Lawyer Taking On Restaurants Breaking Federal Tipping Laws

EL PASO, TX – A Texas lawyer is challenging tipping practices in some restaurants that affect the people who need them the most: waiters.

“I worked at restaurants and bars when I was in law school and participated in tip pools…I had no idea that what I was doing was violating federal law,” says attorney Bobby Debes, who has filed several successful class action lawsuits against restaurants in east Texas.

Most service industries are allowed to pay their employees as little as $2.13 an hour by federal law so long as they let their employees keep the majority of their tips, says Debes.

“The table tips as much as they want and we get to keep all of it at the end of the night, ” said one local waiter.

According to Debes, some service industries have recently began to force waiters and other workers who receive tips to share them with other employees such as chefs, cooks and managers. Federal law allows employers to force waiters to share tips with bus boys, hostesses, and bar tenders but not with cooks, chefs or managers, Debes adds.

He tells ABC-7 many workers in the service industry do not know their rights, leaving those who depend on tips the most vulnerable to unfair practices.

The states of Texas and New Mexico are subject to federal labor laws which ensure employees who do not deal directly with customers do not share on the tips of waiters. In the meantime, Debes will continue to look for restaurants breaking the laws.

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Written and reported for broadcast by Martin Bartlett

Written for the web by Joe Villasana