Complaint filed against Darden for wage practice
An activist organization has filed an EEOC complaint against Orlando-based Darden Restaurants that argues the federally permitted minimum wage for tipped employees leads to discrimination against people of color and women.
A statement from Darden — which has more than 1,800 restaurants including Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and other chains — said the company believes the allegations are “baseless.”
Federal law allows businesses to pay tipped workers less than the minimum wage, and seven states have changed that, according to One Fair Wage, an organization that wants all employers to pay the full minimum wage.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, but for tipped workers it is $2.13 an hour.
In Florida, the minimum wage for tipped workers is $5.54 compared with the $8.56 basic minimum.
One Fair Wage provided a copy of the complaint against Darden Restaurants that argues having a policy encouraging customers to tip certain employees causes women to experience disproportionately higher sexual harassment than male coworkers. It also causes employees of color to earn less in tips than white coworkers, and female and male employees face more sexual harassment than those workers not subject to tip policies, the complaint says.
“It is time for the industry to move away from a system that is inherently biased,” said One Fair Wage president Saru Jayaraman. “Darden as a leader of the industry needs to make that move.”
Charges of racial discrimination and gender discrimination were also filed by workers in New York City and Washington D.C., according to One Fair Wage.
Darden, in its response to the allegations,
said tipped employees across the company’s brands earn on average more than $20 per hour. The company pointed out it had one of the “lowest hourly turnover rates in the industry — 50% better than the industry average.”
“Darden is a valuesbased company built on a culture of integrity and fairness, respect and caring, and a longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion,” the statement said.
Darden spokesman Rich Jeffers said half of the company’s restaurant managers are promoted from its hourly workforce and of that figure, 52% are women and 32% are people of color. More than 90% of Darden general managers are promoted from within, with 43% being women and 25% being people of color, he said. Jayaraman said the move was about
“proving a really new and important legal theory.”
“It’s not about particular people,” Jayaraman said. “It’s about a system or policy that’s inherently in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
This isn’t the first time Jayaraman has been at
odds with Darden. In 2011, Jayaraman was the co-director of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United when that group accused Darden’s Capital Grille chain of racial discrimination.