What is the name of your state? Nebraska
I have been employed at a small town coffee shop/eatery for the last 4+ years. I work 3 days during the week from 6:30 am until 3 or 4 pm. Besides opening the restaurant everyday (alongside a cook) I am also the only employee in the front. Besides being a restaurant with a full menu for breakfast and lunch, we are also a specialty coffee shop and an old fashioned ice cream parlor. That means not only am I the only waitress, I am also the only barista, as well as a soda jerk when necessary, the busgirl, and the cashier. Everyday I have to seat customers, take their orders, make their drinks, (including lattes, cappuccinos, brevés, shakes, malts, smoothies, etc), deliver their food, figure their checks, clear their tables, and cash them out at the cash register. We are not a huge restaurant with 9 tables that seat 4 each, and an additional bar area that can seat up to 8 more, but we do have 2 additional seating rooms upstairs that are often booked ahead of time for company meetings etc. And this is just during breakfast. At 9 am we have a dishwasher that comes in everyday. In the summertime when we are even busier, one of the highschool kids will come in at lunch time to work with me. There are days that I definitely appreciate an extra body running around, but usually it just makes more work for me because I have to also do their jobs in order to make sure customers are taken care of properly. The point I'm trying to make is that I work hard. For all my hard work, I am paid $5 an hour and have been since I started. (Minimum wage for tipped employees in Nebraska is $2.13 so why am I complaining?) I am supposed to be provided with a meal for each meal shift i work- so I should get breakfast and lunch every day. This does not give me access to the menu items. I am usually offered toast or a single pancake. Not a meal. I am never offered lunch. If I want something to eat(I usually just skip it) I get it myself. Now for the tips. We have a shared tip jar that all the tips go in. After breakfast they are divided up- preferably by me- but sometimes the ow ner takes the jar and does it out of sight-the back gets 30% and the rest is divided up front. 10% goes to the dishwasher and 20% to the cook- which includes the owner on the days that she is the cook. Those 2 positions are not paid minimum wage- so the tips are supposed to get them up to where their pay is supposed to be. As if all of this isn't bad enough, 2 years ago, my employer informed us (wait staff) that he was switching us from employees to independent contractors and would no longer be taking taxes out of our checks. I wasn't able to even file a return 2 years ago to report my income because I was never provided with a 1099 to send in. I missed out on an $8000+ tax return. Last year I just kept a record of all I was paid and filed with a 1099 I made myself, but it was rejected so there is another $7000 I missed out on and I'm not sure where to go to from here. I loved my job and I liked the people I work for, but lately it's become blatantly obvious that I'm just a cog in their dirty dirty wheel and I'm tired of it. Do I have any chance of getting back some of my lost wages at least? Invite greatly appreciated.
I have been employed at a small town coffee shop/eatery for the last 4+ years. I work 3 days during the week from 6:30 am until 3 or 4 pm. Besides opening the restaurant everyday (alongside a cook) I am also the only employee in the front. Besides being a restaurant with a full menu for breakfast and lunch, we are also a specialty coffee shop and an old fashioned ice cream parlor. That means not only am I the only waitress, I am also the only barista, as well as a soda jerk when necessary, the busgirl, and the cashier. Everyday I have to seat customers, take their orders, make their drinks, (including lattes, cappuccinos, brevés, shakes, malts, smoothies, etc), deliver their food, figure their checks, clear their tables, and cash them out at the cash register. We are not a huge restaurant with 9 tables that seat 4 each, and an additional bar area that can seat up to 8 more, but we do have 2 additional seating rooms upstairs that are often booked ahead of time for company meetings etc. And this is just during breakfast. At 9 am we have a dishwasher that comes in everyday. In the summertime when we are even busier, one of the highschool kids will come in at lunch time to work with me. There are days that I definitely appreciate an extra body running around, but usually it just makes more work for me because I have to also do their jobs in order to make sure customers are taken care of properly. The point I'm trying to make is that I work hard. For all my hard work, I am paid $5 an hour and have been since I started. (Minimum wage for tipped employees in Nebraska is $2.13 so why am I complaining?) I am supposed to be provided with a meal for each meal shift i work- so I should get breakfast and lunch every day. This does not give me access to the menu items. I am usually offered toast or a single pancake. Not a meal. I am never offered lunch. If I want something to eat(I usually just skip it) I get it myself. Now for the tips. We have a shared tip jar that all the tips go in. After breakfast they are divided up- preferably by me- but sometimes the ow ner takes the jar and does it out of sight-the back gets 30% and the rest is divided up front. 10% goes to the dishwasher and 20% to the cook- which includes the owner on the days that she is the cook. Those 2 positions are not paid minimum wage- so the tips are supposed to get them up to where their pay is supposed to be. As if all of this isn't bad enough, 2 years ago, my employer informed us (wait staff) that he was switching us from employees to independent contractors and would no longer be taking taxes out of our checks. I wasn't able to even file a return 2 years ago to report my income because I was never provided with a 1099 to send in. I missed out on an $8000+ tax return. Last year I just kept a record of all I was paid and filed with a 1099 I made myself, but it was rejected so there is another $7000 I missed out on and I'm not sure where to go to from here. I loved my job and I liked the people I work for, but lately it's become blatantly obvious that I'm just a cog in their dirty dirty wheel and I'm tired of it. Do I have any chance of getting back some of my lost wages at least? Invite greatly appreciated.
