. Over the course of a year, these small, illegal edits can add up to a significant amount of stolen wages.
8. The “Staged” Trail
The “stage” (pronounced “staahj”) is a restaurant industry term for a working interview where a cook or a server will work a full shift for free to try out for a job. While this is a common practice in high-end restaurants, it is also a form of unpaid labor that is illegal in many states. It is an unethical way for a restaurant to get a full day of free work out of a potential employee.
9. The Lack of Sick Leave
The restaurant industry is notorious for its lack of paid sick leave. This creates a terrible choice for an employee who is feeling sick. They can either stay home and lose a day’s pay, or they can come to work and risk getting their coworkers and their customers sick. This is a major public health issue built into the financial structure of the industry.
The Hidden Cost of Your Meal
The low prices and the convenient service that we enjoy when we dine out can often come at a high cost to the people who are working in the restaurant. These unethical practices are a direct result of an industry that is built on low wages and high pressure. As consumers, one of the most powerful things we can do is to support the restaurants that are known for treating their employees with fairness, dignity, and respect. It is a choice that can help to change the industry for the better.
Have you ever worked in a restaurant? Have you ever witnessed or been a victim of any of these unethical practices? Share your story in the comments.
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