Los Angeles Bonuses & Tips Pooling Lawyer

Employees in Los Angeles that receive a wage as well as tips from patrons make up a large portion of the workforce. Under California law, a tip is any money or gratuity left voluntarily by a patron for an employee or employees. Employers are often honest about these tips and gratuities. Unfortunately, it is also not uncommon for employers to try and steal these tips from their workers. It is for this reason that the Labor Code provides strict rules regarding tips. If you feel as though your employer has wrongfully kept your gratuities, contact our employment lawyer today.

The Law on Tips and Bonuses

Under the Labor Code, employers are prohibited from keeping or sharing in any portion of an employee’s tips or gratuities left to them by patrons. It is also illegal for employers to make wage deductions from tips. For example, if an employee earned the minimum wage and received a ten dollar tip, the employer could not deduct the ten dollars from the employee’s wages. Tips also cannot be counted against overtime hours or pay.

Customers also often leave a tip for an employee when they pay with a credit card. For example, a patron may eat lunch at a restaurant and include a tip on the credit card slip. In this case, the employee does not have direct access to the tip. The employer will receive the tip but, the employer must also give the tip to the employee no later than the next regular payday after the date on the credit card payment.

Tip Pooling

Many establishments pool the tips between employees. For example, a server in a restaurant may have to pool his or her tips and the pool is divided between the servers, the bus boys, and others in the front of house. This is a legal practice under California law. However, anyone that does not provide direct table service is not entitled to share in the tip pool. In the same restaurant, the chefs, cooks, and dishwashers in the back of house would not have a legal share to the pool. The only exception is if they provide direct table service, such as if the chef prepared a meal table side.

Mandatory Service Charges

It is also a common practice in the service industry to include service charges on a patron’s bill. A banquet hall, for example, may include a mandatory service charge along with individual fees for services provided. These service charges are not treated as tips under the law and employers are under no obligation to distribute them among employees, but may choose to do so.

Attorney for Tipped Workers

If you feel as though your employer has wrongfully kept your tips or you are in another dispute about gratuities, our Los Angeles bonuses and tips lawyer can help. For a confidential consultation with an experienced lawyer, contact Litigation, P.C., at 424-284-2401 or online to learn about your legal options. We routinely handle matters throughout SoCal.