In order to be transparent and seek input from the diverse business and labor communities, L&I is currently seeking stakeholder feedback on a new draft administrative policy, ES.A.12.2 Tip, Gratuity, and Service Charge Examples.
We are asking the public to review the draft of the administrative policy by May 26, 2023.
Feedback can be submitted directly to this page via the “Submit Comments” tab, or using an attached document via the “Upload Documents” tab.
Feedback can also be submitted via the ESRules@Lni.wa.gov email box. Feedback submitted to the email box will be uploaded to this engagement site.
A virtual stakeholder feedback session to discuss the content of the draft administrative policies is being held on April 5, 2023 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Details on how to participate can be found on the timeline via the Project Timeline of the "Review Draft Administrative Policies" page.
A second virtual stakeholder feedback session will be held on May 15, 2023 from 10:30am-12:00pm.
In order to be transparent and seek input from the diverse business and labor communities, L&I is currently seeking stakeholder feedback on a new draft administrative policy, ES.A.12.2 Tip, Gratuity, and Service Charge Examples.
We are asking the public to review the draft of the administrative policy by May 26, 2023.
Feedback can be submitted directly to this page via the “Submit Comments” tab, or using an attached document via the “Upload Documents” tab.
Feedback can also be submitted via the ESRules@Lni.wa.gov email box. Feedback submitted to the email box will be uploaded to this engagement site.
A virtual stakeholder feedback session to discuss the content of the draft administrative policies is being held on April 5, 2023 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Details on how to participate can be found on the timeline via the Project Timeline of the "Review Draft Administrative Policies" page.
A second virtual stakeholder feedback session will be held on May 15, 2023 from 10:30am-12:00pm.
To submit your feedback directly to this page, please enter your comments in the text box below.
You need to be signed in to comment in this Guest Book. Click here to Sign In or Register to get involved
Where would I find the law that governs if an employer can deduct money from my check w/out a signed document?
P. Givens
2 months ago
The tip out process can be devastating if the server is not making any money. It needs to be considered many people dining out do not realize their server does not get to keep the whole tip that a customer leaves...especially when tip outs are based on a percentage of sales...not tips received. I have had to dip into my own pocket to cover tip outs. If I only receive an average of 10% tip and have to tip out 8.5% of total sales and on my paycheck my total tips before tipout is what I am being forced to claim and am taxed on...it now cost me $ out of my own pocket to cover a tip intended directly for me. The government needs to stay out of our money ....or come work with us for a few days and see the different issues factoring in to this. Also it needs to be considered as a bartender...I should not have to tip out the BOH on alcohol Another issue is that if a server/bartender is using their own bank to start every night and you do not have enough cash sales to cover what you made in CC tips ...so you have to wait 2 weeks to get your cc tips....but the house never has to wait to receive their money....and what happens when you are forced to tip out a flat percentage of sales and then divided by percentage between the cook, busser, host, expo, and bartender...but on my shift no host, expo, or busser is provided....and I am the bartender. So I am being forced to give all my tips away ....to people who are not there. The worst is when guests have no idea we don't get to keep the tip We definately are not walking out the door that night with it and often never get it...but people that are sitting at home the nights I work are given all my tips. These laws are based on the idea that people are leaving 20% tips minimum. They have to be based on that otherwise the state is forcing us to give all our tips away. If a server/bartender is forced to pay a sale based % as tip out a server/bartender per an overall average only breaks even after tip out and tax at a 20% customer based tip. Meaning we get no part of the tip but we do not have to pay out of pocket. So in many circumstances we are the least paid and provide 90% if not all the service. And the cooks, hosts, bussers, and expos are paid at a higher rate pay than us and we assume all the risk from a bartender aspect. If there is a 100% tip pool the unfair advantage there is that the seasoned server/bartender works harder than their teammates and receives the same amount as the person brand new and the experienced employee has to provide the training for this new person who gets half my money. If someone leaves a tip for me it is 100% designated gor me. I should be allowed 100% if that designated tip to tip out as I see appropriate as far as who and how much. It also should be ensured that my ips are in my possession as I leave my shift for the day or night. These laws thar are meant to protect us are forcing us to work longer harder hours just to survive. Stay out of our money! Please
Jennifer Leonard
7 months ago
I train our new employees at the higher end restaurant that I work at and where I apply my long years of experience to train what are basically apprentices, who directly benefit from my skills and knowledge. While I am training new employees, in order to provide excellent guest service, I am already losing money by serving less guests because I need to spend more of my time on training, than with guests. If the trainee is entitled to the tips that I would normally be earning, I can tell you that there will be no trainee, because I will refuse to train anyone if I have to give up my compensation to what is effectively an apprentice, causing that apprentice to earn more than an employee and that's not going to fly. There is absolutely no way that i will train someone if it costs me money. Read that again and again until it's comprehensible. This proposed rule change would devastate an industry that has been struggling to stay viable on the a pandemic and it's proposal is made by someone who is completely out of touch with our industry and this rule will actually hurt those that it is intended to help. May you get the service that you deserve.
