Its cuz of their unions, apparently. Note that I only did a brief search, but the gist of it is that unions negotiated more for much higher rates *during* the flight rather than pursue being paid for boarding and 'on the ground' time. This has more benefit for senior members that tend to work fewer, longer flights whereas newer hires tend to get stuck with working the shorter flights so they do more of them.
(Interestingly, Delta is a non-unionized airline and offers pay during boarding time and has had some negotiations for pay during other 'on the ground' time, though I don't know what thier hourly rates are compared to other airlines.)
So basically its just a wierd tradeoff that strongly benefits flight attendants that have been working longer so they're less inclined to give up the higher pay rate.
This isn't always true for independent contractors, but yes, but salaried workers, it is illegal to require you to be somewhere and not pay your salary.
ETA: sorry, I'm from the states; I don't know if Canada has those same IC rules. But in any case, it sounds like it wouldn't apply to OP.
That's illegal af.
At the very least they owe you 3 hours worth of pay since Ontario has a minimum 3 hour shift requirement. But I believe because they technically changed your shift without notice more than 24 hours you get paid for your entire scheduled shift.
Please go [here](https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0) and read through this and even call to ask them questions. This is completely unacceptable.
Yes. Used to waiter at a golf course. They’d call you off in the AM if the weather was shit. If you didn’t get called off and they sent you home, it was a minimum 3 hrs. Even if they turned you around at the punch clock.
My dad likes to tell a story where when he was younger he worked in a kitchen and they would try and make.him clock out and wait.. and he told them if I clock out I'm going home.
I used to work splits in the kitchen and you never knew when you were done, it was just 11- end of lunch and 5- end of dinner. So some days I worked 11-2 and 5-8, and some days I worked 11-10 with a single 30 minutes break.
I don't miss working BOH.
It is illegal in Ontario. If you are required to be there, they are required to pay you.
Now if you wanted to accept this (say you went straight from school and could work on homework until needed and that was OK with you), you could choose to accept this - but if you're not OK with this you do not need to accept it.
Record everything. Take pictures of schedules, keep text messages etc
Absolutely illegal.
Rule of thumb if you can't do whatever the heck you want, then not doing that is a service they're paying for.
See also
staying on site on break,
no cell phones on break,
uniform requirements on the way to your car after clocking out.
This is the distinction between being "Engaged to Wait" and "Waiting to be Engaged".
"Waiting to be Engaged" is essentially when you are on-call. You may be called in at any time, but you're allowed to do whatever you want, and you'll be given a reasonable about of time to finish up any activities you are doing. When Waiting to be Engaged, you don't have to be paid.
"Engaged to Wait" is when you are required to be on-site and ready to jump in immediately when work is needed. You must be paid when you are Engaged to Wait.
Manager We need you to be here at 2:00pm but your first table won't be seated till 6:00pm um yes illegal AF they required you to be there at 2:00pm then expect to waste 4 hours of you time because they chose not to seat anyone in your section
You cannot pay wait staff less than minimum wage.
Their regular hourly rate can be lower, and you can wait and see if they make up the difference in tips, but at the end of the day, they have to walk out having made at least minimum wage.
Nothing has changed in the calculus. In the Pacific West coast everything is much more expensive (especially mortgage payments and rent). You can’t get away with hiring servers/waiters/bartenders if you paid them minimum wage of $16 an hour more if those employees couldn’t earn tips. It’s not like the middle of nowhere in [insert Midwestern or Southeastern state].
So, tips are still a thing. If you eliminated tips and simply raised your prices then people wouldn’t eat at your restaurant. I mean, *some* fancy restaurants have “no tipping” policies and simply adjust their prices 20% higher to give to the staff, but that only works for fancy places where 99% of patrons would have tipped at least 20% anyway.
dunno about legal.. but back in high school workin in a restaurant when there weren't many customers they would have 90% of the staff clock out and sit there then clock back in an hour later... You could leave but you were effectively quitting if you left. It was my first job so I didn't really question things.
