Olive Garden customers are often engaged in Tip Discrimination

CNBC

In the lawsuit, One Fair Wage said that Darden’s tipping policy causes its employees who are people of color to earn less than white employees. A poll of 200 Darden workers conducted by the advocacy group found that servers who are people of color made 18% less in tips per hour than white servers. The lawsuit also alleges that Darden’s policy gives managers the ability to influence servers’ wages because they can assign servers to shifts or seating sections that tend to result in lower tips.

“The cash wage policy is the direct cause, or at least a motivating cause, of this disparate impact,” the complaint said.

The advocacy group suggests several alternatives that could help, including pooling tips, adding a standard service charge to all bills or providing standards to customers that would minimize the role of race in tipping decisions. Darden’s current corporate policy allegedly does not allow managers to use different tipping systems.

“To be clear, this is not about Darden,” company spokesperson Rich Jeffers said in a statement to CNBC. “The complaint makes clear that their objections are with federal and state wage laws – not with our practices.”