A State College restaurant will pay more than $100,000 to settle a class-action lawsuit filed six years ago by former delivery drivers who claimed they had wages unlawfully withheld from them.
Wings Over Happy Valley’s settlement with 11 named plaintiffs was filed Thursday in the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania following mediation.
The restaurant agreed to pay $106,388.18 as part of the settlement, $50,000 of which will go to the former employees’ attorney fees. The 11 named plaintiffs will receive a total of $56,388.18, with individual payments ranging from $184 to $15,969.
Five former employees filed the lawsuit in May 2017 and six others subsequently joined as party plaintiffs. They alleged that they were paid less than minimum wage but that the West Hamilton Avenue eatery required them to surrender 8% of their tips in an unapproved “tipping pool” to subsidize pay for other workers who did not customarily receive tips.
State and federal law allow an employer to pay tipped workers less than minimum wage if those employees retain all tips they receive. The exception is an authorized tip pool to be shared among all employees who regularly receive tips.
Wings Over Happy Valley denies any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. An attorney for the restaurant wrote in previous filings that drivers were never required to relinquish tips and that the tip pool was voluntary.