U.S. Department of Labor Blog
In 2008, Roberto started as a server at La Tolteca, a Mexican restaurant in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and Tania started in 2013 in the same job. While the restaurant was where they found love, their workplace experience was far from a fairy tale.
Roberto and Tania knew something was wrong, but they needed their jobs to support their growing family of six children. Roberto and Tania worked hard for their tips, attending to large parties, keeping up with customer requests for additional items and standing on their feet all day. On top of that, the working conditions were difficult. Roberto and Tania worked 10-hour days, often without breaks, and sometimes with only one day off a week. But despite that hard work, each day the restaurant owner required servers to give him a percentage of their daily tips. After the restaurant owner had taken their tips, there were days when there were no tips left for them to take home at all. Roberto and Tania were victims of wage theft. “Keeping” tips is against the law under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which “prohibits employers from keeping any portion of employees’ tips for any purpose.” While Roberto and Tania should never have dealt with unfair working conditions, their story has a positive outcome. Roberto and Tania suspected that their employer was stealing from them, and they began keeping track of how much was taken. The Wage and Hour Division's (WHD) investigators interviewed workers to determine how much had been taken from them. After the investigation, the restaurant agreed to pay them, and other affected workers, leading to the recovery of more than $1.3 million in back wages and damages.
When asked about getting their back wages returned, Roberto said, “I knew God wouldn’t forget about us. It was justice.” Tania agreed, adding, “I knew one day there would be justice and the owner would get caught.” Now the couple plans to support their children in college and finally go on a honeymoon.
Tipped workers, like Roberto and Tania, are too frequently the victims of wage theft, and the Wage and Hour Division continues to prioritize protecting these workers. WHD’s enforcement helps ensure that tipped workers are treated with dignity and respect.
At the U.S. Department of Labor, the Wage and Hour Division is committed to using its resources strategically to achieve the greatest impact on workers’ lives. Strong enforcement of federal labor laws also ensures employers who abide by the law are not undercut by those employers who engage in wage theft. Roberto and Tania’s story is just one of many stories that are a part of the $1 billion in wages and damages recovered by the Wage and Hour Division during the Biden-Harris administration. See more stories like theirs and learn how the division is making significant impacts on the By the Numbers page for 2024.
Jessica Looman is the Administrator for the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division. Follow the division on Twitter/X at @WHD_DOL and on LinkedIn.