Monthly Archives: October 2011

By:  Ana S. Salper

With the recent surge in class action wage and hour lawsuits, hospitality employers have developed a heightened sensitivity to tip pooling arrangements, distributions of service charges to employees, and application of the “tip credit.” A case before the U.S. Supreme Court this month, Applebee’s International Inc. v. Gerald A. Fast et al., is likely to add further fuel to the fiery “tip credit” world,  as the high court will have to decide whether tipped employees should be paid minimum wage for nontipped tasks employees perform.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), tipped employees can be paid below minimum wage – as low as $2.13 per hour – so long as employees earn enough tips to reach the minimum wage (which is $7.25 under federal law, although state minimum wages may be higher).  In the case pending before the high court, Applebee’s is asking the Court to decide whether employers can use the tip credit to pay tipped employees — namely, waiters and bartenders — below minimum wage even if they spend more than 20 percent of their time performing nontipped tasks. Applebee’s is challenging a U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) rule that requires an employer to pay a tipped employee the regular minimum wage if they spend more than 20% of their work time in a given week performing non-tipped duties.