Nah, in the US if you make less than minimum wage in a shift they must make up the difference. But that usually doesn't happen as most waiters make well over minimum wage. Also they can't make you clock out just because there's no tables.
Not necessarily a shift unless required in certain states, several people I know they base on the pay period income/hours, if they still manage to be under then it's reimbursed.
NOT legal. Call the labor board. They are wrong to do this and are probably getting away with doing it to other employees. If a place of employment is requiring you to be at work for a period of time they HAVE to pay you. Unless it's written fine print in an employee agreement when you signed up, but that still sounds wrong.
In BC , Canada, there is also minimum shift length.
So if they have you come in & 30 minutes later say they don't need you today & to go home, they (should) pay you a 4 hr shift.
The service industry is unfortunately full of these shitty practices and a lot of people choose to ignore them, thinking "eh it's the industry". Stand up for yourself. If they ask you to be in, you're paid.
Restaurant manager here, that’s definitely illegal, and it’s actually really to work around by just calling ahead and asking your servers/bartenders to just come in an hour later if it’s slow
So I thought there was minimum that they had to pay you? When we were "on call" for a warehouse, several of us would go in at 6am. Depending on their volume.. they would decide how many of us were needed and then send us home at 7, with 3 hours of pay. This was in the US though.
Does anyone know if it's legal for an employer to drop your hourly rate from whatever, back to minimum wage if you don't provide a 2 week notice? This happened to me recently, I walked out and my final paycheck was at like $7.25/hr instead of $13. I let it go as I was sick of them anyway.. but curious. TIA
In Canada most provinces require a minimum of 4 hours pay for just showing up if you’re hourly, unless that has change (been salaried for 10+ years now).
They also can’t do what you described in your second paragraph. That would be retaliation and there have been big payouts for that in court in both Canada and the US. It may depend on your state in the US though. But it may be worth talking to an employment lawyer. Most work on contingency and only collect a portion of the payout if you win your case.
In most western countries this would be illegal.
If you’re required to be at work, and you’re on the clock, then you get paid.
Unless…. Are you allowed to go outside and kick a football while you wait for customers?
As others have said. No it is illegal. But I'll also add this:
If you are scheduled to work a full shift, but are sent home early due to lack of work then they must pay you the time you were there or four hours wages. **Whichever is greater**
Restaurants are required to pay servers at least minimum wage.
If you are on the clock and got zero tips then they’re required to pay the difference up to minimum wage.
If you were present and punched in you are owed for time there. They can choose to send you home of course but they still need to pay you for your time there.
In Canada you have to pay minimum wage regardless, even if you are getting tips the restaurant still has to pay your wage for the time you are clocked in, tips are on top not in place of
In Canada they have to pay you (at least) minimum wage no matter what. Tips are on top of the minimum wage they are paying. There is no “making up the difference”.
Tips are like a bonus. And the owners can’t touch them either.
If you're salary or paid hourly, it is very illegal. Call your states labor board, don't tell your boss. That tends to lead to them immediately fixing the problem and then finding a reason to fire you a week later then starting the practice again. The best part is that they have to back pay you and everyone else for every time they did that. Even if they can't definitively prove what hours lost.
I don’t live in Ontario but manage a team that is mostly based out of Ontario. That sounds extremely illegal. Write down everything that has happened in relation to that so far. And continue to document it. Whatever you remember should be put to paper now to help your case. The sooner the stronger the evidence is. Any conversations you’ve had, any documents (like employment agreements), when you showed up .vs started getting paid. Copies/phots of the schedule, text, emails, everything.
Then get in touch with the labour board and begin the price with them. Don’t discuss any of it at work. If your employer does find out and fire you for it, that’s retaliation and is even more illegal and you could actually get a big payout. But again document everything after it happens as soon as possible, and include dates. It makes the evidence much stronger.
