Tips & Tipping

Focused male bellhop placing bags on luggage cart for a guest check in

Are You Properly Paying Your Bell Staff? 5 Top Questions for Hotels that Take a Tip Credit

by Fisher Phillips in Human Resources, Legal. Posted October 10, 2023

Hotel staff often include a mix of tipped and non-tipped jobs, but following wage and hour rules isn’t always easy, particularly if employees perform a variety of tasks. Some workers — such as servers and bartenders — may neatly fit into the “tipped employee” category, but you may have more difficulty determining whether other workers ...

Foreground focus is on a glass jar labeled "tips" in chalk. The jar is sitting to one side on a rustic wooden table, full of coins and bills, with coffee shop scenery in the background.

Labor Department’s “New” Tip Credit Rule is Here to Stay…For Now: A 10-Step Plan for Hospitality Employers

by Fisher Phillips in Food & Beverage, Human Resources. Posted August 10, 2023

A federal court just refused to block the U.S. Department of Labor’s infamous 80/20 rule, which applies to employers that take the tip credit toward their minimum wage obligation under federal wage and hour law – which means now’s time to ensure you’re in compliance. Several restaurant industry groups filed a lawsuit seeking to halt ...

Hospitality Case Review: The Top 100+ Hospitality Cases That Impacted Us in 2018

by Karen Morris in Legal. Posted June 20, 2019

Written by Karen Morris, J.D., LL.M. and Diana S. Barber, J.D., CHE, CWP ADA/Standing1. Brito v. Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, LLC, 2018 WL 317464 (D. Colo., 01/08/2018). Plaintiff is a paraplegic and requires the use of a wheelchair to ambulate. While at defendant hotel he encountered multiple violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ...

Tips, Service Charges, and Automatic Gratuities Continue to Cause Problems for Employers

by Jordan Schwartz in Human Resources, Legal. Posted November 22, 2018

Hospitality employers nationwide continue to be hit with class action lawsuits alleging failure to properly pay/distribute tips, as well as failure to correctly characterize service charges and automatic gratuities. These lawsuits have the potential to result in verdicts or settlement amounts more costly than virtually any other employment-related matter. As a result, it is important to ...

Scaling The Wall Of Conflicting Tip-Credit Provisions

by Corey Goerdt in Legal. Posted February 27, 2017

Corey Goerdt of Fisher & Phillips takes a look at the recent development of tip-credit procedures. Many of these procedures take effect in the early part of this year and are as varied as they are complicated per state and federal standards. We’ve all struggled with what to do when we’re given conflicting orders. Grandma ...

On the Sideboard: Tip Deductions, Side Work, and Meal Credits

by Fisher Phillips in Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted August 22, 2016

by Wendy McGuire Coats and Rochelle Nelson What kinds of employment-related issues are other restaurants facing? Here’s a quick look this summer’s court activity. No Deductions in Tips for Cash Deliveries. A restaurant chain came under fire for violating federal wage and hour laws by deducting cash handling fees from its employee’s tips. The restaurant ...

As Minimum Wages Rise, Restaurants Say No to Tips, Yes to Higher Prices

by Patricia Cohen in Food & Beverage, Human Resources. Posted August 24, 2015

SEATTLE — Restaurant owners, customers and staff have long railed against the tyranny of tipping, but like a love affair gone bad, it has proved difficult to quit. Now, prompted by a spurt of new minimum wage proposals in major cities, an expanding number of restaurateurs are experimenting with no-tipping policies as a way to ...