Boston restaurant fined $1.8 million for tip pool violations

Some workers at the Four Seasons sushi restaurant could receive up to $50,000 in back pay and penalties

Chefs at Zuma in the Back Bay in 2019.Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe

The state Attorney General’s office fined a high-end Boston restaurant more than $1.8 million for illegally requiring service workers to share pooled tips with managers.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced Monday that it had cited the parent company of Japanese sushi restaurant Zuma, and its manager Garrett Ronan, about $1,813,850 in total for the tip pool violations. Some workers will receive up to $50,000 which includes penalties and unpaid wages.

Campbell’s office charges that between July 2022 and July 2024, some managers at Zuma participated in a tip pool at the restaurant, which violates state wage laws. Zuma and its parent company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.

In Massachusetts, tip pooling is only permitted for wait staff, bartenders, and other service employees. Staff with managerial responsibilities cannot share in a tip pool, even if they help serve customers, according to Massachusetts laws.

An employee complaint alleging that workers promoted to managerial roles remained a part of the restaurant’s tip pool prompted the investigation, which was handled by the Fair Labor Division at the attorney general’s office.

Boston’s Zuma location at the Four Seasons Hotel at One Dalton is one of its London-based parent company Azumi’s 28 permanent and 11 residency locations across the world, according to the company’s website.

The fine announced Monday is part of Campbell’s broader push to “protect workers from exploitation, ensure workers are paid the wages they are owed, and hold employers who violate labor and wage laws accountable,” the attorney general’s office said.