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Post by *Shannon on Jun 30, 2018 2:18:44 GMT
I have never worked in a full service restaurant, so I don't know how things work, what's expected, etc.
My daughter recently started her first job at a restaurant. She is a busser. She went in at 7:00am and is still not being let go. Currently, that's 13 hrs. She had a lunch break w/a free meal and a short break. (She just texted, manager said she could go at 9:00 - 14 hr shift.)
She worked last night until 11:30 and was in at 7:00 this morning. She goes in tomorrow at 7:00am.
She's scheduled this Sunday from 7am to 8pm. She said that she has a scheduled one hr time off "between shifts."
Our state law says:
"Minors (anyone under the age of 18) may not work more than 40 hours per week or 8 hours in any 24-hour period unless there is a business emergency."
I have an issue with "business emergency." Does that mean that any time they are understaffed they can keep her for however long they need her?
Are the hours they are expecting her to work, as a minor, in the norm?
If it matters, it's nation-wide chain - well, it's not on the west coast, so 2/3 of the nation.
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Post by christine58 on Jun 30, 2018 2:23:13 GMT
Totally illegal.
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scrappinwithoutpeas
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,215 
Location: Northern Virginia
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Post by scrappinwithoutpeas on Jun 30, 2018 2:23:30 GMT
No, I don't think those hours are normal. She can work 2 4-hour shifts with a break in between or 1 8-hour shift. A lack of scheduling/hiring enough people to cover the volume of restaurant guests day after day is NOT a "business emergency". You DD needs to bring this up with the manager, and go up the chain if necessary (to the HQ office).
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Post by Merge on Jun 30, 2018 2:23:45 GMT
It sounds like they're giving her mandatory double shifts. That's probably not OK. I used to pull doubles waiting tables in college - but that was my choice, and I was over 18.
She should talk to her manager and ask what's going on. No one can sustain those hours indefinitely.
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Post by mom on Jun 30, 2018 2:27:06 GMT
Has your daughter requested to have all the hours? Not that it makes it ok, but it might explain why.
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Post by *Shannon on Jun 30, 2018 2:31:40 GMT
Thank you for your responses, ladies. It just doesn't feel right. I'm sure she'll say that although she's exhausted, she's ok with it - she's making a lot of money. I'll have a talk with her. She is about to take almost two weeks off, so maybe that plays a part. But, the law is the law and she is a minor.
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Post by *Shannon on Jun 30, 2018 2:35:27 GMT
Has your daughter requested to have all the hours? Not that it makes it ok, but it might explain why. As far as I know, she has requested more shifts, but not 14 hr shifts. Sunday is the first time she's been scheduled for crazy hrs. All the other times, she was just kept past when she was supposed to leave. Like today, was supposed to leave at 4:30... now it's 9:00. |
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Post by *Shannon on Jun 30, 2018 2:38:29 GMT
Another question... should she be paid time and a half over 8 hrs?
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Post by mom on Jun 30, 2018 2:42:07 GMT
Another question... should she be paid time and a half over 8 hrs? Nope. Time and a half comes in after 40 hours. SaveSave |
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Post by mom on Jun 30, 2018 2:44:06 GMT
Has your daughter requested to have all the hours? Not that it makes it ok, but it might explain why. As far as I know, she has requested more shifts, but not 14 hr shifts. Sunday is the first time she's been scheduled for crazy hrs. All the other times, she was just kept past when she was supposed to leave. Like today, was supposed to leave at 4:30... now it's 9:00. My best guess is she told management she wanted as many hours as possible. And thats what they are doing. SaveSave |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Aug 18, 2025 19:52:01 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2018 2:45:53 GMT
Has your daughter requested to have all the hours? Not that it makes it ok, but it might explain why. As far as I know, she has requested more shifts, but not 14 hr shifts. Sunday is the first time she's been scheduled for crazy hrs. All the other times, she was just kept past when she was supposed to leave. Like today, was supposed to leave at 4:30... now it's 9:00. Her request may be part of the problem. Understanding what constitutes a "shift" may be another part of the problem. A shift is a set time frame like 7 am to 3 pm is one shift the 3 pm 11 pm is the second shift. By picking up extra shifts may not mean extra days at work but it can mean 16 hour days instead of 8 hour days. You/she is expecting extra HOURS (part of a shift) instead of an extra shift which will be extra hours of course but it is going to be a set of 6-8 hours or how ever many hours constitutes a full shift at her job. |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Aug 18, 2025 19:52:01 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2018 2:47:29 GMT
Another question... should she be paid time and a half over 8 hrs? TIme and a half normally kicks in after 40 hours, not how many hours are done in each day. ETA: she may also need to remind them she is a minor. Shift shedulers often aren't aware or lose sight of who is a minor and who isn't especially if somone has asked for extra shifts. |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Aug 18, 2025 19:52:01 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2018 3:00:16 GMT
Not unheard of,
They are taking advantage of her.
