Is my employer

allowed to require me to pool tips?

 

It depends...

 

Under the FLSA, all tips are the property of the employee who receives them.

 

An employer may not require you to tip out employees unless they are employees who customarily and regularly receive tips. This means that your employer can require you pool tips with (or "tip out") bussers, bartenders, and other servers...

 

YOUR EMPLOYER MAY NOT:

 

• Require you to tip out cooks, dishwashers, or other employees who do not customarily and regularly receive tips;

 

• Require you to contribute ANY portion of your tips to managers or to the house;

 

• Deduct any amount from your tips for any other reason other than a valid tip-pooling arrangement (which may only consist of other tipped employees - servers, bartenders, barbacks, bussers, and the like).

 

An employer who violates these provisions is legally required to pay back all tips improperly withheld from you, and, in addition, must pay you back pay for the full minimum wage because your employer was not entitled to take the tip credit in the first place.