Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.
Tipped Wage Litigation|OSHA Expands Outreach
Rebecca Rainey: There could be an update this week on whether a court is willing to suspend enforcement of a Biden administration rule requiring tipped workers be paid the full minimum wage when they aren’t doing tip-earning duties. A conference is scheduled June 27 in a lawsuit brought by two restaurant industry groups who are requesting that the US District Court for the Western District of Texas block the tipped wage rule while their legal challenge against the regulation plays out.
The rule at issue requires employers to pay the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to tipped workers who earn the $2.13 hourly subminimum wage if they perform non-tipped work for at least 20% of their hours a week, or for more than 30 minutes straight. Workers in many states already have seen their wages increase, however, as those state legislatures have raised hourly minimum wages and tipped wages above federal minimum rates.
The tipping rule has been in effect since December 2021, but the Restaurant Law Center and Texas Restaurant Association said its requirements create devastating compliance costs for employers, and that Congress never explicitly authorized the US Labor Department to issue such a rule.
Initially, Judge Robert Pitman ruled in February 2022 that the business costs from implementing the measure wouldn’t amount to enough harm to warrant an injunction to halt enforcement,...
Foley partner Lisa Noller, Chair of the Firm’s Litigation Department, will be speaking at the American Bar Association’s Qui Tam & Civil False Claims and Healthcare Fraud Institute in Washingt...