A 24-year-old law student from North Macedonia who worked as a restaurant server at Aspen Meadows Resort on the Aspen Institute campus last summer as part of the J-1 Exchange Visitor Visa program has received $17,008 in unpaid tips, wages and penalty fees from her former employer after filing a complaint with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
In a final determination notice issued by the state labor department on May 30, officials who investigated the complaint filed on Aug. 14, 2024, found that the Meadows — owned by the Aspen Institute and managed by Virginia-based hospitality company Salamander Collection — “violated the law willfully” by not paying wages owed to Kristina “Tina” Velichkovikj.
“To be honest, I feel satisfied now,” Velichkovikj said Sept. 1 in a phone interview from her home country. “It's not about the money, it's about the justice that found its way in the end.”
Velichkovikj, who worked at the resort’s West End Social restaurant, alleged she was owed $12,000 in tips that she earned but was not paid and $2,171 in wages that were impermissibly deducted from her paychecks.
Under the Colorado Wage Act, the current maximum amount that an individual can claim in a state wage complaint is $7,500. According to the labor department, the Meadows was required to pay additional penalty fees to Velichkovikj after it did not substantively respond to a notice of complaint sent April 9 detailing the unpaid-wage allegations.
State officials said the resort was given the option to either pay the $7,500 owed by an extended deadline of May 12 or submit a thorough response to the state regarding the wage complaint allegations by the same deadline. The Meadows did not submit a substantive response or pay by the deadline, which resulted in the state assessing a penalty fee of three times the maximum allowed wage claim of $7,500.
“The penalty was for the enhanced amount of three times the wages owed because the Division determined the employer's failure to pay was willful,” the Colorado labor department said in a statement Sept. 12.
“A failure to pay is considered willful when the employer's conduct showed that the employer either knew or showed reckless disregard for whether its conduct violated the law,” the statement continued.
After receiving the state’s final determination notice May 30, the Meadows agreed to pay by a June 13 deadline, which reduced the penalty fees. In the end, the total amount owed to Velichkovikj was $18,750, but after taxes were deducted, she received $17,008.
The Meadows did not directly respond to questions about the state’s investigation when asked for comment, but Theresa Silo, chief human resources officer at Salamander Collection, shared the following statement:
“We are proud of the J-1 student experience we offer at Aspen Meadows and, in collaboration with our recruiting partners, are committed to continually improving the program each season.”
Velichkovikj was one of about two dozen J-1 employees at the Meadows who sent a letter at the end of last summer to the resort’s management as well as several Aspen city officials and local news outlets detailing a range of concerns involving tipping and wage practices, workplace treatment and housing conditions.
Two other J-1s who helped draft the letter also confirmed that they filed individual complaints with the state labor department and submitted concerns to the U.S. Department of State that oversees the J-1 visa program, but so far, Velichkovikj is the only one who has received compensation for alleged unpaid wages.
Asked for comment last fall on the complaints, the resort's management denied most of the allegations and claimed they did not break any laws or program requirements. They did, however, subsequently change the resort’s pay policies for J-1 employees.
The resort confirmed in January that starting this past winter, returning J-1s now have the same base wage and access to tips as local employees. The Meadows also said that new J-1s have the opportunity to increase their wages after undertaking a short training program, but the Meadows did not specify whether new J-1 restaurant servers would be included in the same tipping system as local workers.
Tipping and wage complaints
The J-1 visa program was established as part of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 and is meant to provide a meaningful work and cultural experience for international students and U.S. employers.
Before working at the Meadows, Velichkovikj had spent the past two summers working as a J-1 at a souvenir shop in North Carolina and as a restaurant server in New Jersey — and she was looking forward to seeing a different part of the country.
“I wanted to try a new experience because, previously, I worked on the beach where the ocean was,” Velichkovikj said. “I was listening to stories about the fresh air and mountains and seeing all the videos of famous people skiing — so that’s why I chose Aspen.”
During her job interview with the Meadows’ human resources director, Darren Zemnick, Velichkovikj recalls asking about a line in her job offer that said she would make $20 an hour as a restaurant server but take home only “tips in cash” and not credit card tips earned as was the case for the regular servers at the resort’s West End Social restaurant.
In response, she said Zemnick assuaged her worries by telling her he would talk with the local servers about adding her to the tip pool when she arrived.
But on the first day of work, Velichkovikj and other J-1s who were also hired as “servers” were told that they would be classified as “back servers” or “bussers” and would not be included in the restaurant’s tip pool.
“So we were in shock,” Velichkovikj said. “I tried everything, complaining to my sponsor agency, to my manager, but there was no result. … I was just told that I was in training and will only take cash tips.”
