2 Florida restaurants kept staff tips to cover dine-and-dash customers and illegally charged workers for their uniforms, the DOL says

• Two restaurants in Florida kept servers' tips to cover dine-and-dash customers, the DOL said.
• They also charged workers for their uniforms, meaning some were paid less than the minimum wage.
• A total of $190,730 in back wages and liquidated damages was recovered for the workers, per the DOL.

Two restaurants in Florida kept servers' tips and illegally charged workers for their uniforms, the Department of Labor (DOL) said on Thursday.

The DOL said that the two Mexican restaurants in St. Petersburg, a city in the Tampa Bay area, withheld tips earned by bartenders and servers to pay for customers who skipped out on their bills, which it said ranged from $10 to $175 per day.