On February 15th, Congressman Bobby Scott (Va.-03), Ranking Member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce along with Democratic leadership, will host a forum on the Labor Department’s proposal to allow employers to pocket their employees’ tips. Members are invited to hear from and question experts and advocates on the potential impact of the rule and the issues with the DOL’s rulemaking process.
Who: Congressman Bobby Scott (Va.-03), Ranking Member, Committee on Education and the Workforce
Congressman Keith Ellison (Minn.-05), Congressional Progressive Caucus Labor Liaison Congressman
Mark Takano (Calif.-41), Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (Oregon-01), Vice Ranking Member, Committee on Education and the Workforce
Heidi Shierholz, Senior Economist and Director of Policy, Economic Policy Institute (EPI)
Thea Bryan, Restaurant Worker, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC)
Judy Conti, Government Affairs Director, National Employment Law Project (NELP)
Amit Narang, Regulatory Policy Advocate, Public Citizen
Other members to be announced
What: Member forum exploring the policy and process behind the Labor Department’s tip rule.
When: Thursday, February 15, 2018 at 1:30 p.m.
Where: 2247 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
RSVP: Media interested in participating should RSVP to Stephanie Lalle at EdLaborPress@mail.house.gov.
Background: On December 5, 2017, the Department of Labor (DOL) published a proposed rule that could allow employers to pocket employees’ tips–as long as the employer pays the worker a cash wage of at least $7.25 per hour. EPI estimates this rule could allow employers to pocket $5.8 billion of their employees’ tips each year.
When the DOL initially proposed the rule, it stated it had not conducted any quantitative analysis. However, four days before comments for the rule was due, Bloomberg reported that senior political officials in the DOL allegedly withheld economic analyses that indicated that workers would lose billions of dollars under the rule. Ranking Member Scott joined Representatives Ellison, Takano, and Bonamici demanded the Department share allegedly withheld estimates. The DOL Inspector General subsequently launched an investigation into DOL’s rulemaking process for this regulation.