Restaurant servers are some of the most underpaid workers in America. Sure, they make tips but their pay-per-hour is usually just a couple of dollars. This means that they have to work their asses off to earn the tips that they need to support themselves. As if this weren’t shitty enough, Darden Restaurants — the company that owns Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and others — has decided that they are going to fuck over their servers so hard by paying them with debit cards.
Now, this may seem like a swell idea at first. The employees don’t have to bring their tiny paychecks to a bank or check cashing place to access money, instead it is given to them on their handy-dandy debit card. According to a study released by Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROCU):
YAY! So what’s wrong with this? Well, nothing for Darden, they are making out like bandits, but it’s not so great for their employees. ROCU found:Darden not only outsources the cost of paying its workers both to the customers, through the tipped subminimum wage, but also to the workers themselves through the use of payroll cards. The use of payroll cards is pervasive at Darden: according to a company spokesperson, 48% of Darden’s 140,000 hourly employees are compensated via payroll card. At a saving of $2.75 each pay period, Darden saves nearly $5 million a year by using payroll cards over paper checks.
23% of employees reported not being given instructions on how to use the Darden Card.
76% of employees reported having to pay fees to access their wages at the ATM.
24% of employees reported fees at point-of-purchase.
63% reported that they were not told about all of the fees associated with the card before it was issued to them.
42% reported experiencing problems accessing their wages through the payroll card.
49% reported that they do not have access to ATMs that do not charge them a fee to access their wages.
54% of employees who used the card to fill up their gas tanks have experienced large authorization holds on their card as a result.
26% reported not being allowed to choose an alternative method of payment to the Darden payroll card.
http://leftwingnation.org/this-paycheck-scheme-is-completely-screwing-low-wage-workers/
