Employees At DC’s Newest Gay Bar Get Fussy Over Unpaid Wages

Ex-employees at the Rush Bar and Lounge, a gay bar that launched in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, are having a big tiff with their boss after they said he did not pay them.

Workers told WUSA9 they have gone unpaid since mid-December. Owner Jackson Mosley said several employees got sacked, but, HELLO, as he put it, District law gives him 30 days to distribute final paychecks. But city officials are telling Mosley to talk to the hand because, as far as they’re concerned, what Mosely said is not true. Cake Pop certainly isn’t happy. Otherwise known as John Marsh, Cake Pop said Rush hired him in a salaried position to not only do drag but to market the establishment. Management promised paychecks Dec. 15, he said, but — tickle Neil Patrick Harris gay and call him Ricky Martin — no deposits arrived.

“Dec. 15 comes, no one receives any kind of direct deposit or anything,” Marsh told WUSA9. “Understandably, people start freaking out.”

Marsh said employees expected money that day. Management axed some workers after they rattled their beads about missing wages. Mosley told WUSA9 that a problem tied to the bar’s federal employer identification number delayed payroll. He later said he couldn’t pay some former employees right now.

But, queen, listen to this. Mosley said he fired workers for what he described as gross misconduct and insisted he has one full pay period—up to 30 days—to issue final checks. District law requires employers to pay all earned wages to a terminated