Appeals court upholds limit on sharing of tips among workers

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By SUDHIN THANAWALA

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Businesses cannot collect tips given to waiters, casino dealers or other service employees to share with support staff such as dishwashers even if the tipped employees are receiving minimum wage, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The 2-1 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2011 U.S. Labor Department rule.

The 9th Circuit said Tuesday that the rule was reasonable and consistent with Congress's goal of ensuring tips stay with employees who receive them.

The court overturned district courts in Nevada and Oregon. The 9th Circuit ruling would largely apply to states that require workers to get the state minimum wage on top of any tips. Seven states fall into that category, according to the labor department's Wage and Hour Division: Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/5af61ce470e34f6d8b246b97d485998c/appeals-court-upholds-limit-sharing-tips-among-workers

[trixicopper]

1. I have mixed feelings about this.

I've been in the restaurant business for over 30 years as a tipped employee. I live in one of the states where tipped employees make the same minimum as anyone else(no tip credit laws). We also have one of the highest minimums in the country.

Personally, I don't begrudge tipping out to back of the house employees. I know that I am subsidizing their wages which ideally should not be my responsibility, but I also know that I make a lot more money than they do.

I've worked in places where tipping out was completely voluntary and places where all the servers paid into a pool nightly ( 2 to 2.5% of sales) which was divided up every pay period and distributed among the back of house employees. For myself I prefer paying into a pool.

#1 It saves me a lot of money over the course of the year.
#2 It's fair. All the servers pay the same rate.
#3 The back of house workers get some extra money.

This seems to me something that is going to sow division and cause bad feelings. Realistically I don't see these people getting raises any time soon to offset the loss of any tips they get from the front of the house. As corny as it sounds, teamwork really is important. Because when things go sideways,and they will,we all have to work together.

My other concern is that this will be used as an excuse by the restaurant association to go back to the state capitol to lobby once again for a tip credit law. So far in my state they have been unsuccessful, but they keep trying.

To those who say that tipping should be abolished and servers should just be paid a higher wage, say $15.00 an hour, I say I can't support that. You are asking me to take a 2/3 pay cut. I absolutely support abolishing tip credit laws which are an abomination.

[alcina]

2. So do I

and for many of the same reasons you list. I no longer work in the service industry, but when I go to restaurants, I like to think the money I leave as a tip will be shared with, among others, the person who cleaned the table before I sat down, the people who made the food I'm eating, the person who washed the dishes, the person who cleaned bathroom, and any other hourly employee who contributed to the whole dining experience.

I think some wait staff will still tip out -- I know I would. It's just the right thing to do. But there will be those who are happy not to. Of course, I also worked in some places where tipping out wasn't mandatory; and the back-of-house people knew who wasn't on their side, and they treated them accordingly when they could.

[Egnever]

4. I am pretty sure this comes from a casino

As far as the Nevada case goes. Steve Wynn arbitrarily decided the dealers needed to share tips with the rest of the floor after a big player bet a huge hand for the dealers and they won.

He was pissed at the dealer for losing the hand and decided if they were going to get that much of his money they would share it with the rest of the house. Which is ridiculous and not done anywhere but Wynns casinos.

Glad he lost it took years though.

[Egnever]

3. Awesome.!

Screw you Steve Wynn!

I took a long time but now you can eat it.

[TBF]

5. This whole "tipping" thing should be scrapped in favor of actual wages -

business owners should be required to compensate their workers for labor.

Edit to add: To be clear I mean $15.00/hr all positions minimum. After that if there is additional tipping in any position it is completely voluntary.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. a really nasty piece of work in the southern suburbs of Chicago

has a Sushi/steakhouse combo.
She not only takes all the tips (allegedly to share among all staff including bus and dishwashers), she keeps 70% and splits the 30% among all the workers.

We've quit going there because of how she treats staff.