Federal lawsuit says Milwaukee restaurant illegally let managers collect worker tips

The federal government is suing a Milwaukee seafood restaurant and its owners, alleging they illegally allowed managers to collect tips from other workers.

The U.S. Department of Labor filed the federal lawsuit on Tuesday against St. Paul Fish Company and owners Timothy Collins and Mary Beth Collins.

The suit follows an investigation conducted by the department’s Wage and Hour Division, which reviewed the restaurant’s employment and pay practices between June 2021 and June 2023. The suit lists the St. Paul Fish Company location at the Milwaukee Public Market, and not the company’s location in Mequon. 

From 2021 through 2023, the suit says St. Paul Fish Company was managed as four different parts at a single location. They include a restaurant, a bar, an oyster bar and a pick-up/seafood counter.

Employees who worked at the seafood counter and oyster bar were compensated through hourly wages and tips, the suit states. Those tips were allegedly collected in a single tip pool.

According to the suit, Timothy and Mary Beth Collins allowed two managers to participate in the tip pool and collect “portions of 35 employees’ tips.”

The suit argues that allowing the managers to collect tips from the tip pool violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Attorneys for the restaurant and its owners did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The labor department is asking the court to order the restaurant to stop violating federal wage and hour law, find them responsible for unlawfully taking employee tips and require them to pay back those tips, plus additional damages.