March 15, 2016

New York announced a settlement with the owner of two Manhattan restaurants for wage underpayments. The owner, Wallace Lai, admitted to a number of labor law violations, including keeping tips intended for delivery workers after customers ordered through online delivery services. From May 2014 until January 2015, the restaurants delivered food to customers through the food delivery websites Delivery.com, GrubHub.com, and Seamless.com. Through those websites, customers paid with credit cards, typically including a tip for delivery workers. Lai unlawfully kept the tips charged through the sites – never paying them to the delivery workers as customers intended. New York Labor Law prohibits employers from keeping any part of the tips that are intended for service employees, including delivery workers. NY