Canlis owners on wage settlement: 'We stand by the way we run our company'

The owners of Canlis have settled a class-action lawsuit filed by two former employees alleging violations of local and state wage theft laws but denied any wrongdoing.

Brothers Mark and Brian Canlis have agreed to pay more than 300 current and former employees a total of $1.45 million, per court records filed last week in King County Superior Court. Filed in July of 2023, the lawsuit alleged the restaurant did not properly disclose how it was using revenue collected via service charges.

"We settled when we realized this case was more about lawyers taking advantage of a good but imperfect legal system than it was about Canlis," Mark Canlis told the Business Journal in a statement. "We stand by the way we run our company, love our staff, and care for our guests — there is no law against caring for our people in this way. But there are known ways to take advantage of even the most caring companies. This lawsuit has nothing to do with the integrity of Canlis."

Service charges have recently become a more common practice among Seattle restaurants. In some cases, it's treated as an automatic gratuity split among staff on a given day. In other instances, restaurants retain the charge and use those dollars to pay higher wages for employees, instead of the typical payment model of minimum wage and tips. That method is aimed at providing more stable pay for workers and better divvy up pay between front- and back-of-house staff.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2024/10/15/canlis-restaurant-wage-theft-lawsuit-settlement.html