Tag: tip pooling

Tip pooling policies are a controversial topic in the restaurant industry – we decided to learn more about tip pooling policies and the effect they have on workers and customers. With the need to raise wages for kitchen workers, plus recent changes to federal regulations and laws governing the distribution of tips, tip pooling policies are an issue everyone in the restaurant industry is familiar with. (Poached)

Buried deep within the 2,000-plus pages of the Consolidated Appropriations Act signed into law earlier this year are three pages of legislative language that amend the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, of 1938 to prohibit employers — including managers and supervisors — from “keeping” tips received by employees for any purpose. What is most unusual, however, is that the new prohibition is not linked to the employer’s taking of a tip credit against its minimum wage obligations. (Nation’s Restaurant News)

Cooks and dishwashers at restaurants can now benefit from tips just like waiters and other “front of the house” staff thanks to a rollback in federal law. The policy change enacted last month gets rid of a 2011 rule by the Department of Labor that didn’t allow restaurants to have tip pools to share with “back of the house” employees that wouldn’t normally get tips such as cooks or dishwashers. (Spokesman-Review)