Have you worked at The Goat as a server or bartender? You may be owed wages.
Our law firm filed two lawsuits on behalf of tipped employees, like servers and bartenders, who worked at The Goat Restaurant and Bar (or the “The Goat”). Both lawsuits seek to recover, among other things, unpaid wages and unlawfully kept tips.
One lawsuit is exclusively for tipped employees who worked at The Goat at their restaurant locations in Tennessee and is brought as a collective action under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
The other lawsuit covers tipped employees who worked at The Goat at one of their other restaurant locations in Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, and/or Texas, and is brought as a collective and class action under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and Ohio state law.
In both cases, “tipped employees” are workers paid less than the applicable statutory minimum wage per hour, plus customer tips. Using this year (2026) as a reference point, the current the minimum wage in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas is $7.25 per hour, and the current minimum wage in in Ohio is $11 per hour. Therefore, current tipped employees would be employees paid less than $7.25 per hour in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas, or less than $11 per hour in Ohio, plus customer tips. Examples of tipped employees are servers and bartenders.
Both lawsuits allege among other things, that:
- The Goat unlawfully kept a portion of its tipped employees customer tips to offset certain business costs, like Kickfin;
- Tipped employees at The Goat were improperly required to share a portion of their customer tips with management employees;
- Tipped employees were required to perform substantial amounts of non-tipped work (such as opening and closing “side work”) both before the restaurants were open to customers and after customers were no longer being served, all while being paid less than the applicable statutory minimum wage. Some examples of non-tip-producing work are janitorial/cleaning and stocking work performed before the restaurants were opened to customers—when no customer tips could be earned—and similar work performed after employees were done serving customers; and
- The Goat failed to provide tipped employees with the required notice before taking the tip credit.
If you worked at The Goat as a tipped employee within the last three years and wish to join one or both of these cases for unpaid wages and tips, you must submit a Consent Form to our firm.
If you worked for The Goat as a tipped employee in Tennessee and want to join that case, click the button below to submit a consent form:
If you worked for The Goat as a tipped employee in Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Texas and want to join that case, click the button below to submit a consent form:
If you worked for The Goat in Tennessee and in one or more of the following states – Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, and/or Texas – and you wish to join both cases to recover unpaid wages and tips owed to you, please submit a consent form for each case by clicking each of the red buttons above.
If you would like to learn more about these lawsuits, you may click below to read the Complaints, or you may call our office at (615) 244-2202.
