Tue, 01/12/2021
MSE partner Molly Elkin provided legal perspective on the Department of Labor’s final rules on tipping in the restaurant industry in a recent article in The Washington Post.
[“Once restaurants are up and going again, they’re going to be taking advantage of workers and having these waiters and waitresses come in early, stay late, do tons of non-tip-generating work that they’re going to get paid $2.13 an hour for,” Elkin said.]
These rules, published by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division on Dec. 30, eliminate the ’80/20’ rule, which stated that “employees could spend as much as 20 percent of their time performing non-tipped tasks but still get paid the tipped minimum wage for their entire shift,” and establish ‘nontraditional’ tipping pools, allowing owners to share tips with employees who don’t traditionally receive tips, such as line cooks and other back-of-the-house workers.
Partner Molly Elkin breaks it down simply as she notes, “the employer is getting something that no other employer gets, which is they don’t have to pay the minimum wage for the non-tipped work.”
These rules are to take effect on March 1, 2021.
Visit the full WSP article for more coverage on these final rules, and see here for additional resources for workers in the restaurant and food service industry.
Email our team at info@mselaborlaw.com if you have any questions about your rights in the workplace.
