Employees at a Chili’s location in New York City have filed a proposed class action lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York against parent company Brinker International, alleging that the subminimum wage policy led to a discriminatory work environment.
The three plaintiffs, who worked at a Chili’s in Glendale, Queens for varying time periods between 2017 and 2026, claim that the company’s use of the tipped minimum wage and customer performance ratings policy fostered a workplace atmosphere where female servers and employees of color had to tolerate sexism and racism for tips and to receive good customer scores.
“Brinker promotes a culture in which tipped service employees make customers ‘feel special,’ even at the expense of their dignity and safety,” the lawsuit alleges. “Brinker management has perpetuated a work environment where harmful and abusive sexual harassment against female tipped service employees substantially interferes with the ability to do their jobs, causes them emotional distress, and puts them in a position of having to tolerate the conduct so as not to affect their pay.”
For example, plaintiffs claimed that customers would repeatedly ask if they had boyfriends, and asked them out on a date. They also stated that they were required to wear branded t-shirts with the words “Big and Crispy” printed on their chest (referring to the Chili’s Big and Crispy chicken sandwich), and that customers would frequently make innuendos referring to their bodies when they were wearing these t-shirts. One plaintiff alleged that when a regular customer asked if she “still had a boyfriend” and she answered in the affirmative, he tipped her less than usual.
The lawsuit also claims that managers would accuse customers of color of “not tipping as much as white customers,” and would subsequently seat Black or Latino customers in the server sections of two of the plaintiffs, who are Latina.
The plaintiffs allege that when they brought concerns about harassment to their managers, the managers “did nothing” and when one plaintiff’s customer scores started dropping, “managers took away her shifts, refused to let her pick up other shifts, and gave her prior shifts to another server.”
The lawsuit states that, because Brinker follows the state tipped wage policy, “in order to make a living wage, these tipped service employees are subject to customers’ whims and must stay in their customers’ good graces.”
The original tip credit rule — which allowed employers to pay tipped employees a reduced wage of $2.13 per hour — was replaced during the Biden administration in 2021 by the 80/20 rule. That updated rule only allowed employers to pay their employees the subminimum wage while workers were performing tip-earning tasks.
In 2024, the 2021 updated rule was struck down in federal court for being “both arbitrary and capricious,” and now employers again allowed to pay tipped employees a subminimum wage. Employers only need to supplement workers’ wages if a worker does not receive the rest of the federally mandated minimum wage in gratuities or if a state law says otherwise.
The Brinker filing is also not the only time the tip credit has been at the center of a lawsuit. In 2021, nonprofit group One Fair Wage sued Olive Garden parent company Darden Restaurants, claiming that Darden’s tipping practices, including tip pooling and the tip credit, led to racial and sex-based discrimination. The lawsuit was dismissed because One Fair Wage does not represent a direct party subject to these claims, though the organization has since filed an appeal.
In New York City, the minimum wage at the time of the Brinker legal filing is $17 an hour, with a maximum tip credit of $5.65 per hour. New York State eliminated the tip credit for certain industries in 2020, but kept it in place for foodservice employees. A bill introduced earlier this year proposes a $30 minimum wage in place 2030 that would also entirely eliminate the tip credit.
The plaintiffs intend to seek a nationwide class of female tipped employees and tipped employees of color at Brinker restaurants across New York State. They are asking the court to declare New York’s tipped wage provisions unenforceable when they conflict with local anti-discrimination laws. They also seek an injunction barring Brinker from paying a subminimum wage, as well as compensatory and punitive damages.
“We are aware of the lawsuit and take the allegations seriously,” a representative for Chili’s said in an emailed statement. “We believe every Chili’s team member deserves care and respect. We will carefully review the complaint and respond to the specific allegations through the appropriate process.”
Contact Joanna at [email protected]
