Tipped Employee Protection Act

This bill changes how “tipped employees” are defined under federal wage law. Instead of focusing on a worker’s specific duties, it says a tipped worker is anyone who gets tips plus cash wages that, when added together, meet or exceed the federal minimum wage over a set time period. The employer can choose that time period to be a day, a week, every other week, each pay period, or a month.

Key points

• Who is affected: Workers who receive tips (like servers, bartenders, hotel staff) and the businesses that employ them.
• What changes: The definition no longer depends on the worker’s duties. It focuses on whether tips plus cash wages reach at least the federal minimum wage within the employer’s chosen time window.
• How it’s measured: Employers can measure this over 1 day, 1 week, every other week, each pay period, or 1 month.