Steven Marandola
11 months ago
There should be an example indicating that when managers are specifically tipped by customers, such as when they are the server for those customers, the customers intend some portion of the tip to go directly to that manager.
In a tip pool environment, even though the manager is not getting distributions from the tip pool, they are entitled to the full portion of the tip that is not contributed to the tip pool.
Russel Brunton
12 months ago
Trainees in a mandatory tip pool setting are not "similarly situated" to the employees that are both providing excellent customer service and making sure that the trainee is doing their job correctly. Until that trainee is able to work independently of the other staff, their contribution to the overall service is much lower, and supports keeping them out of the tip pool. Employers should be able to keep trainees out of the tip pool for some period of time until they are qualified to provide services unsupervised. Reducing the expert staff's compensation by including an untrained person in the tip pool is not fair to those that are providing top notch customer service while taking up the slack of the trainee.
Josh Lute
almost 1 year ago
We do a tip pool as well. We have the person who is the trainer be able to earn a dollar more/hour when they are training someone. I agree with the comments below that having someone be able to earn tips while they are training doesn't make sense. Companies that use a tip pool should be exempt from this change. Therefore I think that example 2-2 is what we do. I think as long as we would not be required to tip hourly employees while training.
Pilar J.
about 1 year ago
Can employers that are not in a customarily tipped industry, e.g. grocery stores, have policies against employees keeping direct tips? For example, if I work as a cashier at a grocery store, and a customer gives me a tip because I helped them with a special order, but my employer has a policy that says employees cannot accept tips and much put any such tips into a donation jar for a monthly charity, would that violate current tipping regulations?
If I am an independent contractor working an specific event, and my contract does not specify that I am entitled to tips, can my employer require that I turn in tips that I receive directly during the event?
James To
about 1 year ago
By definition, a tip, or a gratuity is for going above and beyond. How can an employee that is in training go above and beyond? They are in training, and they get paid their wage for training. The "gratuity" gets paid when they are working for the guest.
Robin Bernhart
about 1 year ago
Removed by moderator.
Tiffany Storer
about 1 year ago
In your example, "EXAMPLE 1-2: Employer withholds tips during training period.", you are showing intent that an interpretation change may occur on Trainee Employees. This would be a devastating change in the full-service restaurant world. Trainers (Bartenders and Servers) come from the high skilled staff in our organization and are asked to facilitate the young talent coming into our industry. They teach by demonstrating the skills of the job, and then shadowing the trainee over a short period of time, 10-14 days, to ensure the trainee understands and demonstrates the skills. These are tables/guests the Trainer would normally be assigned, and 100% of those tips should be directed to the Trainer - not the Trainee. Our industry still functions very much from an apprentice structure, and this training period must not be deemed the same as an employee’s post-training time. The window is relatively short (it may be longer in more complicated organizations, like Canlis), and functions as a necessary period for the new employees to gain skill. Additionally, none of the tip revenue is being retained by the business but is flowing 100% to the trainer employee.
Please remove this rule change from discussion, and maintain the current approach where Trainers are allocated 100% of tips collected during the Training Period. It may be reasonable to isolate the training period to be not more than 6 weeks, and that it must be defined within the employee job description at promotion and/or hiring. Additionally, the issue of promotion would need to be acceptable in this situation, where a young employee who was a busser/food runner could be promoted up to Server or Bartender, and they go through a training period then, as part of their newly accepted Job Description.
