Pennsylvania’s Wind Creek Bethlehem casino hotel has agreed to pay $6 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by tipped employees alleging the property violated federal and state minimum-wage laws as their pay dipped below the required minimum.
The lawsuit, filed March 24, 2020 by a table-game dealer whose employment spanned the period in which the casino was sold by Las Vegas Sands Corp. to Wind Creek Hospitality, a division of Alabama’s Poarch Tribe of Creek Indians. The lawsuit claimed two violations of minimum wage law:
First, Wind Creek Bethlehem allegedly failed to properly inform its tipped employees of the required tip credit provisions before it paid them below minimum wage, which violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage act. Federal labor law permits employers to take a tip credit toward its minimum wage obligations for tipped employees, provided employees are informed of certain provisions.
Second, the casino also made improper deductions from its employees’ wages for gaming license fees and other costs, which reduced workers’ compensation below the required minimum wage.
The $6 million settlement, court documents say, will result in an estimated average payment of at least $2,088 to each member of the tip credit class and more than $102 to members of the gaming license class.
More than one-third of employees involved in the lawsuit are members of both classes.
U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Leeson Jr. last week granted preliminary approval of the settlement. The court will conduct a final approval hearing on September 8 to “determine the overall fairness of the settlement” and to approve attorneys’ fees and costs.
