Point Brugge Cafe, a popular Belgian eatery in Pittsburgh's Point Breeze Neighborhood, earns raving reviews from patrons on Yelp, but received a poor report from a recent Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division investigation. The division's representatives allegedly found a number of payroll practices that did not comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which guarantees employees benefit from basic rights, such as minimum wage and overtime pay.

At Point Brugge Cafe, servers were being asked to participate in illegal tip pools - paying out a portion of their earned gratuity to non-tipped dishwashers - and cover the costs of register shortages that cause their hourly earnings to fall below minimum wage. To comply with the FLSA, tipped employees must receive at least $7.25 per hour, including their hourly pay rate and gratuity. However, restaurants are only required to pay these employees $2.13 per hour, unless their tips do not push their total hourly earnings above that base minimum. When that is the case, employers are responsible for covering the difference.

"Unfortunately, labor violations like the ones we found in this case are all too common in the restaurant industry," said John DuMont, the Pittsburgh office's Wage and Hour Division director.

Following the investigation, the employers paid 39 workers a total of $37,719 in back wages for the labor rights violations. 

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