Kim and Sorenson v. CHT Corp. and Charlie Trotter

Outcome: Settlement on Class-Wide Basis

Description: This case was filed as a class action by servers and a chef employed at the restaurant “Charlie Trotter’s” in Chicago. The employees claimed that Charlie Trotter used an illegal tip pool by retaining a portion of the tips and by requiring servers to share their tips with non-tipped employees. The employees also claimed the Charlie Trotter engaged in a complicated scheme to exclude certain “bonus” payments from employees’ regular rates of pay for purposes of calculating overtime pay. The settlement is believed to the one of the largest wage and hour settlement in the restaurant industry in Illinois history. For more information on tip pooling and how to calculate overtime pay for tipped employees, see www.flsalaw.com/practice_areas/overtime_pay_tipped_employees_lawyer.php