Is it legal for a restaurant to limit the amount of a certain type of bill?
<p>The restaurant I work for has started a new policy that a server's bank (cash payments made by guests that I owe the store) may only turn in a maximum of $20 in one dollar bills. I had an issue with this today, as I had a customer pay for a $48 check in all ones. The manager on duty refused to accept my bank at the end of my shift and required me to keep the ones and break bills I already had.</p>

<p>Is it legal for the restaurant to do this? Technically, my bank is considered a debt to the store so they can't refuse a payment. If that had been my only cash check, what could I have done but give them those ones.</p>

<p>Based on <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/14270/is-a-school-legally-required-to-accept-pennies-as-payment">another question</a> you posted, I assume that your jurisdiction (still) is Florida. </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Is it legal for a restaurant to limit the amount of a certain type of
  bill?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>No, it is illegal. Here the subtlety is that --per your description-- server's bank constitutes debt (rather than payment for goods or services), and <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5103" rel="nofollow noreferrer">31 USC § 5103</a> reads:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>"<em>United States coins and currency [...] are legal tender <strong>for all
  debts</strong>, public charges, taxes, and dues</em>"</p>
</blockquote>

<p>(emphasis added)</p>

<p>Since non-compliance with the restaurant's new policy can lead to termination, I think your best option is to proceed in accordance with <a href="http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;Search_String=&amp;URL=0400-0499/0448/Sections/0448.102.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Florida statute 448.102(1)</a>:</p>

<ol>
<li>In writing, bring to the attention of a supervisor or the employer
the policy or practice, affording the employer "<em>a reasonable
opportunity to correct the activity, policy, or practice</em>"; and if
the restaurant dismissed the reasonable opportunity,</li>
<li>disclose to the "<em>appropriate governmental agency, under oath, in
writing, an activity, policy, or practice of the employer that is in
violation of a law, rule, or regulation</em>", which in this case is 31
USC § 5103.</li>
</ol>

<p>If you have to resort to step (2), be sure to include evidence --in writing-- about the substance of the new policy, showing how the restaurant treats server's bank as "debt".</p>

<p>Having taken these two steps, if the restaurant terminates you, then this might be grounds for a lawsuit. See <a href="http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;Search_String=&amp;URL=0400-0499/0448/Sections/0448.103.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Florida statute 448.103</a>.</p>

<p>In other jurisdictions, the approach might have to be different. For instance, in Michigan, the server would need to file a complaint with the state's labor agency on the basis of <a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(e5blobyogw2uvix3ofpic05u))/mileg.aspx?page=getobject&amp;objectname=mcl-408-478" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MCL 408.478</a>(* ) (prohibiting the employer to demand "<em>[a] consideration, as a condition of employment or continuation of employment</em>"). Here, the "<em>consideration</em>" is that the employer restaurant is demanding its servers to perform --without extra pay-- tasks that have nothing to do with a server's job: Acting as a bank cashier, or going to the bank towards securing the ability to comply with the restaurant's new policy.</p>

<p>(*) I couldn't find an equivalent statute in the Florida legislature.</p>

currency