U.S. Department of Labor issues final rule for restaurant owners on tip credit, server side work

Looks like restaurant front-of-house managers dodged an administrative bullet.

The U.S. Department of Labor last week unveiled long-awaited final version of proposed changes to federal tip credit rules. Under its revamp, restaurant managers could have been required to closely monitor tipped employees’ work and deem whether it's “relevant” server side work.

In short, the final rule won’t require managers to document the minutiae of each server’s shift, which is basically what the proposed changes would have mandated.

Thursday’s rule restores the Obama-era “80/20” rule, which states that an employer can take a tip credit only when the worker is performing tip-producing work.

For those unfamiliar, the “80/20 rule,” or the “dual jobs” portion of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) gives employers the ability to pay a sub-minimum wage for tip-supporting work. However, that's only allowed if the worker spends less than 20% of hours worked during a workweek, or less than 30 minutes continuously, on tip-supporting work.

Read more: https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/us-department-of-labor-issues-final-rule-for-restaurant-owners-on-tip-credit-server-side-work/Content?oid=27471679