Dept. of Labor covered up data on proposed tip rule costing servers BILLIONS

This morning we learned that the Department of Labor — which has proposed a dangerous new rule that would allow employers to pocket their employees’ tips — CONCEALED an analysis by its own staff that showed the proposal would cost workers billions of dollars. Instead of releasing the analysis to the public, according to a report by Bloomberg [1], the agency’s leadership instead hid the information and claimed it couldn’t estimate the full economic effects of transferring ownership of tips from the employees who earned them to their employers.

This cover-up shows that the rule was never meant to help working people. And women, who make up two-thirds of tipped workers, would lose the most. The Department of Labor must withdraw the rule now — not only because it would cost working women $4.6 billion a year, but because the integrity of the rule-making process has been compromised by the agency’s deception. Tell the Department of Labor it must withdraw the tip-stealing rule now.

Please, tell the Department of Labor it won’t get away with it. Comments on this rule close in just a few days, so now is the moment to make our voices heard.

Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel National Women's Law Center

[1] https://bnanews.bna.com/daily-labor-report/labor-dept-ditches-data-on-worker-tips-retained-by-businesses

Submit a public comment: Resist Trump’s tip theft

Submit a public comment to the Department of Labor: "I oppose the proposed 'Tip Regulations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)' regulation (RIN: 1235-AA21). This rule would overturn decades of federal and state law and precedent safeguarding tips as the property of workers, by allowing employers to take control of their employees' tips."

Donald Trump’s Department of Labor is trying to steal tips from restaurant servers and give them to owners, instead.1 Restaurant workers are more likely to be women and people of color, more likely to be sexually harassed on the job and are already one of the worst-paid professions. This would make matters worse: Under the new rule, restaurant owners would keep tips intended for servers and dole them out, or pocket them as they please.2 The Trump regime is trying to rush through a change to 40 years of precedent during the holiday season.3 We can’t let that happen – so we’re teaming up with our friends at Restaurant Opportunities Centers United to generate as many public comments as possible before the urgent deadline. Can you help? Submit a public comment: Resist Trump’s tip theft. Click here to submit your comment. Once again, Trump is using sneaky, underhanded maneuvers to crush working people while an adoring press labels him a populist. The National Restaurant Association – a group that represents wealthy restaurant owners, not the workers who produce profits – has been pushing for this change for a long time, and now Trump’s Department of Labor is trying to help them sneak it through during the holiday season.4 The fact that workers have to rely on tips is already an outrage. Tipping began as an excuse not to pay Black workers after emancipation, and expanded from there. Ever since Democrats passed the first fair pay minimum wage laws, tips have been protected. Workers who receive tips may even be paid below the normal minimum wage – as little as $2.13 per hour – leaving them dependent on tips to survive.5 In 2012, the Obama administration reiterated 40 years of precedent and said employees own their own tips. If Trump gets his way, that rule will be reversed. Powerful restaurant owners could pocket tips – or dole them out at their pleasure, not the customers, making workers even more at risk of sexual harassment and abuse and perpetuating racial exploitation.6 Trying to rush through this change during the holiday season shows the Trump Department of Labor is susceptible to public pressure. We need a flood of comments opposing the change as soon as possible. Submit a public comment: Resist Trump’s tip theft. Click here to submit your comment. Business-backed, right-wing Republicans have been chipping away at fair pay for years, even as they oppose a living wage or increasing the minimum wage. Lawsuits have managed to give employers control of tips in 14 states. The restaurant industry likes to talk about “pooling” tips – but it’s not the workers deciding to share tips with each other, it’s the bosses taking the money and doling it out as they please.7 Trump is no populist – he’s a scam artist who got rich denying working people pay and is carrying on in office helping well-heeled restaurant owners steal from their employees. With a wave of comments, we can expose Trump as a phony and stall the Department of Labor’s rush to legalize tip theft. Submit a public comment: Resist Trump’s tip theft. Click below to submit your comment: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/tiptheft?t=8&akid=26684%2E3130208%2EtenrVn - Murshed Zaheed, Political Director CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: MORE INFORMATION Women would lose $4.6 billion in earned tips if the administration’s ‘tip stealing’ rule is finalized References: Sharon Block and Christine Owens, “Trump Wants You to Tip Restaurant Owners, Not Servers,” Dec. 7, 2017. Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, “Our Tips Belong to Us,” (PDF) Oct. 2017. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid.

Submit official comment to Dept. of Labor to protect tipped wages of servers

Since taking office, Donald Trump has continuously sided with Wall Street, big business and the Chamber of Commerce over working people.

He has allowed Wall Street “investors” to fleece retirement savers out of billions of dollars.

He is letting employers hide fatal injuries that happen on their watch.

He has refused to uphold overtime pay rules that would raise the wages of millions of working people, and much more!

Time and again, Donald Trump has undone or refused to enforce rules that protect the rights and wages of working people. And now he’s siding with the National Restaurant Association over tipped workers.

Donald Trump’s Department of Labor has proposed a new rule that would let restaurant owners steal the tips of its servers. EPI estimates that employers could pocket roughly $5.8 billion in workers’ tips each year under Trump’s proposed rule.

Submit an official comment to the Department of Labor today to oppose this proposed rule and to protect the tipped wages of servers.

DOL has proposed this rule under the guise of sharing tips with untipped employees like cooks and dishwashers. But nothing in the rule actually requires employers to distribute the pooled tips―meaning managers and owners would have the right to pocket them.

Additionally, DOL did not provide its own estimate of the amount of tips that will be transferred from workers to employers―even though such an estimate is legally required.

One plausible explanation for why DOL left out the required estimate is that any good-faith estimate would have shown this proposed rule will result in a substantial shift of tips from workers to employers (EPI estimates the shift would be roughly $5.8 billion).

But before Donald Trump’s DOL can implement this awful rule, they are required to hold a public comment period.

Stand with EPI and millions of tipped workers across the country. Submit your official comment to the Department of Labor to oppose this rule and to protect the tipped wages of working people.

Together, we’re standing up to an administration that shows its repeated contempt for working people. We’re demanding an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few!

- Heidi Shierholz
Senior Economist and Director of Policy, EPI