Florida Tipped Minimum Wage
Posted by Tamara
The federal minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 an hour. However, tipped workers in Florida must be paid at least $4.19 per hour effective January 1, 2009.
The tipped worker is usually a server, bus person, bellhop, or service bartender in restaurants, taverns, hotels, or other establishments.
In Florida and many other states as well, federal labor law says that tipped workers may receive less than the minimum wage. On the other hand, the tipped worker need not share tips with a salaried manager.
Tips are not, incidentally, the same thing as “service charges.” The so-called “service charge” is an amount that a restaurant or other establishment adds automatically to the bill. Some places will use a service charge for large groups or banquets, but others may routinely add it to all bills, regardless of the size of the party.
The service charge is considered by law to be part of an employer’s revenue, unless the entire amount goes to tipped workers. The employer is not required by law to share a service charge with workers. However, if the employer does not the funds are taxable.
This and other regulations are part of the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938) or are part of policy laid out by the U.S. Labor Department. Here’s a link to a federal website describing the regulations in detail.
A significant variable in the rules governing tipped workers is the so-called “valid tip pool.”
Very often, tipped employees of various types – bus persons, servers, service bartenders, and bellhops – will pool and share their tips equally. This is entirely legal. It is a “valid tip pool” if no salaried managers are included. There are some exceptions. A salaried manager could be part of the tip pool if he or she were a bus person, a service bartender, or held some other service position receiving tips. In reality, however, at least 90% of salaried managers will choose not to be part of the pool. Restaurants, usually in the “off season,” will use this practice to minimize differences between staff incomes.
Servers will sometimes “tip out,” or share a specific percentage of their tips with bus persons, service bartenders, or other workers whose cooperation and goodwill they may depend upon.
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