After several days of official training, Velichkovikj said she started serving tables on her own, sometimes managing up to six tables or 15 customers at a time. She said her manager also assigned her additional duties such as hostessing.
In November, in response to questions about the tipping system, Silo said that “J-1 four-month work and travel students are part of our hotel training program, and we do not consider training positions to be tipped positions.”
In lieu of inclusion in the tip pool, Silo said J-1 students were paid a higher hourly rate than local servers and guaranteed a minimum of 32 hours a week. As of December, the Meadows had listed a restaurant-server position for $18 an hour plus gratuity and a host position for $21 an hour with full-time benefits.
But according to information provided in November by the Colorado labor department, state laws regarding tipping and fair wages require that all tips be paid to an employee who earned them, “regardless of whether the tip was left in cash, credit, electronically or otherwise.”
The department also clarified that under Colorado law, “employers cannot opt out of tip protections by designating employees as ‘seasonal,’ ‘temporary,’ ‘trainees,’ or any other name, if the employee actually performs tipped work.”
Luka Horvat, a 24-year-old medical student from Croatia who worked with Velichkovikj at the resort’s West End Social restaurant last summer, filed a similar state wage complaint but has not received a final determination yet.
As of Sept. 12, the Colorado labor department confirmed that it had received two other complaints in addition to Velichkovikj’s from J-1s who worked at the Meadows last summer, including a wage claim submitted in February that it was still investigating.
“They have contacted me asking for further clarification on some matters I addressed in it,” Horvat said in an email Sept. 5. “I have given them all the accessible information which I have related to my claim.”
Horvat said he thought the line in his job contract saying he would only receive “tips in cash” meant that tips from a shared pool would be distributed in cash at the end of each day — a practice he has seen at restaurants where he has worked in Croatia.
“That's the way a lot of us thought it would function, so we were all surprised when we found out that that was not the case,” Horvat said in an interview in October. “We were basically earning a lot of money that wasn't being paid out fairly to us, and in my opinion, it was discrimination that we were not being paid the same as local servers for the same amount of work.”
Horvat and Velichkovikj were among several J-1s on the four-month summer program who decided to quit their jobs at the Meadows early despite having signed a housing agreement that said they’d forfeit their room and $400 security deposit if they left their job for any reason, and would still be required to pay rent until a new tenant was found by their employer.
Velichkovikj, who left in early August and was able to secure another server job in California, said the Meadows deducted the last two months of her rent from her remaining paychecks amounting to about $1,916 and kept the security deposit, forcing her to borrow money to pay for her new housing in Lake Tahoe.
“The last several paychecks that I was supposed to get … I didn't get them,” Velichkovikj said. “My visa sponsor agency told me that they can do nothing about it, that I can only contact the state department of labor for unpaid wages, so I filed a complaint.”
In her complaint, Velichkovikj also alleged she was owed about $254 for rent she paid in early June, before she was permitted to move into her new housing. She and other J-1s said they weren't allowed to move in until their orientation on June 10, but were still required to pay a full month’s rent.
Meanwhile, Horvat left the Meadows in July and got two new jobs working at the Snowmass Club restaurant and as a bartender at Stranahan's Whiskey Lodge.
After he left, Horvat said the Meadows deducted the wages he had earned from his last week of work from his final paycheck, which equated to more than his remaining month of rent for July but did not cover the full cost of rent for August and September.
“I told them that I needed that money to pay for my new housing where I would be staying, but that didn’t really matter,” Horvat said. “They reduced the whole paycheck.”
‘Unequal pay’ complaint closed
Another J-1, Ştefan-Dragoş Cană from Romania, who worked at the Meadows last summer, also filed a complaint with the Colorado labor department, but he had his claim dismissed this past spring.
Unlike Velichkovikj and Horvat, who submitted “wage complaints,” Cană filed an “unequal pay complaint.” A spokesperson at the department confirmed that it had closed the unequal-pay complaint filed in August 2024.
“We are not investigating this complaint further, and notified the complainant in April of 2025,” the spokesperson said. “This closure is not a reflection on the merits of the claim and is a function of a number of factors including available staffing.”
The 24-year-old civil engineering student worked as a banquet server making $20 an hour with no tips.
When Cană accepted the position last year, he understood that banquet servers at the Meadows do not receive tips, but he later found out that he was earning less than some of his non-J-1 coworkers in similar roles. As of December, the Meadows had listed an on-call banquet-server position that paid $35 an hour.
“When you see the amount of work you're required to do, and you see people in the same position and same job getting paid more, that starts being really, really frustrating,” Cană said in an interview in November.
Although he wanted to leave his job, Cană had borrowed money from his sister to cover the roughly $4,000 cost of his program fees, visa payment, health insurance and travel expenses, and he did not want to risk losing his housing deposit or getting stuck paying rent for two places at once.
