Three former servers at a Chili’s restaurant in Glendale, Queens have filed a proposed class action against Brinker International, Inc., the Dallas-based company that owns and operates the Chili’s chain. The lawsuit, Diaz v. Brinker International, Inc., alleges that Brinker’s practice of paying tipped workers at a sub-minimum wage, along with its use of customer ratings to decide who gets the best shifts, leaves women exposed to sexual harassment and workers of color exposed to race discrimination, in violation of the New York State Human Rights Law and the New York City Human Rights Law.
Under New York Law, restaurants in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester may pay food service workers an hourly wage of $11.35 per hour, rather than the minimum wage is $17.00, and apply customer tips toward the difference through the tip credit. In the remainder of New York State, the minimum cash wage for tipped food service employees is $10.70, compared to $16.00 for non-tipped employees. The federal tipped wage is only $2.13 per hour and has not changed since 1991. The complaint points to an MIT estimate that a single adult with no children needs $35.22 per hour to support themselves in Queens, meaning a server earning the tipped wage must count on customers for roughly two-thirds of a living income.
According to the plaintiffs, their dependence on tips effectively forced them to tolerate customer harassment or risk losing income. They describe customers routinely asked them out, commented on their bodies, and asked them about their sex lives. Two plaintiffs allege that they were required to buy and wear Chili’s-branded t-shirts printed with the words “BIG AND CRISPY” across their chest, which customers turned into sexual innuendo. One plaintiff says a customer asked whether she was “on the menu” and, after she said no, left her a $2 tip and told her to “keep the change.” The plaintiffs further allege that managers failed to step in and at times joined in, including an incident in which two managers laughed when a male bartender said that one of the plaintiffs “must be sucking off” the male patrons “under the table” to receive tips. The complaint cites the UC Berkeley Food Labor Research Center, finding that 76% of female tipped workers report sexual harassment in the restaurant industry, compared with 52% of women who do not rely on tips.
The lawsuit also discusses Brinker’s customer rating system. After each meal, customers are asked to rate their server on a scale of one to five, and managers publish a weekly score for each server based on the share of top ratings. Servers with higher scores allegedly receive more shifts, more tables, and the busy evening and weekend shifts where tips are highest. The plaintiffs claim that customers tip and rate servers of color lower than white servers, therefore a system built on those ratings carried the same bias into pay and scheduling. One plaintiff says her shifts were taken away and given to another server after her score dropped in August 2025.
The plaintiffs seek to represent two classes at Brinker’s 26 New York restaurants: female tipped employees and tipped employees of color. They are asking the court to declare that New York’s tipped minimum wage provision cannot be enforced because it conflicts with the state and city human rights laws, to bar Brinker from paying a subminimum wage, and to award damages, including for emotional distress. The plaintiffs have also filed charges with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and plan to expand the case into a nationwide class action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, a federal law that makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against job applicants or employees based on protected characteristics such as race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
Tipped workers in New York have important protections. If your tips and hourly minimum wage do not reach the full minimum wage for any week, your employer must make up the difference. Employers may also be held responsible for harassment by customers when they know about it and failed to take prompt corrective action, and it is unlawful to cut a worker’s hours or shifts for making a complaint about harassment or discrimination.
If you believe you have been harassed, discriminated against, or underpaid at work, contact our attorneys at 212-583-9500. Pechman Law Group has recovered more than $30 million for restaurant workers and is nationally recognized for fighting to protect the rights of employees.
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