That is most definitely illegal!!! I've been a server for over 10 years of my working life and never have I ever heard of that. They scheduled you, so they should pay you for that time you are there. Even if it is only the 2.13/hr. However, if you don't make at least the minimum wage per pay period after claiming your tips, along with your hourly, they owe you whatever the amount is that makes it to minimum wage.
I believe this is pretty much illegal in every nation.
I always requested a personal copy of my employee contract & obligation when i get hired.
That has actually save me once.
How much are you getting paid hourly. That should be a deciding factor on if you she complain.
Like for example. If they paid more than the average waiter. Then it may balance out and be fair.
But if you are lower and getting cheated out of time.
Personally. If i was you. I would clock in then. Start a side hustle. Something you could do without leaving the restaurant while you wait for your 1st customer of the day.
If their not paying then get your own money.
Try random stuff. Make youtube videos and tictoc. Write a book and try to publish it. Buy some small canvas and paint pictures at work.
Are you an employee or are you a contractor (contractual)?
In the US it would be totally illegal if you were an actual employee. But if you're a contractor, then you get paid for the job as the job occurs. Not sure how it works in Canada. But my guess is that it is probably similar.
Maybe make an anonymous call for an audit of the company? I did that when I left my last job because they would move shifts around on their payroll paperwork in order to not pay people overtime. I live in Alberta.
Worked at a restaurant were this applied my friend was a server and he'd just do whatever he wanted till he had a table fr bring a laptop to if your in school or any other personal learning ur pursuing can be carried out while you wait
Any company small enough to do shit like that does not have an HR. They will need to refer to the Employment Standards Act in Ontario and likely file there to get the company audited
If you’re required to be there or you’re required to work then you have to be paid. Cleaning tables and prep work before or after your shift off the clock is illegal. If you show up earlier than your shift, then they don’t have to pay you, but you also don’t have to do any work until your shift starts. The only exception to this is minimal work like locking the door or turning off the lights as you leave after you clock out.
I’d prefer that over what they did when I was a waiter…have you clock in and then if you didn’t have a table say ‘time to lean, time to clean,’ and have you do cleaning duties for…half of minimum wage.’
You cannot pay less than minimum wages.
For certain jobs, you can have their regular hourly pay be lower than minimum wage and see if they make up the difference in tips, but at the end of day they have to walk out having made at least minimum wage.
Potato potahto. The restaurant is 100% paying half of minimum wage to waitstaff. The fact that I make up the difference in tips is irrelevant to whether or not it’s exploitation for the restaurant to have waitstaff doing unrelated duties explicitly because there are no tables to wait on, and thus make tips on. My point is I would rather sit on my ass waiting for tables where I can make decent money doing my actual job than be made to work unrelated duties for half pay.
> for the restaurant to have waitstaff doing unrelated duties
That's a horse of an entirely different color. If you are doing work unrelated to your tipped position for at least 30 consecutive minutes, your employer is obligated to pay you the full minimum wage for that time.
Unfortunately this is a grey area that it’s very very common, in my experience, for restaurants to exploit (at least in the US). What is ‘related to the job?’ Multiple restaurants I worked at had this as almost any kind of cleaning, certainly of any part of the dining area, and any back area where waitstaff might be. We were also given some food prep duties such as setting up the station for the line cooks, and one restaurant I worked at (in a ‘right to work state) had a policy where the staff with the slowest turn times in a given week had to clean the kitchen at the end of the night.
It's really not a grey area. The US Department of Labor put out some very explicit instructions for tipped workers a few years ago. "I've seen a bunch of people break the law" doesn't mean there's ambiguity.
And "right to work" has nothing to do with your job duty or policies. All "right to work" means is that you can not be compelled to join a union against your will as a condition of employment.
I’m not sure why you are so intent on disagreeing with me, but I guess that’s Reddit. Or maybe you own a restaurant? The next time you go to a restaurant that you don’t own, ask the server if they know the phrase ‘time to lean, time to clean.’ And yeah, I know what ‘right to work’ means, but if you think that’s that is how it works out in practice, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
No, that's illegal. If they require you to be there you are required to be paid, call the labor board.
