Tip-Pooling May Head to the Supreme Court

Photo: Eater.com

The National Restaurant Association (NRA)  has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case to decide if employee tips may be collected by the employer and pooled among tipped and/or non-tipped employees. As a recap, in 2011 in response to a court ruling, the Department of Labor amended the  Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to specifically outlaw the practice of sharing tips between tipped employees and non-tipped employees. Now,  the NRA — which wants tipped and non-tipped employees to be able to share tips — is questioning the DOL’s authority to make changes to those laws. This all started from a 2010 case, Cumbie v. Woody Woo Inc., in which a server in Oregon sued her employer because her tips were being pooled between front and back-of-house staff. The case was initially dismissed but then appealed and favored with Woody Woo Inc. To read more about how tip-pooling works and and what is at stake, click here.