A restaurant in Manhattan, owned by Chef Thomas Keller, will pay $500,000 in restitution to workers for failing to pay some staff their tips:<\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2013 Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that his office has reached a settlement with ‘Per Se’, a Manhattan fine-dining establishment, for failing to pay its waitstaff a 20% surcharge designated as a \u201cservice charge\u201d in its contracts with customers for private dining and banquet services from January 2011 through September 2012.<\/p>\n
The Attorney General\u2019s investigation revealed that during this period, Per Se charged its private dining customers an additional 20% for service and listed the 20% service charge on its receipts and printed materials. In addition, Per Se also informed certain customers who inquired that the 20% charge was equivalent to a gratuity. For example, in response to one email inquiry, Per Se replied, \u201c[K]indly note that service\/gratuity is certainly included in the pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of directing it to the workers, Per Se used the service charges for its restaurant operations. The law requires Per Se to distribute the charges as gratuities to its employees, and this requirement applies even for employees paid above the minimum wage.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s agreement will compensate workers at Per Se who were shortchanged out of their hard-earned tips,\u201d said Attorney General Schneiderman, \u201cAnd it reaffirms the right of satisfied restaurant-goers not to be misled about whether a \u2018service charge\u2019 is actually paid to workers as a tip, which the law requires.\u201d<\/p>\n
Per Se, which the New York Times once called the \u201cbest restaurant in New York City\u201d, was first opened by Thomas Keller in 2004. As of July 1, its standard \u201ctasting menu\u201d charges a fixed price of $310 per person.<\/p>\n
New York Labor Law prohibits an employer or his agent from accepting or retaining any portion of an employee\u2019s gratuity or a charge \u201cpurported to be a gratuity.\u201d In 2008, the New York Court of Appeals held that if the reasonable customer would believe that a charge was a gratuity, it had to be turned over to the employees. And since 2011, New York regulations have contained very specific rules for employers about \u201cservice charges,\u201d including the requirement that employers must notify their customers when a service charge is not a tip or gratuity by using specific language and 12-point font.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A restaurant in Manhattan, owned by Chef Thomas Keller, will pay $500,000 in restitution to workers for failing to pay some staff their tips: NEW YORK \u2013 Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that his office has reached a settlement with ‘Per Se’, a Manhattan fine-dining establishment, for failing to pay its waitstaff a 20% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5409,"featured_media":40594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n