Cracker Barrel minimum wage class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Catherine D. Frederick filed a class action lawsuit against Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc.
- Why: Frederick claims Cracker Barrel violated the law by allegedly paying its workers below the federal minimum wage.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in Tennessee federal court.
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store failed to compensate its restaurant employees during all their work hours, causing their pay to be below the legal minimum wage, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
Plaintiff Catherine D. Frederick claims Cracker Barrel failed to compensate its employees for “off the clock” work before and after their shifts — work she argues they were required and encouraged to complete, in an alleged violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Cracker Barrel has a policy of paying tipped employees under the federal minimum wage for their hourly base pay, before combining their tips with their hourly pay to meet compensation requirements set by the FLSA, according to the Cracker Barrel class action.
Frederick argues Cracker Barrel, thus, owes its employees the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all the hours they worked when performing “dual occupation” duties that led to them allegedly being underpaid, the Cracker Barrel class action states.
“The … unpaid wage claims of Plaintiff and those similarly situated are unified through common theories of Defendant’s FLSA violations,” the Cracker Barrel class action states.
Cracker Barrel commonly required tipped employees to perform non-tip-producing tasks, class action says
Frederick claims Cracker Barrel also had a “common plan, policy and practice” requiring tipped workers to perform unrelated and non-tip-producing tasks while clocked in as tipped employees, putting their wages under the legal minimum wage.
Frederick wants to represent a nationwide class of individuals who have worked at a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurant during the applicable limitations period for claims under the FLSA.
“Defendant has violated the FLSA and thereby enjoyed ill-gained profits at the expense of Plaintiff and those similarly situated,” the Cracker Barrel class action states.
Plaintiff is demanding a jury trial and requesting an award of compensation for unpaid wages along with liquidated damages for herself and all class members.
A similar class action lawsuit was filed against Boston Market late last month over claims the restaurant failed to pay the legal minimum wage and overtime to employees at its Arizona locations.
Have you worked as a tipped employee at a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiff is represented by Gordon E. Jackson, J. Russ Bryant and James L. Holt Jr. of Jackson, Shields, Yeiser, Holt Owen & Bryant.
The Cracker Barrel minimum wage class action lawsuit is Frederick, et al. v. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc., Case No. 3:23-cv-00813, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
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40 thoughts onCracker Barrel lawsuit claims restaurant failed to pay tipped employees minimum wage
Where do we sign up I know of alot of times I went from host to retail to waitress all in one shift.
I started working at Cracker Barrel Prattville al the 6/26 /23 and been there every since and they started paying me 7.25 and it supposed to been 14 hr in dishwasher and 15hr back up they owe me all my money from back then and just started paying me on 1/1/2025 what they supposed been paying me and paying the white peoples 15hr when they just started like 2 months ago I need my money because I got behind on paying my bills I even text Hr and they still ain’t done anything about it
I can relate to all of these comments. Openers are here before we can even clock in because of the setting up we have to do but do not get a table for 30 mins to an hour after we open. We stay after our shift is over for sidework and that could take up to an hour depending on what you have. We supposedly get paid $2.13/hr but in the 6 years i’ve worked here i’ve never seen a paycheck.
I work at Cracker Barrel currently and have for the past 4 years as a server, tipped employee. On a daily, we do hosting, To-go orders, bussing tables, prep cook(making salads, baked potatoes, desserts, even cutting our own produce at times, etc.) Also expediting our trays of food. All the while they are suppose to be hourly employee’s that apaid for each position but they use servers to fill these positions so they don’t have the labor cost it take to pay the true hourly employess. Also opening servers does all opening task while clocked in as $2.63/hrs. While the store isn’t even open yet. From 6a.m.-7a.m. Then after we open we are still being paid $2.63/hr even though we might not get our first table for 30 minutes to an hour. The amount of time they keep me after im cut off the floor is over an hour because of all the side work and silverware we are made to do. Then if we do have down time they put us to scrubbing the store when they pay a night maintenance for that. We also are required to do computer training work as $2.63/hrs. The list goes on and on. All this can be proven. Thanks for your time.
Also adding to my 1st comment I never get a break,, and even almost was fired for using the restroom once. Now i jus hold it for 9 hours a day. To save conflict. Plus they changed our vacation pay. It doesn’t seem right
12 years employee at cracker barrel . Working as a server doing multiple jobs, never taking a break to never see a dime from cracker barrel is frustrating. Except for my vacation pay cracker barrel only paid me $12.63 for an entire year and that’s working atkeast 30 hours a week. We are dishwashers, cooks, prep, bussers , servers and sometimes host for nothing.