Is it legal to mandate tip pooling without our agreement or our prior knowledge?
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Is it legal to mandate tip pooling without our agreement or our prior knowledge?
I work at a private country club where they recently hired a new Food and Beverage Director. He has implemented a new compensation policy in which our hourly rate is $7.00/hour plus each worker receives an equal cut of the 10% in total sales for that shift servers bartenders food runner etc. What he did not inform us of and which we were not aware of until we received our first paycheck is that he also takes all of our gratuities that are added to member accounts and equally splits those among all workers as well. We are unanimous that we do not agree with him and expressed this to him. He refuses to change his policy. Although at one point he did agree to it but then explained how he would manipulate the 10% in total sales to ensure everyone makes the same amount of money anyway. I’m not sure there are any legality issues with this but he also takes the books from the tables and if there is cash takes the cash out of the book and places it on the bar because ideally he wants us to split our cash tips as well.
Asked on March 19, 2012 under Employment Labor Law, Illinois
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Under the fact pattern than you have written, it seems impermisisble for the food and beverage director to allocate the ways the tips are divided amongst employees after the fact, meaning after they have been hired and without a unanimous agreement by all in writing.
Tips are given to the individual server for good service. It seems inherently unfair for an employee to share tips if that was not the agreement of all servers. Some servers are simply better than others and they typically get better tips.
I suggest that if you want to pursue this matter further, adise the new food and beverage director that the new policy is unacceptable and if your concerns are not resolved, your recourse is to consult with an attorney that practices in the area of labor law and/or make a complaint with your local labor department against your employer.
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