Labor Department Proposes Killing Obama Tip Pooling Rule

The Labor Department wants to remove an Obama-era regulation that restricted the circumstances in which employers could force workers to share tips.

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, in a proposed rule released Dec. 4, calls for rescinding the 2011 regulation that prohibited restaurants, bars, and other service industry employers from requiring front-of-house employees, such as servers, to share tips with back-of-house workers, such as cooks and dishwashers.

“Our proposal only applies where an employer pays a full minimum wage and does not take the tip credit,” a Labor Department official told Bloomberg Law. “These are restaurant cooks and dishwashers, ...