As a former waiter, bartender and yogurt store employee, I’m all about tips. I’ve made my living that way and certainly try to pay forward the generosity I received in my service industry days.

There are more opportunities and requests to tip than ever before. Under Illinois law, tips are the property of employees. Your manager, supervisor or the owner can’t take them. The Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act makes this crystal clear. Gratuities belong to the workers who earn them.

Despite this law, and despite owners and managers knowing this law, tip theft happens all of the time in Illinois. And it’s not just them taking money from the tip jar and pocketing it, or doing things like using it for staff appreciation parties.

In one case we’ve been involved with, a restaurant owner was taking 10% of all credit card tips and using that money to pay for house staff such as the cooks. This is highly illegal.

This type of nonsense is happening hundreds of times every year in Illinois. Many workers simply do not know their rights so they go along with whatever the boss says. That’s not how the law works. And even if you agree to it doesn’t mean that you can’t go back and get the money that was stolen from you. In one study, 57% of workers said that they had to tip out their managers. That’s nuts.

And to be clear, when they take your tips, they are in fact stealing. The money doesn’t belong to them or anyone else who hasn’t earned it. One attorney we know who brings these wage theft lawsuits says that in almost every restaurant around some sort of violation exists. And that includes the big chains as well as the mom and pop type places.

The law also doesn’t change if you are an undocumented worker, a relative of the owner, a minor or anyone else. Plainly stated, tips belong to the people who earned them.

The other way employers steal is by having tipped workers do work that they aren’t compensated for and don’t involve their duties in which tips are earned.

The good news is that these problems are solvable and it doesn’t cost anything to get a great attorney to represent you and go after the money you are owed. If you’d like our help with that please call us any time to speak with a lawyer at 312-346-5320. We cover all of Illinois.