Unfair Treatment of Staff Leads to Hefty Fine for Wigle Whiskey

Wigle Whiskey has been ordered to pay nearly $39,000 to its employees. (Image: Google Street View)

The owners of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Wigle Whiskey were ordered by the U.S. Department of Labor to repay $38,951 to 41 of its servers after an investigation showed that they had been required to share tips with managers and supervisors, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Wednesday.

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division said Pittsburgh Distilling Co., which operates as Wigle Whiskey, violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by allowing managers to retain tips and failing to pay the tipped employees the appropriate overtime pay rate, per the Tribune-Review.

Meredith Meyer Grelli, a co-founder and owner of Wigle, said that the situation arose from a dispute with the Department of Labor over a rule that went into effect in December. Wigle Whiskey included an hourly, non-exempt floor manager at the distillery in the tip pool, Grelli said, adding that the employee worked 90% of his hours in direct service to customers during the pandemic.

“The DOL agreed that we did not intentionally violate the new rule,” Grelli said, according to the Tribune-Review. “We erroneously thought that the nature of his work and his contributions to the tip pool entitled him to share in the tips. We now understand that this is not in accordance with the DOL’s 2021 rule, and we have adapted our policies.”

Grelli said no tips were shared with senior management or exempt employees who were not involved in direct service.

“We are sorry for any disappointment we’ve caused in our mistake,” she said.

Federal law prohibits any employer, manager or supervisor from keeping any workers’ tips.

Wigle also gave $4 per hour overtime pay to its tipped employees, instead of the federal minimum wage of $7.25, and underpaid managers for overtime hours, the investigation showed.

“Food service workers rely on their hard-earned tips to make ends meet. Restaurant employers must understand that keeping workers’ tips or diverting a portion of these tips to managers or supervisors in a tip pool is illegal,” John DuMont, the wage and hour division district director in Pittsburgh, said, according to the Tribune-Review. “As restaurants struggle to fill the positions they need to keep their doors open, those who deny workers their rightful wages are likely to find it more difficult to retain and recruit workers than those employers who abide by the law.”

Wigle Whiskey addressed the issue in an Instagram post:

 

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