Jan. 14--Sam's Boat restaurant agreed to pay $112,702 in back wages to its employees after the U.S. Department of Labor found the restaurant required its waiters and waitresses to give 3 percent of their tips to managers. 

The money will go to 48 employees who worked at the restaurant's Richmond Avenue location between Aug. 6, 2000, and Aug. 4, 2002, according to an agreement Richmond SB Interests, which does business as Sam's Boat, signed with the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division. 

The company's restaurants on the Southwest Freeway and Katy Freeway were not involved in the investigation, according to the Labor Department. 

Federal labor laws permit tip pooling but is limited to employees who regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. That would include waiters, waitresses, busboys and bartenders but not managers, according to the Labor Department. 

The minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. An employer may consider tips toward that minimum, but only after paying the employee at least $2.13 an hour, according to the Labor Department. 

And if an employer includes tips toward meeting the minimum wage obligation, employees must be allowed to keep the tips. 

However, an employer can legally deduct wages if the employee agrees in advance and it is in writing, said Martin A. Shellist, an employment lawyer in Houston who handles a number of wage and hour cases with Shellist, Lore & Lazarz. 

It doesn't matter what the money is used for as long as the employee agrees first, Shellist said. Many companies require their employees to authorize deductions from their final paycheck to cover such things as lost laptops, lost cellular phones or lost keys. 

But when employees haven't agreed in advance, they have no idea that deductions are being made, Shellist said. They assume it's another tax or don't notice because their paychecks are deposited electronically. 

Sam's Boat did not admit liability when it made the settlement, said Judie Sadler, an employment lawyer with Sadler & Sykes in Houston who represents Sam's Boat. 

The company felt it was best to resolve the dispute, said Sadler, who said she did not want to comment on the case nor disclose the number of restaurants her client owns. 

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