These issues are critical to the restaurant/service industry, and your current rules proposal would have devastating results. Please help us to stay viable.
Chris Siemens
about 1 year ago
For pooled tips in a counter service or catering scenario during training: when 100% tips go to employees, and they are advised upon hiring that they will earn tips at certain milestones (ie: cash tips earned after first week, charge tips earned when 4-week training schedule is complete, with possibility of occurring much sooner if they learn more quickly, or a bit later if they learn more slowly), is the employer in compliance? the employer is not taking direct tips (those are always kept by employee unless they wish to add it to the pool), and the employer is not keeping the trainee's tips (they are in the pool)
Monica D
about 1 year ago
A living wage min wage should be including tips that are put through payroll. Companies like ours does a tip pool and they all make closer to $28 + an hour. To keep dining more affordable the min wage for employees making tips should be lowered to $12.00 an hour but must balance to be $15.74 including tips.
Where would I find the law that governs if an employer can deduct money from my check w/out a signed document?
The tip out process can be devastating if the server is not making any money. It needs to be considered many people dining out do not realize their server does not get to keep the whole tip that a customer leaves...especially when tip outs are based on a percentage of sales...not tips received. I have had to dip into my own pocket to cover tip outs. If I only receive an average of 10% tip and have to tip out 8.5% of total sales and on my paycheck my total tips before tipout is what I am being forced to claim and am taxed on...it now cost me $ out of my own pocket to cover a tip intended directly for me. The government needs to stay out of our money ....or come work with us for a few days and see the different issues factoring in to this. Also it needs to be considered as a bartender...I should not have to tip out the BOH on alcohol
Another issue is that if a server/bartender is using their own bank to start every night and you do not have enough cash sales to cover what you made in CC tips ...so you have to wait 2 weeks to get your cc tips....but the house never has to wait to receive their money....and what happens when you are forced to tip out a flat percentage of sales and then divided by percentage between the cook, busser, host, expo, and bartender...but on my shift no host, expo, or busser is provided....and I am the bartender. So I am being forced to give all my tips away ....to people who are not there. The worst is when guests have no idea we don't get to keep the tip
We definately are not walking out the door that night with it and often never get it...but people that are sitting at home the nights I work are given all my tips. These laws are based on the idea that people are leaving 20% tips minimum. They have to be based on that otherwise the state is forcing us to give all our tips away. If a server/bartender is forced to pay a sale based % as tip out a server/bartender per an overall average only breaks even after tip out and tax at a 20% customer based tip. Meaning we get no part of the tip but we do not have to pay out of pocket. So in many circumstances we are the least paid and provide 90% if not all the service. And the cooks, hosts, bussers, and expos are paid at a higher rate pay than us and we assume all the risk from a bartender aspect. If there is a 100% tip pool the unfair advantage there is that the seasoned server/bartender works harder than their teammates and receives the same amount as the person brand new and the experienced employee has to provide the training for this new person who gets half my money. If someone leaves a tip for me it is 100% designated gor me. I should be allowed 100% if that designated tip to tip out as I see appropriate as far as who and how much. It also should be ensured that my ips are in my possession as I leave my shift for the day or night. These laws thar are meant to protect us are forcing us to work longer harder hours just to survive. Stay out of our money! Please
I train our new employees at the higher end restaurant that I work at and where I apply my long years of experience to train what are basically apprentices, who directly benefit from my skills and knowledge. While I am training new employees, in order to provide excellent guest service, I am already losing money by serving less guests because I need to spend more of my time on training, than with guests. If the trainee is entitled to the tips that I would normally be earning, I can tell you that there will be no trainee, because I will refuse to train anyone if I have to give up my compensation to what is effectively an apprentice, causing that apprentice to earn more than an employee and that's not going to fly. There is absolutely no way that i will train someone if it costs me money. Read that again and again until it's comprehensible. This proposed rule change would devastate an industry that has been struggling to stay viable on the a pandemic and it's proposal is made by someone who is completely out of touch with our industry and this rule will actually hurt those that it is intended to help. May you get the service that you deserve.
