Q: Can a business owner of a restaurant require their servers to engage in minimum wage work responsibilities
Answering phone calls while taking tables
A:
Restaurant employers are allowed to pay servers less than minimum wage if the servers’ wages plus their tips add up to at least the minimum wage for each hour worked. This is called a “tip credit.”
However, if a server performs non-tipped work for more than 2 hours OR more than 20% of their shift, whichever is less, the employer cannot take the tip credit for any hours the server worked that day.
You can read more about the legal protections for tipped employees at
https://www.workingnowandthen.com/new-york-wage-theft/new-york-tips/
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