DeLauro, Murray Urge DOL to Withdraw Misguided Tip Regulations

WASHINGTON, DC – (December 16, 2019) Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,sent a detailed letter to the United States Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Eugene Scalia outlining their objections to DOL's proposed tip regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The proposed regulations follow DeLauro and Murray's amendment to the 2018 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which were written and enacted to ensure workers maintained ownership of their tips.

"As the authors of the 2018 amendments, we find the proposed rule is contrary to both the congressional intent and plain language of the 2018 amendments to the FLSA," wrote the Members. "First, it proposes to allow employers to keep employees' tips—both by keeping employees' tips to offset back-of-the-house workers' wages generally and to offset tipped workers' wages specifically when they perform non-tip-producing work. Second, it proposes to impermissibly narrow which workers are prohibited from keeping employees' tips as ‘managers or supervisors.' Third, it restricts civil penalties to only those employers who steal tips repeatedly or willfully."

"We request DOL withdraw its proposed rulemaking and, instead, faithfully enforce the FLSA's protections regarding employees' tips that we wrote in the 2018 amendments," continued the Members. "Thank you for your consideration of these views."

A signed copy of the full letter can be found here.

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