The Seventh Circuit held that the record showed that the plaintiffs spent, at most, between 10 to 45 minutes per day on non-server duties such as cleaning the restaurant and restocking supplies. The Department of Labor regulations permit defendant to pay reduced tip-credit wage for said duties, where these duties represented less than 20 percent of plaintiffs' time and were sufficiently related to their server duties.
Also, the employer gave the plaintiffs sufficient information about the "tip-credit" rate through the employer's handout, handbook, and poster in restaurants regarding rules governing tip-credit wages, where defendants: (1) informed the plaintiffs that the defendants would initially pay them less than minimum wage; (2) calculated the applicable tip-wage; and (3) informed the plaintiffs that if their tips plus wages did not match current minimum wage, that defendants would make up difference. The fact that defendants misstated the applicable minimum wage in their materials did not require a different result.