Is this legal (SC worker)?
Greetings everyone! On a burner account for this question.
So I was working in a bakery in South Carolina up until a few days ago. Left under duress due to the shop owner just being a very not nice dude. Had a question regarding tips.
Well, when I started back in February, it was mentioned that tips that were collected were not shared but instead, staff was able to eat/drink as much as they wanted during their shift. After doing the math, during our slow days (Weds/Thurs, closed Mon/Tues) we averaged about $100 in tips on cards. The busy days (Fri-Sun), we would make usually $200 per day with at the most 5 staff on shift (3 in the front of house, two in the back). The owner pockets the tips flat out. When asked about it by staff, he said that was part of the "agreement" of working their. After working for a few months, I realized he pocketed them to offset his losses. His "reasoning" is also that since he gives Christmas bonuses, that is supplemented by the tips.
One of my coworkers also mentioned that they work making "server" pay for 1/3 of their pay, and the remaining 2/3 is pulled from tips. For example, if they work 30 hours,they get paid $7/hrs for 10 hours only, and the remaining 2/3 is in tips.
I hope thats enough information. Do I have a case against this awful owner? Thank you all!