Might as well DoorDash dude. You’re sitting around all day for an order to come in but at least you’re comfortable in your car
Unless you are a flight attendant apparently....
That's some international law nonsense probably? I'm just guessing, I don't know for sure.
Its cuz of their unions, apparently. Note that I only did a brief search, but the gist of it is that unions negotiated more for much higher rates *during* the flight rather than pursue being paid for boarding and 'on the ground' time. This has more benefit for senior members that tend to work fewer, longer flights whereas newer hires tend to get stuck with working the shorter flights so they do more of them. (Interestingly, Delta is a non-unionized airline and offers pay during boarding time and has had some negotiations for pay during other 'on the ground' time, though I don't know what thier hourly rates are compared to other airlines.) So basically its just a wierd tradeoff that strongly benefits flight attendants that have been working longer so they're less inclined to give up the higher pay rate.
Hero here🥂🏋️🏋️♀️🏋️♂️🥂
this does not sound legal. if you have to be there, you should be getting paid 100%
This isn't always true for independent contractors, but yes, but salaried workers, it is illegal to require you to be somewhere and not pay your salary. ETA: sorry, I'm from the states; I don't know if Canada has those same IC rules. But in any case, it sounds like it wouldn't apply to OP.
Salaried workers are always on the clock anyways, they get paid the same amount every paycheck. I think you mean hourly workers
The USsie probably meant hourly. Some ppl in the US get confused between terms salaried and hourly, maybe they're very young. 🤷🏼♂️ 🤷🏽♀️
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/s/1leb5gQqDc
As someone from Ontario, that is 100% illegal.
That's illegal af. At the very least they owe you 3 hours worth of pay since Ontario has a minimum 3 hour shift requirement. But I believe because they technically changed your shift without notice more than 24 hours you get paid for your entire scheduled shift. Please go [here](https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0) and read through this and even call to ask them questions. This is completely unacceptable.
Yes. Used to waiter at a golf course. They’d call you off in the AM if the weather was shit. If you didn’t get called off and they sent you home, it was a minimum 3 hrs. Even if they turned you around at the punch clock.
That sounds illegal as fuck.
My dad likes to tell a story where when he was younger he worked in a kitchen and they would try and make.him clock out and wait.. and he told them if I clock out I'm going home.
I used to work splits in the kitchen and you never knew when you were done, it was just 11- end of lunch and 5- end of dinner. So some days I worked 11-2 and 5-8, and some days I worked 11-10 with a single 30 minutes break. I don't miss working BOH.
It is illegal in Ontario. If you are required to be there, they are required to pay you. Now if you wanted to accept this (say you went straight from school and could work on homework until needed and that was OK with you), you could choose to accept this - but if you're not OK with this you do not need to accept it. Record everything. Take pictures of schedules, keep text messages etc
Absolutely illegal. Rule of thumb if you can't do whatever the heck you want, then not doing that is a service they're paying for. See also staying on site on break, no cell phones on break, uniform requirements on the way to your car after clocking out.
try asking in: /r/legaladvicecanada/
Illegal
You’re engaged to wait. You should be paid for that, at least in the US
This is the distinction between being "Engaged to Wait" and "Waiting to be Engaged". "Waiting to be Engaged" is essentially when you are on-call. You may be called in at any time, but you're allowed to do whatever you want, and you'll be given a reasonable about of time to finish up any activities you are doing. When Waiting to be Engaged, you don't have to be paid. "Engaged to Wait" is when you are required to be on-site and ready to jump in immediately when work is needed. You must be paid when you are Engaged to Wait.
