$51,674 might be a drop in the bucket for Rick Ross, but for the 244 employees of his Wingstop franchises making $7.25/hour who had their pay illegally docked, any portion of that is a significant sum. That dollar amount represents how much backpay Ross has already had to dole out to the employees of the Mississippi Wingstop franchises that he operates along with his mother and sister after the federal government’s Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division fined them for multiple infractions.
Some of these include making employees illegally pay for safety training, uniforms, background checks, cash register shortages, and even letting 15-year-old employees work past 7 pm. Nothing to sneeze at here; these are serious violations and not the image that Ross should be projecting as “The Boss.” So in an Instagram story today, he addressed the fines while sitting at a grand piano and sipping Bumbu Rum.
With a brand new Balmain sweater and a lavish, diamond-encrusted necklace around his neck, Ross said, “When you’re running a business, there will be mistakes. But as the biggest boss, you never make the same mistake twice.” Adding that, “You see… Taking accountability is big when you’re the biggest… And remember this: Most successful people don’t take stumbling as a setback, but actually as a stepping stone to greater things, ya heard me? Let’s be great.”
On the surface, it’s valiant of Ross to speak on the labor violations of his Boss Wings Enterprises. But it felt a bit tone deaf considering he dropped this clip on his Instagram Story right after other videos of him racking up a 10 foot-long Neimann Marcus receipt and dining out at a fancy restaurant. Here’s hoping the greater things he’s stepping towards include higher wages for Wingstop employees and at the very least, no cut corners on that road to being great.
Rick Ross flexing his receipt 🧾 pic.twitter.com/QxUZ9d2KWg
— SAY CHEESE! 👄🧀 (@SaycheeseDGTL) August 17, 2022
