Former Employee Alleges Steak and Shake Violated FLSA

April 5, 2018

A former employee is suing Steak and Shake, alleging violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The woman filed a complaint March 26 in the Pinellas Circuit Court against Steak and Shake Inc., also known as Steak and Shake Operations Inc., alleging failure to provide an employee her proper wages.

According to the complaint, the woman worked as a waitress/server at Steak and Shake in Pinellas County from August 2015 through Feb. 27, 2018. She says she has suffered monetary damages as a result of the restaurant’s wrongful conduct of utilizing the tip credit instead of paying her with regular minimum wage and also requiring her to perform labor after she had officially clocked out.

She alleges Steak and Shake Operations has failed, refused and/or neglected to keep accurate time records, and refuses to pay her the minimum wage rate of pay as required by FLSA, raw wages believed to be more than $2,250.

The FLSA governs the most basic interactions between employers and employees. The FLSA establishes a standard for minimum wage, overtime pay, and other labor laws. Employers can be in violation of the FLSA if they misclassify hourly employees as exempt, deny overtime, order employees to work after clocking out, allow managers to take from employees’ tips, alter time cards, or require employees to work more than forty hours per week.

Employees who work in restaurants where tips comprise a portion of the employees’ compensation are usually at higher risk when it comes to illegal employer behavior. Common violations include illegally docking time off cards, including managers in tip pools, deducting tips from paychecks, paying employees less than the minimum wage, and refusing to pay overtime.