The Federal Financial Forum

From: Society for Human Resources Management

By Lisa Nagele-Piazza, SHRM-SCP, J.D.

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta says he backs legislation that would prevent employers from taking tips from workers.

“I fully support a provision that says establishments should not be permitted to keep any portion of a tip,” he said at a March 6 U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee hearing. He suggested, however, that such a directive should come from Congress in the form of legislation, and not as a rule from his agency.

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From: Kreis Enderle

By Jesse Young

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The stated purpose of the rule is to help decrease wage disparities between tipped and non-tipped workers – an option that is currently restricted by the 2011 rule. Critics of the rule claim that employers could do whatever they want with the tips, including keeping a portion for restaurant improvements or sharing them with salaried managers.

The DOL’s proposed rule would only apply where employers pay a full minimum wage and do not take a tip credit and allow sharing tips through a tip pool with employees who do not traditionally receive direct tips. The proposed rule w

From: Forbes

Michael Saltsman , Contributor

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FACT: The proposed rule would rescind a controversial 2011 Obama administration regulation that prohibited back-of-the-house employees from receiving tips. This rule was already the subject of extensive legal scrutiny, first challenged by a lawsuit that included an Oregon server (Susan Ponton) who wanted kitchen staff included in her restaurant’s tip pool:

As a result [of the 2011 DOL rule, Ponton] will be prohibited from continuing to enjoy the benefits from this form of a tip pool, including increased camaraderie between front-of-house and back-of-house employees, a higher level of teamwork among the employees and a higher level of service to customers as a result all of which directly results in higher tips for Ponton and the rest of the employees.

The Department of Labor received nearly 400,000 comments on its proposal to authorize the pooling of tips; the overwhelming number of the comments were in opposition to the proposal.

There is an urgent need to supplement the docket with real  world experiences that document the benefits to be achieved from tip pooling. Normally an Interactive Public Docket (IPD) is used to serve this need. Here is an IPD that the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness, CRE, utilized which attracted  nearly a thousand letters–not form letters– from  only one post. There were a number of other posts that received comments in the hundreds.

From: Financial Regulation News

By Dave Kovaleski 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is looking for feedback from the public on the bureau’s enforcement processes.

In a Request for Information (RFI) issued this week, the CFPB said it is seeking information to help assess the overall efficiency and effectiveness of its processes related to the enforcement of federal consumer financial law. The RFI gives the public an opportunity to submit feedback and suggest ways to improve outcomes for both consumers and covered entities.

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