Houston Employment Lawyers for Tip Pool Violations

What are Tip Pool Violations?

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) aims to protect restaurant workers from wage violations, but these regulations aren’t always enough to keep employers accountable. If you think you may be a victim of tip pool violations in a restaurant job, make sure you know your rights.

Tipping violations may seem minor, but they can drastically affect the income of employees who rely on tips as their main source of income. In addition to unfair tip distribution, employers can commit other tip violations that could impact employees. Employers are not allowed to use tips to bring their employee’s overall earnings up to minimum wage, nor can they distribute tips to themselves or any other employees in managing roles. 

Tipping Pool Laws in Texas

According to the FLSA, employers may legally gather the tips of tipped employees to distribute via a tipping pool. Additionally, the law permits employers to pay employees less than minimum wage, so long as the employees are tipped enough to meet minimum wage. The FLSA has several rules in place to protect the rights of employees who rely on tips to earn a fair living.

Tipped employees are not to share their earnings with non-tipped workers. Common examples of tipped employees include servers, bussers, bellhops, concierge workers, bartenders, and movers. Any worker who receives minimum wage, does not rely on tips, and has no interaction with the customers should not be involved in the tipping pool. Managers, supervisors, and other similar roles are also exempt from the tipping pool. If your tips are distributed to any of these positions, you could be the victim of a tipping pool violation.

The Houston employment attorneys of Shellist Lazarz Slobin have ample experience fighting for the rights of restaurant workers, and our firm is currently investigating potential violations at restaurants under Landry’s Inc., Brinker International, and Lettuce Entertain Your Restaurant groups. If you think you may have an employment law case based in tipping violations, our Houston employment lawyers are prepared to help determine whether you have grounds for legal action.

How Should Tips Be Distributed?

In many restaurants, hotels, and other workplaces where tipping is common, tips may be pooled so that they can be redistributed among the applicable employees. However, in this situation, not all employees may be legally eligible to receive a portion of the tips. According to the current wage laws, the tip pool should only be shared with employees who have direct interaction with the customers. Other employees who do not face the customers are not eligible to receive tips, and if they are tipped, their share takes away from the portion client-facing employees have fairly earned.

How Do I Know If There Are Tip Pool Violations Where I Work?

In general, a non-tipped employee is someone who is paid at least minimum wage and does not interact with customers—for example, a cook, dishwasher, or delivery personnel.

Examples of tipped employees include:

• Waiters / waitresses
• Bartenders
• Bellhops
• Concierge
• Food preparers at a sandwich or deli store
• Grocery baggers
• Bus employees
• Movers

If your employer has a tip pool and shares proceeds from it with employees who do not have direct interaction with customers, he or she may be in violation of wage laws. Further, any manager or employee that has the power to hire or fire others, determine employee pay, administer employee records, or supervise scheduling should not qualify for tips. Additionally, when an employer pays a non-tipped employee less than minimum wage and uses the tip pool to bring him or her up to minimum wage, a tip pool violation has occurred.

What Should I Do if I Think There Are Tip Pool Violations?

If you believe your employer is breaking wage laws through violation of tip pools, contact the Texas tip pool violation attorneys at Shellist Lazarz Slobin today. We can evaluate your case and discuss how best to proceed in order to protect your job and your pay. If you confront your employer first without understanding what the law says and what your protections are, you could lose your job and any chance of documenting tip pool violations.

Call Shellist Lazarz Slobin at (713) 352-3433 to arrange a consultation with our Houston tip pool violation lawyers.