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Post by walkerdill on Jun 30, 2018 3:00:51 GMT
Is she being paid in cash? Under the table?
If so they probably don't care how many hours she works.
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Post by my.unquiet.mind on Jun 30, 2018 3:31:13 GMT
I teach high school, and over the years I’ve had students take on part-time jobs that ended up practically taking over their lives. This usually happens for one of two reasons: either the teen asked for as many hours as possible or the employer realizes that the teen is a good,
dependable worker and Takes advantage of that by working them nonstop.
No matter what the reasoning is, it’s wrong and almost always illegal. Some employers seem to bank on the teen being too afraid to say anything about it for fear they’ll have their hours cut down to practically nothing or even be fired. Though I can understand why it could be difficult for a teenager to speak up in this kind of situation, it’ll just keep happening if employers keep getting away with it.
I hope your daughter is able to meet with management and get everything sorted out. Even if she did ask for more hours, working the type of shifts you described is illegal and they should be held accountable. It seriously wore me out just thinking about working that many hours with that little time off to recuperate in between!
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Post by its me mg on Jun 30, 2018 3:40:17 GMT
Absolutely not. I am an Assistant General Manager of a high volume ($5.5 million/year) chain restaurant and I am not allowed to schedule OT. Period. I can eat some if there is an emergency but I'm expected to maintain staffing levels. The hours your daughter is working is going to kill her morale (understandably so) and they'll end up wasting so much money training people only to keep burning them out. Sounds like she works for a poorly operated concept (or location, really).
ETA: Even my "career" servers don't touch those kind of hours!!!
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gramma
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,332
Location: Sacramento, Ca
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Post by gramma on Jun 30, 2018 3:46:19 GMT
The overtime question has nothing to do with her being a minor. There are federal overtime rules and state overtices rules. The one that shows the most favor for the employee is the one that must be followed. There are also wage orders that determine the calculation of overtime. Where I work employees fall under two wage orders. Wage order 5 and Wage order 15. You need to look at the rules for your state. All that being said they are taking advantage. And they probably know it
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Post by *Shannon on Jun 30, 2018 3:54:19 GMT
Thank you all for your input. I really appreciate it. I have more info after talking to her - isn't that usually the case? I will update shortly. I am going to go do a load of laundry for her so she'll be ready to go again in the morning.
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Post by Basket1lady on Jun 30, 2018 4:01:20 GMT
I’m not sure about the issue of hours per day for a minor, but is she a seasonal worker? Here in Virginia, seasonal workers are held to different rules. DS works at a water park and works from 9am-8pm (probably closer to 9pm after he cleans up.). He works again from 9am-6pm on Sunday. He’s been scheduled for about 43 hours a week, but does not earn overtime or benefits because he is classified as a seasonal worker. But—big but here—he’s 21.
Your DD is well within her rights to say that she can’t keep up with these hours. Either for legal reasons or because those are some crazy hours. But she is likely to have her shifts cut way back.
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Post by busy on Jun 30, 2018 4:19:06 GMT
Another question... should she be paid time and a half over 8 hrs? State laws vary. A lot of states only require over 40 hours be to paid as overtime. Also, some states have different laws regarding minor working hours when it's not during the school year. I'd be sure that's not the case in your state before anything is said. |
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Post by *Shannon on Jun 30, 2018 4:49:31 GMT
OK - what I've learned... she was originally scheduled to work from 7-4:30, 9.5 hrs, but not absolutely ridiculous. The opening (janitorial) shift gets to eat before opening, which is at 11:00. They can make whatever they like. Around noon, the manager asked if she would be interested in covering someone's shift, work a few extra hours. That shift was from 4:30 to 10:30 tonight. My daughter agreed. So, she was working a double shift, she was let go at 9:00 instead of 10:30. Overtime laws for our state: "Employees shall be paid time and one-half of the regular rate of pay for any work in excess of: (1) forty hours per workweek; (2) twelve hours per workday, or (3) twelve consecutive hours without regard to the starting and ending time of the workday (excluding duty free meal periods), whichever calculation results in the greater payment of wages." So, today was a double shift situation which she agreed to. Sunday, though, she is scheduled from 7:00am to 8:00pm. I'm not sure how they are getting away with that. With the hour off in between, though she is not working more than 12 hrs. But, the minors not working more than 8 hrs thing is still an issue. She did tell them she wants to work a lot before leaving for vacation. She wants to wait and see how things go once she's back before she decides if anything hinky is going on. She is not a seasonal worker. There are restrictions regarding when/how long she can work during the school year, but school's out, so those restrictions are not in place right now. its me mg, that is what I thought. They are going to drive new employees away quickly with these demands and continually have to train new staff. That has to be a big $$ loss. This location is relatively newly opened, less than 9 months probably. But it's part of a large chain, so they should know how to operate things from the get go. Thank you again, everyone!! |
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Post by busy on Jun 30, 2018 5:03:36 GMT
I almost wonder if the people doing the scheduling/offering her shifts realize she's under 18. They *should* of course, but who knows. If they schedule her crazy shifts again after vacation, she should mention it.