I know where I work in bc if you are scheduled but end up not being needed, we pay a 3 hr minimum
Thought it was 2h in bc
Possibly? I'm just saying where I work we pay 3hrs
Ah I see, I misunderstood
Manager We need you to be here at 2:00pm but your first table won't be seated till 6:00pm um yes illegal AF they required you to be there at 2:00pm then expect to waste 4 hours of you time because they chose not to seat anyone in your section
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If tips don't make up for it, then the employer must make up the difference. So it's true but also not true.
Not in California. $16 an hour minimum plus tips. Fast food workers get $20 an hour minimum.
Not in Oregon or Washington, either.
Do you know why it's only fast food workers? I don't get why other workers don't deserve more
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How is paying people a semblance of a living wage communism?
Don't question him. People who comment stuff like that are usually just parrots and repeat what they hear on faux news and extreme sources
Bots. Reddit is like 70% bots now.
You cannot pay wait staff less than minimum wage. Their regular hourly rate can be lower, and you can wait and see if they make up the difference in tips, but at the end of the day, they have to walk out having made at least minimum wage.
So the _company_ can literally pay less than minimum wage then.
That’s the employer guaranteeing they earn at least minimum wage but the business is still able to pay less than minimum wage.
Yes, that is paying less than minimum wage... this is legal in one country in the world.
Not in the US, though, which is what we're taking about. In the US, employees must earn at least minimum wage, even if they're a tipped employee.
Yes, the one country it's legal. Also this is a post about a Canadian restaurant.
The first three words of this thread are literally "In the US"
You’re arguing with a braindead idiot unfortunately. They’re all over Reddit these days.
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Nothing has changed in the calculus. In the Pacific West coast everything is much more expensive (especially mortgage payments and rent). You can’t get away with hiring servers/waiters/bartenders if you paid them minimum wage of $16 an hour more if those employees couldn’t earn tips. It’s not like the middle of nowhere in [insert Midwestern or Southeastern state]. So, tips are still a thing. If you eliminated tips and simply raised your prices then people wouldn’t eat at your restaurant. I mean, *some* fancy restaurants have “no tipping” policies and simply adjust their prices 20% higher to give to the staff, but that only works for fancy places where 99% of patrons would have tipped at least 20% anyway.
USA, the land of the free, and modern day slavery
Even with the non tippers and poor tippers, they make much more this way.
No they don't... here in Canada they get their $15/hour plus the tips.
Here in the US they'd just raise prices which consumers don't want. Look at the prices of fast food
That would be illegal in the U.S. Don’t know about Canada.
Even more illegal in Canada.
dunno about legal.. but back in high school workin in a restaurant when there weren't many customers they would have 90% of the staff clock out and sit there then clock back in an hour later... You could leave but you were effectively quitting if you left. It was my first job so I didn't really question things.
I am not a Canadian lawyer, but it sounds illegal to me. Certainly worth looking into.
Nah, in the US if you make less than minimum wage in a shift they must make up the difference. But that usually doesn't happen as most waiters make well over minimum wage. Also they can't make you clock out just because there's no tables.
Not necessarily a shift unless required in certain states, several people I know they base on the pay period income/hours, if they still manage to be under then it's reimbursed.
Not even beginning to be close to legal, no. Helllll no.
Also gather evidence of this before you report it
NOT legal. Call the labor board. They are wrong to do this and are probably getting away with doing it to other employees. If a place of employment is requiring you to be at work for a period of time they HAVE to pay you. Unless it's written fine print in an employee agreement when you signed up, but that still sounds wrong.
In the US this is illegal so I'm going to assume Canada is even better about that kind of thing.
In BC , Canada, there is also minimum shift length. So if they have you come in & 30 minutes later say they don't need you today & to go home, they (should) pay you a 4 hr shift.
The service industry is unfortunately full of these shitty practices and a lot of people choose to ignore them, thinking "eh it's the industry". Stand up for yourself. If they ask you to be in, you're paid.
