IHOP Wage and Hour Lawsuit Claims Restaurant Took Servers’ Tips

A new wage and hour class action lawsuit accuses the restaurant chain of taking tip income from its servers and denying them breaks for meals and rest.

Plaintiff Beatriz Corrales says she has been working as an IHOP server in California since 2007. She says that IHOP requires servers to report tip income of at least 8 percent of cash sales for each shift at the end of the shift.

The servers are not allowed to clock out and leave until they report this income, she alleges in the wage and hour lawsuit.

Corrales says this practice results in the restaurant making money back that the servers should have kept as wages.

On shifts during which employees’ actual tips were less than the 8 percent reporting rate, IHOP’s reporting policy actually results in the servers turning over money to the restaurant.

She says IHOP failed to implement some process by which servers could challenge the reporting requirement or simply report the actual amount of tips they made.

By requiring servers to over report their tips, she alleges, the servers are also forced to pay taxed on income they never received.

Wage and Hour Claims

In addition to the allegations over the tip reporting system, Corrales says IHOP has systematically failed to give employees the breaks they’re entitled to under California wage and hour law.

She says IHOP prevents and discourages employees from taking the 30-minute meal breaks and 10-minute rest breaks required under California law. The restaurant also fails to compensate the employees for those missed breaks, she alleges.

In this wage and hour class action lawsuit, Corrales seeks to be the lead plaintiff representing a class of current and former IHOP servers employed during the past four years.

On behalf of that proposed class, Corrales is seeking an award of damages including compensation for the meal and rest breaks denied to employees over the past four years. She also seeks reimbursement of her attorneys’ fees.

The IHOP Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit is Beatriz Corrales v. Torrahop Inc. et al., Case No. bc-619955, in the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles.

Overtime Rules in California

California wage and hour law dictates when employers must provide breaks, some of which are paid breaks.

Failure to provide breaks may not just violate that minimum break rule – it may also violate California’s overtime pay rules if accounting for the denied break time could push the employees’ hours beyond the threshold for overtime pay.

Generally, overtime rules in California provide for pay at one-and-a-half times the regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 8 in one day or 40 in one week.

That overtime pay increases to double the regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of 12 in one day or for every hour worked in excess of eight on the seventh consecutive day of work.

If failing to allow breaks results in unpaid overtime, the employer could also be on the hook for failing to pay overtime wages promptly.

Overtime pay is supposed to be paid by the payday for the next regular payroll period after which the overtime wages were earned.

Failing to pay overtime wages on time can subject the employer to liability for back wages and possibly other damages.

Join a Free California Overtime, Wage & Hour Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were forced to work off the clock or without overtime pay in California within the past 2 to 3 years, you have rights – and you don’t have to take on the company alone.

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