Chickie’s and Pete’s.
Photo: Chickie’s & Pete’s/Facebook
More than 1,100 current and former employees of the Philadelphia-based Chickie’s and Pete’s restaurant chain will be paid $8.5 million in back wages and damages, while another 90 employees are set to receive a combined $1.7 million in damages, in what the U.S. Labor Department calls the “largest wage-and-tip violation case in agency history.” For years, officials say staff members were required to pool a percentage of their tips, with some going to the bartenders and the rest going illegally into the owners’ pockets. The tip thievery was so widespread and common that employees, who were also denied overtime and required to purchase their own uniforms, referred to it as “Pete’s Tax.” [ABC Philadelphia]
