Wage & Hour Defense Blog : Wage & Hour Lawyer & Attorney : Epstein Becker Green Law Firm : DOL Enforcement, FLSA Coverage

By:  Kara M. Maciel

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division in Norfolk, Virginia has announced that it will be stepping up its compliance audits and enforcement efforts against area hotels. In the past few years, the DOL stated it found violations at about 60% of local hotels. According to the DOL, the agency recently made spot checks at 10 area hotels since April. This is just one part of the agency’s nationwide enforcement program and its “Plan/Prevent/Protect” initiative against the hospitality industry. Common violations assessed by the DOL include:

·         Payment of overtime. Under the FLSA, employees are entitled to overtime for any hours worked over 40 per week. For employers who have multiple hotels or facilities, when employees work at different locations in a work week, it is imperative that the employer coordinate its payroll systems to aggregate the employee’s time worked at both jobs in order to ensure that proper overtime is being paid. The DOL is finding that when an employee works at one hotel 20 hours per week, and 25 hours at another hotel, the employee is not paid overtime.   

·         Unlawful deductions. Many hospitality employers require employees to reimburse the hotel for a uniform through payroll deductions. However, an employer may not lawfully deduct from an employee’s wages for the cost of a uniform if it reduces the employee’s hourly wage below the minimum wage. Thus, for employees who are paid the minimum wage or tipped employees for whom the employer takes the tip credit, the hotel cannot deduct for a uniform if it drops the employee below the minimum wage.     

·         Working through meal breaks. Another common violation in the hospitality industry relates to workplaces in which the employer voluntarily provides a meal break. Under the FLSA, an employee, who is provided with a bona fide meal break, must be completely relieved of duty.  If an employee clocks out for lunch, and then is asked to clock back in to perform some work, the employee must be paid for the entire meal break, and not just for the time back on the clock. For many employers who automatically deduct for meal breaks or who fail to pay for the full meal period when it is interrupted, this could represent a significant liability. 

Now, more than ever, employers in the hospitality industry should be vigilant in their wage and hour compliance with federal and state law. Especially in light of the DOL’s recent roll-out of its Smartphone “app,” which allows workers to track their hours and evaluate the amount of overtime earned, workers are being armed with ample resources to bring claims of unpaid wage against the employers. 

By: Amy J. Traub

The New York State Department of Labor recently issued a proposed rule which would combine the current wage orders for the restaurant and hotel industries to form a single Minimum Wage Order for the Hospitality Industry.  If adopted, the Wage Order would affect requirements related to the minimum wage, tip credits and pooling, customer service charges, allowances, overtime calculations, and other common issues within the restaurant and hotel industries.  Additionally, the Wage Order would provide helpful guidance for traditionally ambiguous wage issues such as the handling of service charges and the definition of an employee uniform for purposes of a laundry allowance.  Highlights of the Wage Order include:

·         Minimum Wage (Effective January 1, 2011) 

o       Food service workers would need to receive at least $5.00 per hour and no more than $2.25 per hour in tip credits; however, the total of tips they receive plus their hourly wages would need to amount to $7.25 per hour

o       Service employees (at non-resort hotels) would need to receive at least $5.65 per hour and no more than $1.60 per hour in tip credits; however, the total of tips they receive plus their hourly wages would need to amount to $7.25 per hour

o       Service employees (resort hotel employees) would need to receive at least $4.90 per hour and no more than $2.35 per hour in tip credits; however their weekly average for tips would need to be at least $4.10 per hour 

·         Notifications to Employees and Customers 

o       Prior to beginning employment, employers now would need to notify employees that they are taking a tip credit from their wages

o       Employers would need to notify employees of any changes to their hourly rate of pay

o       Employers would need to notify customers of any charge that is neither for food/beverage nor a gratuity to a service employee; for example, a banquet or special function charge 

·         No More Set-Off of Wages Paid in Excess of Minimum Wage 

o       Employers would need to pay an additional hour at the rate of minimum wage for each hour the employee works beyond 10 hours per day, regardless of whether the rate of pay for the first 10 hours is above the minimum wage

