TikToker and former food service worker Grace Ray (@grace.rayy) delineated “the craziest 2 days” of her and her co-workers’ lives in a viral TikTok that’s accrued over 300,000 views as of Friday.
In her clip, the content creator who describes herself as “a girl born 2 b famous” animatedly speaks into the camera while seated in her car and rattles off allegations of tip theft from her former employer. The establishment’s stealing from workers, she claims, was so blatant and severe that it prompted 15 employees of the establishment to immediately quit their jobs within just two days.
The Daily Dot has reported on previous instances, such as this one, where food service workers have called out management for withholding tips from employees. As per the United States Department of Labor, this practice is categorically illegal: “Labor Law Section 196-d applies to all private sector employees in all industries and prohibits an employer or their agent from demanding or accepting, directly or indirectly, any tip left for an employee, or retaining any part of a charge purported to be a tip.”
It’s due to laws such as these that Ray alleges her previous employer could be in legal trouble if they are indeed found guilty of withholding tips from employees.
Disappearing tips
“I honestly have been wanting to leave for just like a while now ’cause I wasn’t really making that much,” she says in her clip. “And once I saw all my friends leave I [was] kind of like, ‘No, I’ll leave too.’”
She says it began when “all of the girls started realizing that their money was getting f*cked with and like they would turn in $500 in tips and only get like $200 back.”
Ray claims her employer implemented new tip-outs, “which meant there was more percentage of their money being taken out for random things that just didn’t make sense.”
“Everyone was kinda getting confused and then we got a new system and no one got their money for like almost an entire month,” Ray says. “These people have kids and sh*t and…they were not getting money, like thousands and thousands of dollars just like not being given to them.”
She says she first became aware of the issue after seeing her co-workers call out management in the group chat to no avail.
“Management was like, ‘Yeah, sorry I don’t know.’ And so everyone was like, ‘OK bye b*tch,’” she says. “One security walked out that day, one bartender walked out that day, and then the entire server staff. I’m not even being dramatic I think we only have like three girls left.”
@grace.rayy this has been the craziest 2 days of our lives😭
♬ original sound – grace
In addition to the tip-out issues, Ray says there are deeper issues at play, involving “legal type sh*t,” but did not go into further detail.
Viewers weigh in
Several TikTokers who responded to the video seemed just as shocked as Ray was about the situation.
One person replied, “NAHHH all u guys that quit need to sue.”
Whereas another remarked, “Please contact a local lawyer and get your support a huge bag you dont even have to pay the lawyer unless you win.”
Another person responded that this is just the nature of what it’s like working in the restaurant industry, sharing, “Dude restaurant jobs are so crazy I can’t.”
There were several people in the comments section who remarked that they knew the establishment Ray was referring to, and the Daily Dot has reached out to the establishment via email to confirm whether or not this is the case.
The Daily Dot has also reached out to Ray via email for further comment.
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