Migliaccio & Rathod LLP is investigating whether Schwazze / Star Buds dispensary employees may have shared customer tips with managers, supervisors, or other employees who were not legally permitted to participate in employee tip pools.
Public employment materials confirm that tips are a meaningful part of compensation for certain Star Buds employees. Star Buds has advertised non-exempt hourly positions with earning potential that specifically includes tips, and company recruiting materials have described cannabis retail as a “tipped industry.”
Federal law generally prohibits qualifying managers and supervisors from keeping portions of other employees’ tips, including through a pooled-tip arrangement. This can apply even when a supervisor is paid hourly or spends part of the workday performing the same customer-facing work as budtenders.
Migliaccio & Rathod is investigating whether Shift Leads, keyholders, assistant managers, store managers, or other supervisory employees at Star Buds received portions of tips pooled from hourly dispensary employees.
Employees May Have Experienced:
- Receiving cash or electronic tips from dispensary customers;
- Having customer tips combined into a common pool;
- Sharing tips with Shift Leads, keyholders, or other supervisory employees;
- Managers or assistant managers participating in tip distributions;
- Tipped supervisory employees directing the work of budtenders; and
- Not receiving a clear accounting of how pooled tips were divided.
Potential Claims May Include:
- Improper manager or supervisor participation in employee tip pools;
- Unlawful retention of employee tips;
- Failure to properly distribute pooled tips;
- 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 Star Buds, Schwazze, or a related dispensary operation;
- Your dispensary accepted customer tips;
- Your tips were pooled with tips received by other employees;
- Shift Leads, keyholders, assistant managers, or managers received portions of pooled tips;
- A tipped employee regularly directed other workers or ran shifts; or
- A tipped employee exercised authority over scheduling, discipline, hiring, evaluations, or promotions.
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.