For most employees in New Jersey, the minimum wage is $13 per hour. For employees who make a substantial portion of their income through tips, though, the minimum wage is $5.13 per hour. The minimum wage for tipped employees represents the amount that the employer must pay them per hour; the assumption is that, once you add in their tips, their total pay will be at least $13 per hour. What happens when it is a slow night at the restaurant, though? When a tipped employee gets less than $7.87 per hour in a given shift, so that their total compensation does not add up to $13 per hour, the employer must pay them $13 per hour for that shift, as if they were hourly employees instead of tipped employees.
Golf caddies at a country club in West Orange are currently involved in a legal dispute with their employer; they claim that their employer has not paid them the state minimum wage when it was the employer’s responsibility to do so. If you are employed as a tipped employee in New Jersey and your employer is not paying their fair share, contact the employment lawyers at McOmber McOmber & Luber.
Caddies Accuse Employer of Paying Them Less Than Minimum Wage
Montclair Golf Club in West Orange is plenty pricey; it costs between $40,000 to $70,000 to join, and then members must pay between $5,000 and $15,000 in dues each year, depending on which membership privileges they get. Most of this money does not end up in the bank accounts of the caddies who work at the club from March until November. Caddies work a 10-hour shift, and the club pays them $60 for each golf bag they carry; they also receive tips from the golfers. A round of golf is so long that one can realistically expect a caddy to carry only two bags per shift. This means that, unless the golfers tip well, the caddies earn less than the $13 per hour minimum wage.
This is one of the issues that the caddies’ lawsuit against Montclair Golf Club seeks to address. They allege that the club treats them like hourly employees without paying them as such. Their supervisors ask them to perform additional tasks not listed in their job description, such as serving drinks to golfers on the golf course and cleaning bathrooms but do not pay them any additional money for doing these tasks. Furthermore, when the club is not busy, caddies must wait for hours before being assigned to a golfer, and they do not receive any pay for this time.
Contact an Employment Lawyer About Tipped Employee Wage Disputes
A wage and hour dispute lawyer can help you resolve disputes if your employer is not paying you their fair share during shifts when you do not get paid sufficient tips from customers. Contact McOmber McOmber & Luber to discuss your case.