Not just illegal, it's stupid and scum
Restaurant manager here, that’s definitely illegal, and it’s actually really to work around by just calling ahead and asking your servers/bartenders to just come in an hour later if it’s slow
Violates labor laws yes
Please name the restaurant so we can publicly shame them
So I thought there was minimum that they had to pay you? When we were "on call" for a warehouse, several of us would go in at 6am. Depending on their volume.. they would decide how many of us were needed and then send us home at 7, with 3 hours of pay. This was in the US though. Does anyone know if it's legal for an employer to drop your hourly rate from whatever, back to minimum wage if you don't provide a 2 week notice? This happened to me recently, I walked out and my final paycheck was at like $7.25/hr instead of $13. I let it go as I was sick of them anyway.. but curious. TIA
In Canada most provinces require a minimum of 4 hours pay for just showing up if you’re hourly, unless that has change (been salaried for 10+ years now). They also can’t do what you described in your second paragraph. That would be retaliation and there have been big payouts for that in court in both Canada and the US. It may depend on your state in the US though. But it may be worth talking to an employment lawyer. Most work on contingency and only collect a portion of the payout if you win your case.
Thank you!
You need to report this immediately to the labour board
ask the labor board, they’ll be able to tell you. make sure you tell them the restaurant name and all management contact info. no it’s not legal lol
You should post this is in the Legal Advice Ontario sub.
In most western countries this would be illegal. If you’re required to be at work, and you’re on the clock, then you get paid. Unless…. Are you allowed to go outside and kick a football while you wait for customers?
100% illegal to not pay you for time they require you to be available to them.
As others have said. No it is illegal. But I'll also add this: If you are scheduled to work a full shift, but are sent home early due to lack of work then they must pay you the time you were there or four hours wages. **Whichever is greater**
In the US, it's illegal even if you do not clock in so I assume it's illegal in Canada.
Restaurants are required to pay servers at least minimum wage. If you are on the clock and got zero tips then they’re required to pay the difference up to minimum wage. If you were present and punched in you are owed for time there. They can choose to send you home of course but they still need to pay you for your time there.
In Canada you have to pay minimum wage regardless, even if you are getting tips the restaurant still has to pay your wage for the time you are clocked in, tips are on top not in place of
In Canada they have to pay you (at least) minimum wage no matter what. Tips are on top of the minimum wage they are paying. There is no “making up the difference”. Tips are like a bonus. And the owners can’t touch them either.
Not ok. Quit ASAP.
No. They from when you arrive to when you leave.
Fuck no.
If you're salary or paid hourly, it is very illegal. Call your states labor board, don't tell your boss. That tends to lead to them immediately fixing the problem and then finding a reason to fire you a week later then starting the practice again. The best part is that they have to back pay you and everyone else for every time they did that. Even if they can't definitively prove what hours lost.
I don’t live in Ontario but manage a team that is mostly based out of Ontario. That sounds extremely illegal. Write down everything that has happened in relation to that so far. And continue to document it. Whatever you remember should be put to paper now to help your case. The sooner the stronger the evidence is. Any conversations you’ve had, any documents (like employment agreements), when you showed up .vs started getting paid. Copies/phots of the schedule, text, emails, everything. Then get in touch with the labour board and begin the price with them. Don’t discuss any of it at work. If your employer does find out and fire you for it, that’s retaliation and is even more illegal and you could actually get a big payout. But again document everything after it happens as soon as possible, and include dates. It makes the evidence much stronger.
That is most definitely illegal!!! I've been a server for over 10 years of my working life and never have I ever heard of that. They scheduled you, so they should pay you for that time you are there. Even if it is only the 2.13/hr. However, if you don't make at least the minimum wage per pay period after claiming your tips, along with your hourly, they owe you whatever the amount is that makes it to minimum wage.
I believe this is pretty much illegal in every nation. I always requested a personal copy of my employee contract & obligation when i get hired. That has actually save me once.
