(Newser)
– The new changes to the Department of Labor rules are considered a “year-end victory” for the restaurant industry, according to the National Restaurant Association, although servers rely on advice to increase the your salary below the minimum wage may not give you a thumbs up enthusiasm. Fox Business reports on a review completed Tuesday by the DOL that now gives employers the option of having a “tip group,” in which prone workers, such as waiters and waiters, must deliver some of their advice to workers without advice, including dishwashers and cooks. Proponents of the rule change, which will take effect in February and vary from state to state, say it will help offset the wage disparities that exist between employees working on the ground to tip and those who don’t, providing an additional $ 109 million. . in the pockets of back home workers, according to DOL estimates.
Restaurant Business Online points out that due to this current pay gap, it can be difficult to find help behind the house. However, servers may complain about having to split their tips, and another Labor Department shift won’t make them happier: According to CBS News, a past limit on how much time employees could spend on tips to do jobs unforeseen, such as help set up or clean up, has been removed. Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the nonprofit Institute for Economic Policy, says this could be a big savings for restaurants, as servers tend to pay much less than workers who usually do these unforeseen tasks, but prone workers could lose up to $ 700 million a year because of this rule change, according to EPI estimates last year. “Don’t fix the low wages of the highest paid workers by taking them out of the wages of the highest paid workers,” Shierholz tells CBS. “You pay them more.” (Read more tip stories.)