Related: every single restaurant violates labor laws, every single day. They get regularly inspected for food safety, but never for worker health and safety.

You've never eaten in a restaurant that operates legally. https://twitter.com/pookleblinky/status/1391733461229133825

One labor law is simple: you cannot ask someone to come in less than 8 hours after their last shift. It is illegal to do this. It is literally a crime.

If you've ever worked in a restaurant, your boss has asked you to do this.

And odds are, you agreed at least some of the time.

You worked the 7-3 shift, you get a call around 5: Bob called in sick like a wuss, says he's got terrible diarrhea. What a wimp. Listen, we really need someone to close, and can't get in touch with Ted so

And you've been in that same position before. You know how much it sucks to be short one person because the boss hires half the number of people needed.

It happened last week.

So you agree, and come in for a few more hours of minimum wage.

Just this one little labor law, gets casually violated each day everywhere. Each time, it's a crime, and no one gets punished.

And then there are tip pools, where tipped staff making $2/hr are forced to pool their tips. These are legal, but it's a federal crime for employers to take from the tip pool or include supervisors/managers in it.

Tip pools only apply to hosts and servers. Managers, cooks, dishwashers, and bussers, any kitchen staff, cannot be entered in them.

If you've worked as a dishwasher/busser in a place with a tip pool odds are you've been entered in it, and the law says they owe you.

Owners aren't allowed to skim tips, or take any part of them. This includes forcing staff to pay for walk-outs or such.

Hands up if you've ever worked in a place where you get money docked for customers walking out without paying, or not picking up their delivery

This includes cash shortages in registers.

If you've ever worked in a restaurant and someone had to make up a difference in the register from their pocket, that's a crime.

Employers aren't allowed to make employees pay for uniforms.

Every restaurant with Shoes For Crews deals that take the cost of the required shoes out of paychecks or such, is committing a crime.

Mandatory uniforms must be paid for by employers.

And then there are the worker meals.

Employers must charge you the *cost* of a meal, not the price of the meal.

If your employer charges you full price for a burger, they're committing a crime.

Employers are not allowed to deduct from wages fees or "loans" due to damage from workplace accidents

If you've ever had to pay for broken plates out of pocket, or a register shortage, or a no-pay delivery, your employer committed a crime.

Servers and hosts are required to be paid non-tipped minimum wage if non-tip work accounts for 20% or more of their time.

Servers who spend half their shift cleaning, helping out the dishwasher, etc, are required to be paid more.

If you have time to clean, they have to pay.

These are just a few of the labor laws that are repeatedly, casually violated every day.

If you've ever worked in a restaurant, you've seen this. If you've ever eaten in a restaurant, they were doing this.

These labor law violations cumulatively steal more than larceny, burglary, robbery, and car theft combined.

But they're done so casually, with so little enforcement or risk, that every restaurant engages in them in one way or another.

And most employees view it as normal.

Now ask yourself what happens when the restaurant industry fires everyone, who then find work in literally *any other* industry where labor violations are less in-your-face normal occurences.

What happens when a server gets fired, and gets a job where he's allowed to have a lunch break, or gets paid for overtime, gets paid far more than $2.13/hr, etc

How enticing does returning to restaurant work look if you spent any amount of time outside it?