How Restaurants Can Mitigate Risk from Wage Theft Lawsuits

Wage theft lawsuits can target more subtle actions that constitute wage violations.

Restaurant owners have seen a recent surge in wage theft lawsuits. These lawsuits target payroll practices that result in employees not being paid minimum wage for all hours worked and for overtime.  Chipotle is a recent victim. As if it did not have enough problems this year, they are now facing a lawsuit for not paying their employees for all actual hours worked. Chipotle’s actions, if true, were egregious and blatant. They required employees to clock out and continue to perform their tasks. However, wage theft lawsuits can target more subtle actions that constitute wage violations.

Because of their tedious and insufferably numerous federal regulations, the FLSA and FMLA provide a favorable medium for plaintiff attorneys to ply their trade. The lure is that under these federal laws, the prevailing employee, and thus his lawyer, can receive an award for attorney fees. Such provisions are a huge…