The U.S. Department of Labor just proposed new regulations that would allow restaurant owners to legally steal tips from servers. The new rules were supposedly designed to address the pay discrepancy between tipped servers and hourly cooks and dishwashers, but the Trump administration has gone too far, giving far too much control to employers.
Please join in demanding that the U.S. Department of Labor rewrite the regulations to protect servers from wage theft by their employers!Under the new rules, restaurant owners would control all tip money. The hope is that owners will distribute tips fairly among servers and back-of-the-house staff, but the reality is that they can now pocket tips themselves if they so choose since they are allowed to take tips of servers who make the federal minimum wage of $7.25. As a result, restaurant owners might be incentivized to increase their servers' pay to the federal minimum wage just so that they can start co-opting their tips.
Servers rely on tips for their livelihood whether they're making $2.50 an hour or $7.25 an hour. While hourly cooks and dishwashers should get a piece of that pie, these new regulations are not the answer.
Please sign this petition, and let's tell the U.S. Department of Labor to find a new way to distribute tips that doesn't allow restaurant owners to screw over their employees. 