What is tipping? It is a form of employee compensation in which employees receive wages from the employer and customers. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Texas Payday Law both recognize tips as wages to the tipped employee. They are subject to minimum wage requirements, overtime pay and other wage rules. El Paso has a large number of service industry employees so this is a big issue. Here at Martinez & Martinez Law Firm we help clients in El Paso, West Texas, and New Mexico with tipping issues under federal and state employment laws.
What are your rights? Tipped employees receive $7.25 minimum wage UNLESS the employer notified the employee in writing that it intends to take the tip credit on minimum wage. The tip credit allows the employer to pay $2.13 so long through a combination of tips and the employers $2.13 hourly contribution the employer is only required to calculate overtime based on $7.25 hourly. Your employer may not change the work week to prevent paying overtime. For example, your employer may not shorten the week or change the start and end dates of the week. Your employer also cannot roll hours over from week to week to cap pay at forty hours. The employer cannot give you paid time off in a different week or some other benefit instead of overtime pay. If your employer does this you should speak with an employment lawyer (such as Martinez & Martinez Law Firm) right away.
What about tip pooling and tipping out in El Paso, Texas? Per federal and state law, tips are compensation to the employee. Tip pooling is when tipped employees pool some or all of their tips and then split them. Tipping out is when the tipped employees give a percent of the tips to toher tip-eligible employees who assist the service provided. Texas law allows the employer to require tipped employees to join the tip pool or to tipping out. But there are limitations. The employer can only require this on tips that exceed the amount needed to reach minimum wage ($7.25).
What can i do? If you believe your employer failed to pay minimum wage, overtime pay, or improperly requires you to tip out or pool tips, you should talk to an employment lawyer (such as Martinez & Martinez Law Firm) right away. You can recover wages owed to you for these violations.
This blog is for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice. This information is based on Federal and Texas law. Law may be interpreted or applied differently by different states.
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