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Service industry workers often deal with the brunt of Washington's wage theft cases.

Two lawsuits brought by local baristas and the State Attorney General's Office highlight the vulnerability some workers face, like in this case, alleging sexual harassment and years of missing paychecks.

In 2024, some baristas brought a private class action suit against Allen Tagle.

Last year, 2025.

The state AG's office then filed its own lawsuit against his brother, Jonathan Tagle.

The two runs separate strings of bikini barista huts across King and Snohomish counties.

Barista Stevie Lee Hewitt started working at one of Jonathan Tagle's bikini coffee huts in late 2022, and says the problem started during the job interview, where she was asked to change into what she would wear on a shift.

One of the first things he asks you to do is to just get naked in front of him.

He won't allow you to go to a restroom to change, or have any of your own private area.

It's something that needs to be done in front of him.

On top of the alleged sexual harassment, Hewitt says workers had no paid sick leave, no vacation time and face threats of being fired if they called out sick.

She estimates she's owed about half her pay from the two years she worked there.

It feels very pointless, to receive what seems like a fraction of what I should have been getting paid hourly.

Jonathan Tagle didn't respond to our request for comment.

Allen Tagle's lawyer, sent a statement that said, in part, that the main plaintiff in the suit only filed after she was terminated, and that about a third of the baristas that could have joined the class action suit opted out.

I'm Paris Jackson, thank you for watching The Newsfeed, your destination for nonprofit Northwest News.

Go to CascadePBS.org for more.