TikTok user and former food service employee Grace RayGrace Ray), described the “craziest two days” of her and her coworkers’ lives in a TikTok video that had been viewed more than 300,000 times as of Friday.
In the video, the content creator, who calls herself “the girl born famous,” animatedly talks to the camera while sitting in her car as she recounts allegations of tip theft by her former employer. She says the theft from employees was so blatant and severe that 15 employees immediately quit their jobs in just two days.
The Daily Dot has reported on previous cases like this one where food service workers have called out management for not giving tips to employees. U.S. Department of LaborBut this practice is completely illegal. “Labor Code Section 196-d applies to all private sector employees in any industry and prohibits an employer or his agent from directly or indirectly soliciting or accepting tips left by an employee or from withholding any portion of fees charged as tips.”
Ray argues that such laws could put her in legal trouble if her former employer is convicted of hiding tips from employees.
Disappearing Tips
“Honestly, I’d been wanting to quit for a while now because I wasn’t making that much,” she says in the video. “I saw all my friends quitting. [was] “I was like, ‘No, I’m going too.’
She said it started when “all the girls started realizing they were being scammed out of their money, and that for every $500 they gave in tips they were only getting $200 back.”
Ms Ray claims her employer has introduced a new tipping system “which means more and more money is being taken for things that don’t make sense”.
“Everybody was kind of confused, and then they put in a new system and nobody got their money for almost a month,” Ray said. “These people had kids and they didn’t get any money. Thousands of dollars, like they weren’t even given to them.”
She said she first became aware of the problem when she saw colleagues criticizing management in a group chat.
“Management was like, ‘Uh, sorry, I don’t know,’ and then everyone was like, ‘OK, bye-bye,'” she said. “One security guard quit that day, one bartender quit, and then the whole server staff quit. And I’m not exaggerating when I say there were only like three girls left.”
Grace Ray Those were the craziest two days of my life😭
In addition to the tipping issue, Lay said there were more serious issues, including “legal issues,” but did not provide further details.
Viewers’ opinions
Several TikTok users who responded to the video seemed just as shocked by the situation as Ray was.
One person replied: “No, they should sue everyone who quit.”
Meanwhile, another person commented: “Contact a local lawyer and put a lot of money into helping you. You don’t even have to pay a lawyer unless you win.”
Another person replied that this is what it’s like working in the restaurant industry, posting: “Restaurant work is too busy for me.”
Several people in the comments section said they knew the organization Ray was referring to, and The Daily Dot reached out to the organization via email to confirm whether that was the case.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Ray via email for further comment.
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Jack Alban
Jack Alban is a freelance journalist for the Daily Dot, covering trending human interest/social media stories and real people’s reactions to them. He always strives to create not-so-ordinary viral posts by incorporating evidence-based research, current events, and facts relevant to these stories.
