Lawsuit accuses Surfside Beach sushi restaurant of running illegal tip pooling scheme, underpaying workers

SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — The owners of a Surfside Beach restaurant are being blamed for running an illegal tip pooling scheme and underpaying its workers below the state’s minimum wage.

Ashley Monahan, who worked as a server at Kings Sushi between May 2022 and October 2023, filed a lawsuit Monday in Horry County Common Pleas Court, suing for deprivation of wages and violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The suit also names an unspecified number of former employees as plaintiffs. The restaurant on Wednesday could not immediately be reached for comment.

The restaurant paid Monahan and others an hourly wage while taking a “tip credit” for duties that didn’t produce one, according to the suit.

“The Defendants failed to pay Plaintiff or other severs any hourly wages (not even $2.13 an hour) and only used customers’ tips to pay the Plaintiff or other servers for their work,” the complaint says.

During the restaurant’s busiest time of year between April through September, Kings Sushi owners would hold back base and overtime pay, forcing them to rely solely on tips.

“Defendants had a policy that required Plaintiff … to remit from the tips they received, a portion of their tips at the end of each shift into the mandatory tip pool,” according to the lawsuit.

The restaurant’s policy required servers to pay $10 in cash to any busboys who worked a shift with them, if the server chose not to bus all of their own tables.

They also had to give 3% of all customers sales to the kitchen staff to help cover labor costs, according to the complaint.

Servers were also obligated to clean bathrooms and back of house areas while not being paid at least the federal $7.25 an hour minimum wage, the complaint alleges.

Monahan is seeking three times the full amount of her deducted wages, plus costs and attorney’s fees.

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay at least minimum wage, plus time and half for overtime if any worker exceeds 40 hours of weekly work.

Restaurants are permitted to pay less than minimum wage and take tip credits, but only for tip-producing work.

Monahan is asking for a jury trial.

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Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12 . See more of his work here .

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