Vaught Firm, LLC, 1910 Pacific Avenue, Suite 9150, Dallas, Texas 75201
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With the exception of valid tip pooling arrangements, an employer may not keep an employee's tips. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") was specifically amended in 2018 to protect employee tips.
Under the FLSA, an employer may not keep tips received by its employees for any purposes, including allowing managers or supervisors to keep any portion of employees’ tips, regardless of whether or not the employer takes a tip credit. Also, the employer cannot take a portion of an employee's tips to cover certain employer related expenses, such as the cost of having cash on hand to pay out tips.
If employers violate the FLSA tip law, then they may owe the employee significant wages and penalties. If your employer illegally keeps some or all of your tips, you may be owed double the amount of tips improperly kept by the employer. Also, if your employer uses a tip credit for the FLSA minimum wage law (e.g. pays you $2.13 per hour and relies on tips to make up the difference to meet the $7.25 per hour FLSA minimum wage), they will generally also have to pay you double the amount of the tip credit.
The FLSA also requires an employer who violates the tip protection law to pay legal fees and costs to the prevailing employee's attorney. The FLSA does not require an employee to pay legal fees to the employer.
This webpage should not be considered legal advice. Contact the Vaught Firm for a no cost initial consultation to learn more about the applicable law relative to your specific situation. The content of this page is based on federal law within the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Texas state law.