LABOR LAW - FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT - TIPS NOT CONSIDERED WAGES IN COMPUTING STATUTORY MINIMUM

Authors

Reed T. Phalan, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

After the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act, defendant terminal company adopted the so-called "make up" plan towards its redcap station porters. Under the plan, tips received by redcaps could, as formerly, be retained by them; in addition the redcap would report to the defendant the amounts received in tips, and the defendant would make up the deficiency if the tips did not aggregate the minimum legal wage. After the plan had been in operation for a time, plaintiff, agent and representative of the redcaps, brought suit for the difference between the amounts paid by the defendant and the required minimum wage, on the theory that the tips received should not have been included in determining the weekly wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Held, that since the definition of wages in the Fair Labor Standards Act did not include tips either expressly or constructively an employer was not permitted to deduct tips from the minimum wages he was bound to pay. Pickett v. Union Terminal Co., (D. C. Tex. 1940) 33 F. Supp. 244.

Recommended Citation

Reed T. Phalan, LABOR LAW - FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT - TIPS NOT CONSIDERED WAGES IN COMPUTING STATUTORY MINIMUM, 39 Mich. L. Rev. 486 (1941).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol39/iss3/17