Little Big Burger to pay more than $300K over stolen tips

Little Big Burger will pay more than $316,000 for illegally forcing workers to give part of their tips to managers.

Management at the local burger chain “knew about federal regulations for tip pools but willfully required workers to share their earned tips,” the U.S. Department of Labor said.

Little Big Burger must pay double the unpaid wages under a May 8 federal judgment.

The burger joint will have to pay more than $148,000 in unpaid tips, $148,000 in damages to employees and a $20,000 penalty to the Department of Labor.

Little Big Burger illegally withheld tips over three years, from February 2019 to February 2022.

The company withheld $83,000 in tips meant for employees at nine Portland locations. Four of the Portland locations have since closed.

Under the leadership of Fred Glick, Mike Pruitt and Adrian Oca, executives at Little Big Burger and its parent company, the burger chain illegally withheld more than $12,000 in tips meant for workers at the Orenco Station location in Hillsboro. Workers at the Progress Ridge location in Beaverton lost more than $20,000 in tips, while Lake Oswego workers lost more than $9,000.

The Department of Labor also found tip violations at Eugene and Seattle locations.

Between the 14 locations investigated by the Department of Labor, 581 employees did not receive all the tips they earned.

“Oregon’s Little Big Burger joins a list of shameful U.S. restaurant employers we’ve found shortchanging workers by misusing some of their tips to pay managers not allowed to pocket tips,” Regional Solicitor of Labor Marc Pilotin in San Francisco said in a DOL press release. “Federal law forbids employers from keeping employees’ tips — either direct from customers or shared in a tip pool — for any purpose.”

Little Big Burger did not respond to a request for comment.

The burger chain started in Portland in 2010 and was purchased by Chanticleer Holdings in 2015. Amergent Hospitality Group, a subsidiary of Chanticleer Holdings, owns and operates restaurants including Little Big Burger.

Amergent and Little Big Burger have struggled financially in recent years, closing locations in Portland, Seattle and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Portland employees launched a union campaign in 2019, but lost the vote that summer after multiple employees were fired.