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Congress Steps Into Tip-Pooling Fight

3/23/18

By: Timothy J. Holdsworth
We wrote previously about the background on the tip-pooling regulations and the DOL’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPR”) that would allow tip-pooling arrangements that include employees who do not regularly and customarily receive tips under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The DOL received a considerable number of comments on the NPR, some of which worried that the NPR would allow employers to keep their workers’ tips.
Buried in the spending bill Congress passed (pages 2025-2027 if you are dying to read it) is a rider that will affect the current U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) laws on tips. The bill proposes language that prohibits an employer, including managers and supervisors, from keeping tips received by employees. This prohibition would apply regardless of whether the employer takes the tip credit. The rider also would make employers liable to employees for any tips unlawfully kept by the employer.
If the bill is signed by President Trump, these may substantially affect any tip-pooling arrangements employers planned to enact under the NPR. It is also unclear if the DOL may try to revise the NPR in any way.
The provision would also subject employers to new liability under the FLSA. Just last year, the Eleventh Circuit (Alabama, Florida, and Georgia) in Malivuk v. Ameripark, LLC held that the FLSA does not authorize an employee to sue her employer solely for an employer allegedly withholding her tips when the employee does not allege that she received less than the minimum wage or less than what she was entitled to for overtime work. The rider creates a new cause of action solely for withheld tips.
If you have any questions about what these potential changes may mean for your business or would like more information on navigating wage and hour laws, please contact Tim Holdsworth at tholdsworth@fmglaw.com.