“I didn't want to be there anymore, but I knew that I couldn't quit because I will have to pay for the housing without the right to live there and I wouldn’t be able to afford that,” Cană said.
Cană and another J-1 who worked at the Meadows last summer also filed complaints with the U.S. Department of State. Neither has received an update on their complaints since last year.
A spokesperson with the Department of State said in a statement on Sept. 15 that it “does not comment on individual complaints,” but “reviews every complaint and incident received with the same due diligence.”
The spokesperson also clarified the department’s process for handling complaints against designated visa sponsors, saying that it uses a “review process” involving research, document requests, and in some cases, interviews and visits to a sponsor’s headquarters to evaluate whether the agencies are complying with federal regulations.
The spokesperson did not specify whether the department investigates employers utilizing the J-1 visa program, but said that exchange visitors are “encouraged to contact their sponsors first for assistance with employment issues or concerns about work conditions.” The spokesperson said J-1 participants with concerns about their placements or their sponsors can contact the department helpline or email the program directly.
According to data posted last year, the number of J-1 visa holders across a variety of employment and internship programs in Aspen’s 81611 ZIP code grew from 480 in 2018 to 939 in 2023.
Another sponsor offers refunds
A second visa sponsorship agency that matched about 14 international students with the Meadows last summer — Cultural Homestay International (CHI) — confirmed in January that it had agreed to grant full program refunds to J-1s “who requested it.” Mary Wolfe, senior program manager at CHI, declined to share how many that was, but at least three J-1s confirmed that they received the refunds.
“CHI remains committed to the well-being of all exchange visitors and has conducted thorough due diligence in responding to concerns related to Aspen Meadows,” Wolfe said in a statement Sept. 11.
J-1s who accepted the refund offer were asked to sign an agreement waiving their right to sue the sponsor. Cană was among those who signed the agreement and received a $1,055 refund from CHI in January.
“In the beginning, I didn't want any money from them. I just wanted for these issues to somehow be heard and taken care of,” Cană said. “For me, the refund was a bonus, but if somebody wanted to pay the actual amount of money that we deserve, it would have been way more.”
Adi Hodžić, a 24-year-old software engineering student from Bosnia-Herzegovina, also confirmed that he accepted a similar refund offer from CHI last winter.
“We had a choice to either sign their refund agreement and take the amount they offered to us, or go to the court and see where things will end up,” Hodžić said. “In my opinion, CHI didn't do its job in overseeing our program, because every time we complained about unfair treatment at work and housing conditions, they would just postpone answers, and they would say they would help us, but they never really did.”
In response to these same allegations last fall, Wolfe said the agency “proactively” investigated the complaints and communicated with J-1 participants at the Meadows “to address and work through the issues.”
Although Hodžić and Cană each signed the offer at the offices of the local agencies in their home countries that matched them with the J-1 visa sponsor, both said they did not request refunds for the roughly $400 to $500 fees they paid their local agencies.
“I did not ask them for a refund, because I consider that they did their job,” Cană said. “Their job was to put me in touch with the visa sponsor and make sure that I'm going to the U.S. — this is what they do.”
In November, a similar refund agreement was offered to J-1s such as Velichkovikj and Horvat who were sponsored by InterExchange. The sponsor did not respond to requests for comment last fall, but it told several J-1s via email that it would no longer be working with the Meadows.
On Sept. 11, CHI reconfirmed that it’s also no longer working with the Meadows.
“At this time, CHI is not considering reestablishing a partnership with Aspen Meadows and considers this matter closed,” Wolfe said in a statement.
According to Wolfe, the sponsor agency turned down several J-1s from the 2024 summer program that requested returning to Aspen Meadows for this summer and is not currently partnering with any other employers in the Aspen area.
Although he wasn’t able to work with another Aspen employer through CHI, Hodžić, along with several others, returned to town on a J-1 visa with InterExchange this summer.
Hodžić secured a job at the Limelight Hotel restaurant, owned by Aspen Skiing Co.’s parent company, Aspen One. He also got a second job working at Gorsuch Ski Café, which sits at the base of Aspen Mountain.
Through his primary employer, Hodžić was able to get housing in Aspen for $660 per month for a shared two-bedroom apartment, compared with the $850 per month he paid the Meadows to share a two-person room at a former motel in Glenwood Springs.
As for Velichkovikj, she is finishing her law degree this year in North Macedonia and hopes to use her future profession to help others facing inequities.
“As a law student, it's my job to fight for justice,” Velichkovikj said. “I hope that I can be an example for the next J-1 students, so they can realize that they have rights and cannot be treated unfairly.”
