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The 1882 Gothic church on Southwest 11th Avenue is the oldest in downtown Portland and has been a concert hall since 2016. At The Old Church, patrons sit in pews (wooden hymn book racks still intact), and shows are enhanced by the reverence of the space. Think stained glass, candlestick chandeliers, a pipe organ and soaring arches.
The 300-person capacity venue books artists such as The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy, jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux and South African classical guitarist Derek Gripper.
Continue into the next room to find the bar, serving $8 IPAs, $12 chardonnays and the like. Perched on the corner of the bar is a glass vase with a sticker on it that says “Tip Love.” Napkins and coffee cup sleeves are stacked nearby along with a framed QR code and request for people to donate to The Old Church—specifically, for an upgrade to its fire alarm system.
It is this humble tableau at The Old Church that has been the subject of a wage and hour complaint to the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries, a $40,000 legal settlement, and lingering ill will from former employees.
Money placed in the jar now goes to staff rather than the nonprofit organization. That’s largely thanks to former employee Juliana Tobón, who insisted on the change, along with many of her co-workers.
“What I want is for them to pay everybody what they owe,” Tobón says. “That was my goal with going after them legally. I want them to pay everyone their back tips.”
Tobón, 47, worked as house manager and then event director for The Old Church from 2018 to 2023. In a May 2023 letter, Tobón’s attorney alleges The Old Church violated Oregon wage and hour laws by keeping all extra cash that came across the bar as tax-exempt charitable donations to The Old Church.
The organization discontinued the practice in February 2023—one week before Tobón was fired.
Constance Bracewell, executive director at The Old Church, says the former donation system was no secret to Tobón or any other employee.
“Staff were hired with the explicit agreement that our bar did not collect tips,” Bracewell says. “Their compensation package didn’t include tips, we didn’t call them tips. They told people, ‘If you’d like to make a donation, feel free.’ The signage was explicit.”
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, an employer may not keep employee tips “for any purposes.” Tobón didn’t let it go.
“I am a professional loudmouth,” Tobón says. “About the tips, I was the loudest one both for myself and the staff because I was a supervisor and it was my job to come to them with staff concerns.”
The practice of leaving out a donation jar at the bar, and keeping the money for the organization rather than giving it to the people pouring the drinks, was long a sore spot at The Old Church.
Kevin Williams, 33, who worked at The Old Church as a production assistant and bartender in 2020 and assistant bar manager in 2021, leaned into the issue when money was tight for him post-pandemic. On a busy night, the jar could fill with upwards of $300. He proposed maintaining the donations jar but posting a Venmo QR code for patrons to tip bartenders.
When his request to the then-executive director to keep his bar tips fell on deaf ears, he filed a Bureau of Labor & Industries wage and hour complaint about the tips and about not receiving adequate breaks.
“The Old Church keeps the tips and claims that due to its nonprofit status, employees of The Old Church do not get to keep their tips,” he wrote. “This has been going on for years.”
According to records furnished to WW, BOLI responded on Dec. 16, 2022, with two letters about Oregon’s labor laws—basics on the state’s rules for adequate rest and meal periods and promptly paying employees what they are owed—and a request that the venue review its practices.
In addition to FLSA, state wage and hour laws prohibit an employer from keeping tips given to employees. The BOLI letter stated: “We recently received information which indicates that your employees may not be receiving all of their earned wages on regular paydays, and such unpaid amounts are not timely being paid as required by law.”
Management created clear signage that marked the jars as donations to The Old Church.
“It didn’t feel like I was listened to or valued,” Williams says. He quit.
In January 2023, Constance Bracewell became the venue’s executive director after serving on the board of directors for six years. During onboarding, she held individual meetings with key staff to see what they liked and didn’t like about the organization.
The tip issue came up quickly. By February, Bracewell changed the donation jar to a tip jar. A self-professed “stickler for ethics,” Bracewell didn’t want any confusion with the signage.
“The idea that the staff felt that it should be tips not donations seemed like a reasonable suggestion, so that was one of the first things I changed,” Bracewell says.
Also at the top of the list: Tobón was fired by the beginning of March.
According to her termination letter, the reason was “performance issues,” including insubordination, failure to adequately staff a PDX Jazz event, and failure to adequately train a new production manager.
“The Board has lost trust in your abilities,” Bracewell wrote. “These incidents have been disruptive to the functioning of the organization, jeopardized TOC’s relationship with renters and patrons, put TOC at financial risk, and harm[ed] TOC’s reputation.”
Tobón didn’t buy that explanation, especially after 25 years of experience in the Portland music industry. It felt like Bracewell was “trying to find stuff to pin on me,” Tobón says.
“Then it was like a montage in a movie and then a light bulb went off and I realized, ‘Oh, shit. This is about the tips.’”
Bracewell denies this allegation and says, “In any termination of an employee, their entire performance history is taken into account.”
Tobón was offered $2,500 severance pay in exchange for signing a release of claims for unpaid wages and a “covenant not to sue” the organization. She declined the money and didn’t sign. Instead, she lawyered up.
Tobón’s attorney Diane Sykes wrote a letter to Bracewell estimating that Tobón was owed $35,155 in unpaid tips during her time at The Old Church, based on working about 400 shows and forgoing a little less than $100 at each. The May 10, 2023, letter also accused the church of three whistleblower violations for terminating Tobón for engaging in a protected activity—namely, being a vocal opponent of unlawful tipping practices. Finally, it sought non-economic damages for Tobón’s suffering from “emotional distress, anxiety, fear, humiliation and embarrassment.”
Tobón settled for $40,000 from The Old Church’s insurance company. The settlement is technically between Tobón and Country Mutual Insurance Company, not The Old Church, and admits no fault.
“This settlement is the compromise of a doubtful and disputed claim, and that the payment is not to be construed as an admission of liability,” the settlement document says.
In the year since, The Old Church has moved on to new things. It’s launched an art gallery and small new side stage called the Cheshire Cat, and its free Wednesday lunchtime concert series just bumped up to twice a month.
“Last year was about getting operations in order—tips was a part of that—and building a fantastic and cohesive staff,” Bracewell says of her staff of about a dozen. “This year I get to start being proactive.”
Williams has moved on too, with a new position that he loves as the queer facilitator and box office manager at a Southeast Portland music venue. He is grateful to The Old Church for the life lessons—”I learned how to value myself and my time”—and he hopes that he left a legacy.
“I do wonder if my BOLI complaint and me leaving is why they are receiving tips now,” Williams says. “When I learned they were receiving tips, that made me really happy because they deserve that.”
Clarification: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the timeline of when the donation jars were marked as such.