Migliaccio & Rathod LLP is investigating whether Story Cannabis dispensary employees may have been required to share customer tips with managers, supervisors, or other employees who were not legally permitted to participate in the tip pool.
Public employee reports indicate that Story Cannabis uses a pooled-tip system at certain locations. One employee reported that individual employees did not keep all of the tips they received and that tips were instead placed into a pool and distributed among other workers, including back-of-house employees.
Story Cannabis also operates dispensaries with a hierarchy that includes retail associates or budtenders, store leads, Shift Supervisors, Assistant General Managers, and General Managers. Public employee information indicates that certain Shift Supervisors may have responsibilities involving store funds and employee hiring.
Federal law generally prohibits qualifying managers and supervisors from keeping portions of other employees’ tips, including through a tip pool. Whether a particular employee qualifies as a manager or supervisor depends on the employee’s actual duties and authority.
Migliaccio & Rathod is investigating whether Story Cannabis employees with managerial or supervisory authority participated in tip pools with budtenders and other non-managerial employees.
Employees Report:
- Customer tips being combined into a common tip pool;
- Tips being distributed beyond the employees who directly received them;
- Back-of-house employees receiving portions of pooled tips;
- Shift Supervisors working alongside tipped dispensary employees;
- Supervisory employees exercising authority over other workers; and
- Employees not always knowing how their share of pooled tips was calculated.
Potential Claims May Include:
- Improper manager or supervisor participation in employee tip pools;
- Unlawful retention of employee tips;
- Failure to distribute tips properly;
- Violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act;
- Violations of applicable state wage laws; and
- Recovery of tips or other compensation owed to employees.
Signs You May Be Affected:
- You worked for Story Cannabis as a budtender, retail associate, store lead, Shift Supervisor, or similar employee;
- Your dispensary pooled customer tips;
- Shift Supervisors or managers received portions of the tip pool;
- A tipped supervisor regularly directed or supervised other employees;
- A tipped supervisor participated in hiring, discipline, evaluations, or promotions; or
- You were not provided a clear explanation of how pooled tips were distributed.
If you have encountered these issues, we would like to hear from you. Please complete the contact form on this page, send us an email at [email protected], or give us a call.