NY's Most Expensive Restaurant Settles for $500,000 Over Unpaid Tips
Manhattan eatery Per Se—named the best restaurant in the city by The New York Times and the third most expensive restaurant in the world by The Daily Meal—has agreed to pay waitstaff $500,000 for allegedly withholding money from workers that a “reasonable patron” would consider to be tips, Reuters reports.
“Today’s agreement ensures that workers at Per Se will not continue to be cheated out of their hard-earned tips — tips that customers intended for them,” Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said in a statement Thursday. “And it reaffirms the right of satisfied restaurant-goers not to be misled about whether a ‘service charge’ is actually paid to workers as a tip, which the law requires.”
According to state investigators, Per Se violated New York labor laws by misrepresenting a 20% operational fee as a gratuity charge. From The New York Times:
The violations at Per Se, which lasted from January 2011 to September 2012, center on the language the restaurant used on bills for private dining events to describe an additional 20 percent charge. Per Se called it a “service charge,” terminology that could lead customers to believe it represented a tip for employees. The restaurant also told some customers who inquired that the extra charge was a gratuity, the attorney general’s office said.
In fact, the agreement said, Per Se used the money “towards the operational revenue of the restaurant.”
In doing so, the restaurant violated a state labor law that bars restaurants from collecting mandatory service charges that are purported to be tips for service staff members.
In a statement, Per Se denied underpaying its staff.
“Our employees were never short-changed and no monies intended for employees were withheld,” said the restaurant. “Our employees are among the best compensated in the restaurant industry because they are the best in the business.”
