Steamed over tip $ituation
A restaurant industry group on Thursday urged the US Supreme Court to take a case that could reset the compensation formula for restaurant workers from coast to coast.
The newly formed Restaurant Law Center wants the high court to overturn a Labor Department regulation that bars waiters and waitresses from pooling tips with kitchen workers — even if both groups are paid the same per-hour wage.
The regulation overturned court precedent and expanded a rule that had distinguished between workers paid at or above the minimum wage and those paid less than the minimum wage because their compensation included tips.
The old rule allowed “tip pooling” among all workers paid minimum wage.
But in 2011, the Labor Department declared all tips “the property of the employee whether or not the employer has taken a tip credit.”
The RLC’s petition on behalf of the National Restaurant Association asks the court to examine whether the Labor Department has the right to enforce tip-credit restrictions on employers who pay staff minimum wage.