The Saucy Crab to Pay $105K - Back Wages

The U.S. Department of Labor recovered $105K from The Saucy Crab back wages and damages for 28 workers after the owner illegally withheld tips.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI (STL.News) The U.S. Department of Labor released the following information today about action they have taken against The Saucy Crab in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Employer: The Saucy Crab Grand Rapids LLC, operating as The Saucy Crab – Jixi Qiu, owner – 5039 28th St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI.
Action: Fair Labor Standards Act consent judgment and order
Courts: U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan
Findings: A federal court ordered The Saucy Crab and its owner, Jixi Qiu, to pay $105,000 in back wages and liquidated damages to 28 former employees of the Grand Rapids restaurant that ceased operating in October 2022.

The consent judgment and order entered on Oct. 3, 2024, resolves a complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Labor on July 14, 2023.

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that the restaurant and Qiu violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when they illegally used a tip pool and denied employees correct minimum and overtime wages from at least August 2020 through October 2022.

The court also ordered The Saucy Crab and Qiu to pay an additional $10,000 in civil money penalties for its willful FLSA violations. The consent judgment restrains and forbids the restaurant and Qiu from future violations of the FLSA’s tip pooling, minimum wage, overtime, and retaliation provisions.

Quotes: “The Saucy Crab’s owner took tips from servers and bartenders to benefit his company and denied servers, cooks, and dishwashers their fully earned wages. This judgment puts those wages back in the hands of former employees shortchanged by Qiu and the restaurant,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Mary O’Rourke in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “The Department of Labor will always protect the rights of workers in all industries to receive the pay they have rightfully earned.”

“The Saucy Crab joins a list of U.S. restaurant employers we’ve found shortchanging workers by misusing some of their tips,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Christine Heri in Chicago. “Federal law forbids employers from keeping employees’ tips – either direct from customers or shared in a tip pool – for any purpose.”

Attorney Haley R. Jenkins, who was in the department’s Regional Office of the Solicitor in Chicago, litigated the case.