Employees of a BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse location in Modesto, California, are pushing to unionize over the company’s tip-sharing policy.
The policy, which went into effect last year, entitles kitchen staff and untipped front-of-house workers like hosts and bussers to 4% of the restaurant’s total sales. Servers and bartenders have said that the practice cuts into their earnings because when customers don’t tip, the share of that transaction is taken out of their pay.
The tip-sharing policy is in effect only at BJ’s California locations. The company is based in Southern California, and about 60 of its more than 200 units are in the state.
Employees of the Modesto restaurant will vote Sept. 26 on whether to unionize in a process sanctioned by the National Labor Relations Board. A simple majority is needed to win.
Michael Williams, a server at the Modesto location, is spearheading the effort. In a video posted to the BJ’s Workers Union Instagram account in June, he said unionizing will allow employees to speak as one voice to corporate. He also said there will be no dues or other fees for union members.
“We just want to be able to go ahead and get the fair pay and get the compensation that we deserve that’s tipped to us directly from the customer to our pocket,” he said.
He added that after organizing the Modesto store, he plans to bring the cause to other nearby BJ’s and then locations across the state.
In a statement, BJ’s said that the tip-sharing policy is “intended to recognize the important work that the kitchen does, along with our dining room team members, to create a great guest experience.”
Tip sharing is common in restaurants as a way to incentivize workers in positions that aren’t traditionally tipped.
“We are confident that when our team members have all of the information, they will agree we can achieve more, as a company and individually, by working together as a team,” the company said. “We remain committed to listening to and addressing our team members’ concerns and delivering the great experience our team and guests expect from us.”
Unions are rare in the restaurant industry, though organizing activity has picked up in recent years, most notably at Starbucks, where employees at about 650 stores are now represented by Starbucks Workers United. Workers at some smaller, regional chains, such as Portland-based Burgerville and Milwaukee-based Colectivo, have also formed unions.
California in particular has been a hotbed for organized labor in restaurants. In 2023, the state passed AB1228, a union-backed bill that raised the hourly minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20.
Though the $20 wage applies only to fast-food chains, it has had a ripple effect on fast-casual and full-service concepts in California, including BJ’s. In 2023, then-CEO Greg Levin said BJ’s expected to see some labor cost inflation due to the more competitive pay in fast food.
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