Don’t confuse “tips” and “service charges” for hospitality employees

How often have you looked at you bill at a restaurant and have seen an added service fee? Do you think to yourself, "No need to tip; it's already been added to the bill." 

Think again, at least according to the 11th Circuit in Compere v. Nurset Miami, LLC, which held that restaurant service charges are not considered tips under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Are you an ally, or are you just afraid of being canceled?

I tell my students, "When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game."

– Toni Morrison

I think of this quote often when I think about what it means to be an ally at work. 

Anti-union vs. Anti-worker

Tomorrow at 5 pm I'm participating in an online panel discussing fair compensation in the craft beer industry. It's part of the Craft Beer Professionals Spring Virtual Conference (register here).

Some members of the group, however, are objecting to my participation. They take issue with my recent posts about union organizing, and more specifically union organizing in the craft beer industry. They claim that "anti-union" (which I am) is the same as "anti-worker" (which I definitely am not). They argue that my anti-union views bar my seat at the fair compensation table — that I'm cannot opine on fair compensation because I'm anti-worker.

I believe, however, that anti-union and anti-worker can be, and often are, mutually exclusive. 

The biggest workplace story of 2022

Last Friday, workers won the first-ever union election at an Amazon warehouse (a fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York). This is the biggest workplace story of the year, and it won't even be close. 

Here's why.

WIRTW #619: the “update” edition

To wrap things up this week, I thought I'd update two stories.

1/ UCLA Unpaid Job Posting

In addition to taking down the offensive job posting, UCLA tweeted this update.

Had UCLA included some of this reasonable explanation as part of its job posting, it could have avoided being excoriated online.

2/ Brienne Allan

Brienne, now of Brave Noise Beer, recently appeared on the Good Beer Hunting podcast to discuss what her year has been like since her Instagram post asking for stories about sexual harassment and gender discrimination in craft breweries went viral. It's a great listen. My takeaway (which will be fodder for a future post): Is your business an ally, or are you just afraid of being canceled?

I'm taking a much-needed vacation next week. I'll be back on April 4 with fresh content for y'all. Try not to miss me too much.

Here's what I read this past week that I think you should be reading, too.

Starbucks employees are trying to “kick down the door” across the entire food and beverage service industry

Less than one and one-half miles away from the flagship Starbucks that launched a global coffee empire five decades ago, employees unanimously voted for their shop to unionize. It became the seventh such store to vote to unionize, joining five stores in Buffalo, New York, and one in Mesa, Arizona. Of the 157 (and rising) Starbucks currently organizing or planning to organize, only one thus far (also in Buffalo) has sided with management.

Pay careful attention to what the employees of the Seattle store that just went union told The Seattle Times in speaking about what this vote means for employees in the food and beverage service industry generally.

The nuts and bolts of your company code of conduct

Yesterday I explained why your company needs a code of conduct separate from or adjunct to your already-existing anti-harassment policy. 

Today, I'm back to explain what it should contain, to whom it should apply, how violations are addressed, and how it should be disseminated.