Employers in service industries are well advised to pay close attention to their practices and policies affecting customers’ tips for their employees. There are a variety of ways in which missteps can run afoul of federal or state laws, including the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Employees might contend, for example, that the employer is effectively reducing their tip income by imposing various fees or other charges on customers. Or, contrary to a requirement in the FLSA, employees who are paid less than the minimum wage might not be getting enough in tip income to make up the difference between their hourly rate and the minimum wage.
Recent cases in the news involved yet another alleged violation, sometimes taking place on a very large scale, where employees are made to share tip income with fellow employees who supervise them.
In one of the tip-sharing cases, a state court ruled in favor of a class of plaintiffs consisting of baristas, or coffee counter servers, whose tips were required to be shared with their shift supervisors, in violation of state law.
Change left for tips apparently adds up, as the judgment for the tens of thousands of servers, for about an eight-year period, topped $100 million, including interest.
The case was not cut-and-dried, as the supervisors were themselves hourly workers who had customer service duties in addition to the responsibility of scheduling workers and giving directions to the baristas. It was not a case of highly paid bosses dipping into the tip jars filled by customers they never saw in person.
When a shift supervisor hands a customer his latte and muffin, and the customer responds with a tip, the customer may assume that the money, or at least part of it, goes to the supervisor. Instead, under the ruling, the supervisors must now keep their hands off the tips, and the employers must ensure such an outcome.
In the wake of this case, similar lawsuits have been filed against the same employer, a national chain, and against other employers in other states.
Companies in the restaurant, hotel, gaming, transportation, and delivery businesses face the largest risks for mishandling the treatment of tips. There is another pending case in which casino dealers have complained that an employer’s new policy illegally requires them to share tips with floor supervisors.
The legal issues surrounding the treatment of tips are murky enough in any one state, but further complicating the matter is the fact that there are variations among the states and between the statutes for a state and for the federal government. This makes it especially risky for national employers to assume that a one-size-fits-all policy on tips will be sufficient for all of their locations.
“Back-room” personnel, shift supervisors, hostesses, greeters, drink servers, and other similar positions could be treated differently depending on what state you are in. Employers should regularly assess their job descriptions and tip-sharing policies against applicable state and federal laws. This kind of audit is useful not only for detecting or avoiding possible violations, but for laying the groundwork for a potential “good-faith” defense under the FLSA if litigation ensues.