AUSTIN, Texas — Austin-based bakery and restaurant Easy Tiger has taken some heat recently for withholding tips from some of its employees.
In August 2023, the restaurant was notified by the Department of Labor (DOL) that the tip pool program it had been using at its South Lamar location was incorrect. From August 2022 through August 2023, Easy Tiger included back-of-the-house employees like cooks, prep cooks and dishwashers in the tip pool program.
Easy Tiger took to social media to apologize to its workers, saying that it never intended to pay its employees less than what they were entitled to. In the apology, Easy Tiger said that it mistakenly thought including back-of-the-house staff in the tip pool was allowed.
After the DOL reviewed the company’s payroll records from 2022-2023, Easy Tiger said it paid current and past front-of-house employees like servers and bartenders, for the discrepancy. The restaurant won’t try to reclaim the overpayment of tips from the back-of-house staff.
KVUE talked to a former Easy Tiger employee who said over the years she’s worked there, even before this specific issue, she and other employees were frustrated over the restaurant’s tipping protocols.
“I never really understood how we were getting paid to be quite fair, and there was actually a lot of like little things where they would cut corners, I think to like, make it easier on them,” Peaches Rose said.
Easy Tiger said it's now conducting audits of its LINC and East Seventh Street locations to make sure there were no other misallocations of tips there too.
In the social media apology, the restaurant addressed its team:
“To our team – we are sincerely sorry, and we are implementing new policies to make sure this never happens again. Please know, we never intended to pay our employees less than they were entitled to from their hard work and commitment to you, our customers.”
The restaurant said its tip pool program now complies with the DOL's policies and only includes eligible employees. KVUE also asked Easy Tiger what new policies it would be implementing to make sure this doesn’t happen again, and the restaurant said it will be recommitting to quarterly all-hands meetings to make sure it addresses any issues that may arise.