The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed to rescind restrictions on tip pooling by restaurants that pay the full minimum wage to tipped employees.
The Obama administration put restrictions on this practice in 2011. It maintained that tips belong to employees, not restaurant owners, and could not be distributed to other workers or kept by the employer, even if the employer doesn’t take a tip credit and directly pays tipped employees the full minimum wage.
Under the tip-credit provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers can pay tipped employees a reduced hourly wage of $2.13 per hour as long as those employees receive enough tips to bring their hourly rate to at least $7.25, which is the federal minimum wage. The employer must make up for the difference if the employee doesn’t receive enough in tips to reach the minimum wage. read more – http://www.pmq.com/July-2017/Trump-Administration-Wants-to-Make-Tip-Pooling-Legal-Again-for-Restaurants/