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Post by *Shannon on Jun 30, 2018 5:11:06 GMT
She def looks older, so they may not know, though I agree... they should know.
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tracylynn
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,905
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Post by tracylynn on Jun 30, 2018 5:17:43 GMT
Another question... should she be paid time and a half over 8 hrs? Nope. Time and a half comes in after 40 hours. SaveSaveNot always true. Depends on the State. Sometimes it's after 8 hours in one day. |
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Gennifer
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,444
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Post by Gennifer on Jun 30, 2018 5:46:48 GMT
In my state (Utah), there are rules for younger workers, age 14-15, and rules for 16+. That's why most places won't hire until 16, because at that point they are held to the same standards as an adult.
In other words, it doesn't make a difference if your daughter is 17 or 37.
ETA: We would rarely schedule a teenager to work more than an 8-hour shift. If it's super crazy when they are supposed to be off, they may end up staying 30 minutes to an hour late, but that's it. Occasionally, my kids will be scheduled for a 12-hour shift, but since it's a family business, the same regulations don't legally apply to them.
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Post by stingfan on Jun 30, 2018 17:02:13 GMT
My 16yo dd is a hostess at a restaurant and has been known to work 12-13 hours a day this spring/summer - especially holidays like Mother's Day. I've told her that I don't think it's legal and she should talk to the manager about not working such long shifts. But, while she complains about how tired she is etc, she likes the bigger paychecks. So she hasn't said anything to her mgr.
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scrapngranny
Pearl Clutcher
Only slightly senile
Posts: 4,948
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Post by scrapngranny on Jun 30, 2018 18:30:21 GMT
Every state is different. In our state you can’t work anyone under 18 that many hours. Restaurants will get away with what they can until somebody calls the labor board.
I once worked for a large corporate chain who scheduled a certain number of people for each department every day as “call-ins”. So if an employee called off, the call-in person would have cover the shift. There was a set time to call in, once you called in and didn’t have come in you were free for the day. A day time server would have to call in at 10:30 am, and either cover a day shift or have the day off. The person was not compensated in any way for basically being on hold part of the day. That practice is highly illegal in our state, but no one ever called them out for this practice. The employees were never given a break at all during their shift, again nobody ever called them out on this policy.
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Post by gritzi on Jun 30, 2018 21:12:32 GMT
I wouldn't think so. If she worked more than 40 hours in a week then perhaps over-time is due. If she worked 14 hours today, 3 tomorrow & 3 the next that's 20 for the week. That should be the same pay for 3 days or if she worked 5 days/4 hours each (20 hours). I don't think OT is paid for less than a 40 hour work week.
Perhaps OT varies by state.
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Post by leftturnonly on Jun 30, 2018 21:48:23 GMT
Thank you for your responses, ladies. It just doesn't feel right. I'm sure she'll say that although she's exhausted, she's ok with it - she's making a lot of money. I'll have a talk with her. She is about to take almost two weeks off, so maybe that plays a part. But, the law is the law and she is a minor. There is also a problem with the number of hours off from when she's excused at night to when she's supposed to turn up in the morning. I know that was a violation at one place I worked and age had nothing to do with it. If it's a big chain, than I would bet that this is a violation of their own company policy, if not an outright violation of law. You or your daughter might want to talk to HR just to clarify what there corporate policy is, which might mean making a phone call to someone off-premises. Actually, since she's a minor and you're concerned about the hours, I don't think it's out of the realm for you to be the one to call. I would not consider that helicopter parenting. |
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Peamac
Pearl Clutcher
Refupea # 418
Posts: 4,240
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Post by Peamac on Jun 30, 2018 22:44:53 GMT
RE: overtime pay, in Colorado OT must be paid anytime someone works over 12 hours in a day or over 40 in a week. At my last job I had to review and turn in weekly hours for 6 guys in my division, and that's what the HR person said. She's very particular about such things.
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