TAYLOR, Mich. – It was the learning experience Polleen Rushin said her 14-year-old daughter was not expecting to have with her first job at an A&W restaurant in Taylor.
“She came out with a wad of money one day and she was like, ‘Look what I made today,’ and I’m like, ‘You cashed your check?’ and she was like ‘No, what’s a check?’” Rushin said. “Her tips were pooled into something else. I don’t know how it worked but she would never come home with what she said she made.”
The teen said she never received a paycheck, only taking home whatever patrons left in the tip jar.
“At first I wasn’t really concerned about it because I was making tips and I’m like ‘OK, I’m making money,’” the teen said.
Rushin said her daughter worked 12- and 13-hour days and was even left in the store alone.
“They never responded to me every time I asked them for a paycheck,” she said.
Attorney Todd Perkins said he is in the process of filing a lawsuit against the restaurant.
“It is beyond an injustice because it’s an injustice on our youth. What we just want is her checks and to be compensated appropriately,” Perkins said.
The restaurant’s corporate office could not be reached for comment. Rushin is worried about how many other teens may be in the same situation.
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