As part of its effort to undo regulatory reforms issued during the Trump Administration, the Biden Administration’s Labor Department (DOL) has been scrutinizing revisions to the regulations governing tip ownership and tip pools that were issued in the final days of the Trump Administration. As part of its review, earlier this year DOL put a hold on the revised rules and has been allowing some of them to go into effect in phases, making changes along the way to accommodate concerns expressed by organized labor and other worker advocates.
In the latest phase of the rules allowed to go into effect, last week DOL issued another batch of the revised tip regulations, albeit with changes. From an employer perspective, the changes are a mixed bag. On one hand, they further restrict the ability of supervisors and managers to retain tips for services they provide. On the other hand, they include retention of a less arbitrary test for determining if a violation of the rules is “willful,” and also provide employers some additional flexibility regarding managers and supervisors’ contributions to tip pools.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.