There should be an example indicating that when managers are specifically tipped by customers, such as when they are the server for those customers, the customers intend some portion of the tip to go directly to that manager.
In a tip pool environment, even though the manager is not getting distributions from the tip pool, they are entitled to the full portion of the tip that is not contributed to the tip pool.
Trainees in a mandatory tip pool setting are not "similarly situated" to the employees that are both providing excellent customer service and making sure that the trainee is doing their job correctly. Until that trainee is able to work independently of the other staff, their contribution to the overall service is much lower, and supports keeping them out of the tip pool. Employers should be able to keep trainees out of the tip pool for some period of time until they are qualified to provide services unsupervised. Reducing the expert staff's compensation by including an untrained person in the tip pool is not fair to those that are providing top notch customer service while taking up the slack of the trainee.
We do a tip pool as well. We have the person who is the trainer be able to earn a dollar more/hour when they are training someone. I agree with the comments below that having someone be able to earn tips while they are training doesn't make sense. Companies that use a tip pool should be exempt from this change. Therefore I think that example 2-2 is what we do. I think as long as we would not be required to tip hourly employees while training.
Can employers that are not in a customarily tipped industry, e.g. grocery stores, have policies against employees keeping direct tips? For example, if I work as a cashier at a grocery store, and a customer gives me a tip because I helped them with a special order, but my employer has a policy that says employees cannot accept tips and much put any such tips into a donation jar for a monthly charity, would that violate current tipping regulations?
If I am an independent contractor working an specific event, and my contract does not specify that I am entitled to tips, can my employer require that I turn in tips that I receive directly during the event?
By definition, a tip, or a gratuity is for going above and beyond. How can an employee that is in training go above and beyond? They are in training, and they get paid their wage for training. The "gratuity" gets paid when they are working for the guest.
Removed by moderator.
In your example, "EXAMPLE 1-2: Employer withholds tips during training period.", you are showing intent that an interpretation change may occur on Trainee Employees. This would be a devastating change in the full-service restaurant world. Trainers (Bartenders and Servers) come from the high skilled staff in our organization and are asked to facilitate the young talent coming into our industry. They teach by demonstrating the skills of the job, and then shadowing the trainee over a short period of time, 10-14 days, to ensure the trainee understands and demonstrates the skills. These are tables/guests the Trainer would normally be assigned, and 100% of those tips should be directed to the Trainer - not the Trainee. Our industry still functions very much from an apprentice structure, and this training period must not be deemed the same as an employee’s post-training time. The window is relatively short (it may be longer in more complicated organizations, like Canlis), and functions as a necessary period for the new employees to gain skill. Additionally, none of the tip revenue is being retained by the business but is flowing 100% to the trainer employee.
Please remove this rule change from discussion, and maintain the current approach where Trainers are allocated 100% of tips collected during the Training Period. It may be reasonable to isolate the training period to be not more than 6 weeks, and that it must be defined within the employee job description at promotion and/or hiring. Additionally, the issue of promotion would need to be acceptable in this situation, where a young employee who was a busser/food runner could be promoted up to Server or Bartender, and they go through a training period then, as part of their newly accepted Job Description.
These issues are critical to the restaurant/service industry, and your current rules proposal would have devastating results. Please help us to stay viable.
For pooled tips in a counter service or catering scenario during training: when 100% tips go to employees, and they are advised upon hiring that they will earn tips at certain milestones (ie: cash tips earned after first week, charge tips earned when 4-week training schedule is complete, with possibility of occurring much sooner if they learn more quickly, or a bit later if they learn more slowly), is the employer in compliance? the employer is not taking direct tips (those are always kept by employee unless they wish to add it to the pool), and the employer is not keeping the trainee's tips (they are in the pool)
A living wage min wage should be including tips that are put through payroll. Companies like ours does a tip pool and they all make closer to $28 + an hour. To keep dining more affordable the min wage for employees making tips should be lowered to $12.00 an hour but must balance to be $15.74 including tips.