Joey’s New York Pizza settles EEOC harassment suit for $55,000

Joey’s New York Pizza and Italian Restaurant agreed to pay $55,000 after the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said one of its owners used his control over three Tampa-area locations to create a hostile work environment for young female employees, including at least one teenager.

The settlement, announced July 9, 2026, resolves a federal sexual harassment lawsuit and reaches beyond cash. Joey’s must provide mandatory training for owners, human resources staff, managers, and employees, bring in an outside equal employment consultant, and rewrite its harassment policy. The company’s website lists locations in Trinity, New Port Richey, and Palm Harbor, underscoring that the case involved a small local chain, not a single storefront.

The EEOC said the owner directly managed three locations and targeted young female workers with inappropriate sexual behavior. Local Florida coverage described the affected employees as young female servers. In August 2023, one worker complained, and the agency said the company failed to intervene or take effective action.

For restaurant staff, the settlement spells out a baseline that is easy to say and often harder to enforce: complaints have to be taken seriously, documented, and escalated beyond the person accused when possible. In a small chain where an owner or top manager oversees multiple stores, the chain of command can be the problem if there is no independent reporting path and no outside review.

The case also reflects how the EEOC frames employer responsibility in harassment matters. Federal law does not give smaller restaurants a pass for loose culture, informal management, or high turnover. If a complaint is raised, the company is expected to investigate and stop the conduct, not leave servers, hosts, or cooks to navigate the fallout on their own.