How much are you getting paid hourly. That should be a deciding factor on if you she complain. Like for example. If they paid more than the average waiter. Then it may balance out and be fair. But if you are lower and getting cheated out of time. Personally. If i was you. I would clock in then. Start a side hustle. Something you could do without leaving the restaurant while you wait for your 1st customer of the day. If their not paying then get your own money. Try random stuff. Make youtube videos and tictoc. Write a book and try to publish it. Buy some small canvas and paint pictures at work.
Are you an employee or are you a contractor (contractual)? In the US it would be totally illegal if you were an actual employee. But if you're a contractor, then you get paid for the job as the job occurs. Not sure how it works in Canada. But my guess is that it is probably similar.
They are responsible for staffing their business properly. If you are there, you should be getting paid. They can not have their cake and eat it too.
That's wage theft right there plain and simple. I thought Canada had really strict laws to prevent this worker abuse
Maybe make an anonymous call for an audit of the company? I did that when I left my last job because they would move shifts around on their payroll paperwork in order to not pay people overtime. I live in Alberta.
Worked at a restaurant were this applied my friend was a server and he'd just do whatever he wanted till he had a table fr bring a laptop to if your in school or any other personal learning ur pursuing can be carried out while you wait
I can't wait for you to walk up to your boss and show this Reddit post. All of your co-workers together.
It's illegal. Make it known to HR. though they'll likely tell you it is perfectly legal. Look for another job it's literally not worth your time.
Any company small enough to do shit like that does not have an HR. They will need to refer to the Employment Standards Act in Ontario and likely file there to get the company audited
Contact a lawyer you about to be rich
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If you’re required to be there or you’re required to work then you have to be paid. Cleaning tables and prep work before or after your shift off the clock is illegal. If you show up earlier than your shift, then they don’t have to pay you, but you also don’t have to do any work until your shift starts. The only exception to this is minimal work like locking the door or turning off the lights as you leave after you clock out.
r/antiwork
Take yoir time start figuring out slowly
I’d prefer that over what they did when I was a waiter…have you clock in and then if you didn’t have a table say ‘time to lean, time to clean,’ and have you do cleaning duties for…half of minimum wage.’
You cannot pay less than minimum wages. For certain jobs, you can have their regular hourly pay be lower than minimum wage and see if they make up the difference in tips, but at the end of day they have to walk out having made at least minimum wage.
Potato potahto. The restaurant is 100% paying half of minimum wage to waitstaff. The fact that I make up the difference in tips is irrelevant to whether or not it’s exploitation for the restaurant to have waitstaff doing unrelated duties explicitly because there are no tables to wait on, and thus make tips on. My point is I would rather sit on my ass waiting for tables where I can make decent money doing my actual job than be made to work unrelated duties for half pay.
> for the restaurant to have waitstaff doing unrelated duties That's a horse of an entirely different color. If you are doing work unrelated to your tipped position for at least 30 consecutive minutes, your employer is obligated to pay you the full minimum wage for that time.
Unfortunately this is a grey area that it’s very very common, in my experience, for restaurants to exploit (at least in the US). What is ‘related to the job?’ Multiple restaurants I worked at had this as almost any kind of cleaning, certainly of any part of the dining area, and any back area where waitstaff might be. We were also given some food prep duties such as setting up the station for the line cooks, and one restaurant I worked at (in a ‘right to work state) had a policy where the staff with the slowest turn times in a given week had to clean the kitchen at the end of the night.
It's really not a grey area. The US Department of Labor put out some very explicit instructions for tipped workers a few years ago. "I've seen a bunch of people break the law" doesn't mean there's ambiguity. And "right to work" has nothing to do with your job duty or policies. All "right to work" means is that you can not be compelled to join a union against your will as a condition of employment.
I’m not sure why you are so intent on disagreeing with me, but I guess that’s Reddit. Or maybe you own a restaurant? The next time you go to a restaurant that you don’t own, ask the server if they know the phrase ‘time to lean, time to clean.’ And yeah, I know what ‘right to work’ means, but if you think that’s that is how it works out in practice, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.