Legal Question in Employment Law in Illinois

Is it legal to mandate tip pooling, without our agreement our prior knowledge? I work at a private country club in Illinois where they recently hired a new Food and Beverage Director. He has implemented a new compensation policy in which our hourly rate is $7.00/hour plus each worker receives an equal cut of the 10% in total sales for that shift (servers, bartender(s), food runner, etc). What he did not inform us of (and which we were not aware of until we received our first paycheck) is that he also takes all of our gratuities that are added to member accounts and equally splits those among all workers as well. We are unanimous that we do not agree with him and expressed this to him. He refuses to change his policy. Although at one point he did agree to it, but then explained how he would manipulate the 10% in total sales to ensure everyone makes the same amount of money anyway. I'm not sure there are any legality issues with this, but he also takes the books from the tables, and if there is cash, takes the cash out of the book and places it on the bar (because ideally, he wants us to split our cash tips, as well). I've researched federal law cfr 531 and some rulings surrounding it, but it still seems ambiguous.


Asked on 3/19/12, 6:37 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

In Illinois, and absent a collective bargaining agreement or other work contract, an employer can "change the rules" at any time, and if the employees don't like it they can quit. However, generally speaking employers can't go "backwards" on accrued benefits, they can only go forward. While I agree that having to split tips gives less attentive co-workers a benefit they don't seem to deserve, my experience with food service establishments is that it helps prevent "steering" good tipping members to a particular server's section while others lose out.

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Answered on 3/19/12, 10:56 am


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