·         No More Salary for Non-Exempt Employees 

o       Currently, a non-exempt employee can still be paid a salary so long as he/she is paid one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for hours worked beyond 40 hours during the week

o       If adopted, the Wage Order would require that all non-exempt workers (except commissioned salespersons) are paid on an hourly basis 

·         Tip Pooling 

o       Employers could require food service workers to join a tip pool

o       This would not apply to employees who do not provide direct food service to customers (however, a host/hostess who seats guests would be considered a direct food service employee and therefore eligible to participate in a tip pool) 

·         Increased Guidance 

o       Employers would be able to retain service charges if, and only if, they clearly explain to customers that such charges are not distributed to service employees

o       The Wage Order would exclude from the definition of “uniform” any clothing that may be worn as part of an employee’s wardrobe outside of work

o       Employers would not need to reimburse employees for the laundry expenses of any uniform clothing that can be washed with the employee’s non-uniform clothing; for example, a uniform that does not require dry cleaning

The new Wage Order signifies the New York State Department of Labor’s attempt to simplify the wage and hour rules for the restaurant and hotel industries while stepping up its enforcement of overtime and deduction violations, particularly with respect to non-exempt employees who are currently paid a salary as opposed to an hourly wage.   Of course, these highlighted changes are only a portion of the changes that would come into effect in the event the Wage Order is adopted in its entirety.

By Doug Weiner

In a recently reported case, Applebee’s’ servers alleged they spent a “substantial” amount of time performing non-tipped work, such as cleaning and maintenance, and should be paid the minimum wage 29 U.S.C § 206(A)(1)(c) of $7.25 rather than the direct wage 29 U.S.C. § 203(m) of $2.13 the FLSA 29 U.S.C. § 203(t) allows 29 C.F.R. § 516.28 tipped employees. Fast v. Applebee's International, Inc.  

Applebee’s contends there is no “dual job”, 29 C.F.R. § 531.56(e) as the server’s primary duty is customer satisfaction, and cleaning and maintenance duties are related to the servers primary duty. The court held it was a question of law which duties were included in the definition of a “tipped occupation”, and questions of fact which duties employees actually performed, and the time spent performing them.

The court denied the restaurant’s motion for summary judgment, rejecting the argument that the duties of, for example, cleaning bathrooms are related to the duties of serving food. However, the court emphasized it was the servers’ burden to prove they had worked more than 20% of their time performing non tipped work. Myers v. Copper Cellar Corp., 192 F.3d 546 (6th Cir. 1999)

Certified for appeal to the Eighth Circuit is the district court's holding that Section 30d00(e) of the Department of Labor's Field Operations Handbook is persuasive authority for the holding that, where more than 20% of a tipped employee's time is spent on non tipped work, the employer cannot take the tip credit for that time, and must pay the full minimum wage committed to non-tipped work. 

As an example of how fact specific each case must be analyzed, EBG wage & hour litigator Mark Beutler, in a case involving skycaps, successfully persuaded a court that incidental duties, such as bringing the bags to security were related to the tipped duty of serving the customer. In that case, the court found that all of the skycaps’ duties constituted tipped work, so there was no application of the 20% rule. Pellon v. Business Representation Int'l, Inc., 528 F. Supp. 2d 1306 (S.D. Fla. 2007). The court also held that to segregate the various tasks performed by skycaps, for purposes of assessing whether they were germane or not to the job of skycap, would be infeasible and require constant surveillance. The Pellon decision was later affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit.   

Dual jobs may exist in many varieties. There may be servers who are asked to perform duties as ice sculpturs, or pastry decorators, or floral arrangers. There may be bussers who make salads or wash dishes between lunch and dinner. Employers are well advised to keep good records of the time employees spend performing each duty in a dual job circumstance. See 29 C.F.R. § 785.13 The court emphasized it was an employer’s duty to record the time spent in tipped and non-tipped work.  29 C.F.R. § 516.28 

Douglas Weiner formerly served the U.S. Department of Labor as Senior Trial Attorney for the New York Regional Solicitor’s office for many years. He now exclusively represents management in wage hour and other employment matters.

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