Tipped Employee Protection Act
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 2312, the Tipped Employee Protection Act. It is actually the tipped employer protection act.
Today, we are discussing one of several bills that House Republicans claim will benefit workers but ultimately falls short of what workers need.
H.R. 2312 would redefine the Fair Labor Standards Act, the FLSA, to make workers more vulnerable to wage theft and give employers an excuse not to pay workers what they are otherwise owed.
Under present law, the FLSA allows employers to take a tip credit only if employees are in jobs where they regularly and customarily earn at least $30 a month in tips. If workers split their time between jobs that regularly earn tips and jobs that don't, such as one shift as a restaurant server and another as a restaurant line cook, the employer can apply the tip credit today only to the tip-earning shifts.
This bill would tear down that distinction.
Ultimately, the bill seeks to expand the pool of workers that employers can pay a subminimum wage rather than the full wage. This is problematic because tipped workers are paid less per hour and have less access to benefits such as sick leave, healthcare, short-term disability, and life insurance.
In fact, the Federal tipped minimum wage is only $2.13 an hour. Instead of giving workers a leg up, this bill offers bad actors an opportunity to cut corners and shortchange their workers.
Mr. Speaker, for that reason, I oppose the bill and urge my colleagues to do the same.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Titus).
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Budzinski).
Mr. Speaker, we received a letter from the Union SEIU, which says in part that this bill, the so-called Tipped Employee Protection Act, would amend Federal minimum wage and overtime law by broadening the definition of tipped employee and increasing the employer's power to move workers in and out of tipped employee status, including allowing employers to decide on a daily or weekly basis whether a worker counts as a tipped worker.
This is a harmful and ill-conceived bill in every possible way. Most tipped workers already struggle to make ends meet. We should be doing away with the subminimum wage for tipped workers, not incentivizing and expanding tipped work.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a January 13, 2026, letter from SEIU. January 13, 2026.
Dear Representative: On behalf of SEIU's 2 million members and worker leaders, I write to urge you to vote NO on a slate of ``labor'' bills expected to come to the floor for a vote this week. The bills Republicans are bringing to the floor do not represent serious attempts by Speaker Johnson or the GOP to help working people or working families. This is the party that just this last week stripped five states of $10 billion in childcare funding and funding to needy families. This is the party that shut the government down because they were unwilling to save 22 million people from having their health care costs dramatically rise or are lost. These pieces of legislation do not represent any serious effort at curbing costs or making life better for everyday people.
The bills are as follows: H.R. 2988--Protecting Prudent Investment of Retirement Savings, H.R. 2270--Empowering Child and Elder Care Solutions Act, H.R. 4366 Save Local Business Act, H.R. 2312--Tipped Employee Protection Act, H.R. 2262-- Flexibility for Workers Education Act. Far from making conditions better for working people, these bills weaken existing protections and further stack the deck in favor of employers and against workers.
H.R. 2988, the Protecting Prudent Investment of Retirement Savings Act, amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to codify Trump Administration rules that undermine workers' retirement security by, among other things, chilling fiduciaries' consideration of a set of important financial risks and I opportunities. This bill misguidedly attacks Environmental, Social, and Governance (``ESG'') considerations in fiduciary decision-making as ``woke'' rather than legitimate and important factors to be considered in decision-making.
H.R. 2270, the Empowering Employer Child and Elder Care Solutions Act, would allow employers to pay their workers less overtime than they are owed by excluding child and dependent care services and payments from the rate used to compute overtime compensation. Rather than incentivize employers to subsidize care, this bill could encourage excessive work without fairly compensating the workers or doing anything to make childcare or elder care more affordable or accessible.
H.R. 4366, the Save Local Business Act, would limit workers' protections under labor and employment laws by adopting a single, weak, joint employer test for both the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Joint employer tests are used to determine who is responsible for wrongdoing when there are multiple entities with the power to determine employment conditions. An improperly narrow FLSA or NLRA standard would make it harder for workers to hold the right entities responsible for abuse. Further, a narrow NLRA joint employer standard effectively extinguishes the collective bargaining rights of millions of workers by permitting companies that control their jobs to escape the bargaining table. SEIU represents tens of thousands of workers, including janitors, security guards, and healthcare workers, who would have their rights weakened if this bill passes.
H.R. 2312, the Tipped Employee Protection Act, would amend federal minimum wage and overtime law by broadening the definition of tipped employee and increasing employers' power to move workers in and out of tipped employee status, including allowing employers to decide on a daily or weekly basis whether a worker counts as a tipped worker already struggle to make ends meet. We should be doing away with the subminimum wage for tipped workers, not incentivizing and expanding tipped work.
H.R. 2262, the Flexibility for Workers Education Act, would carve out time spent participating in education or training related to employment from the calculation of a worker's paid time. This bill would undercut the longstanding principle that FLSA requires minimum wage and overtime protections for all time that employees spend working for the benefit of the employer, and would enable employers to steal time from employees by scheduling unpaid--but essential to the job-- training.
As stated above, these bills would hurt working people by chipping away at existing legal protections meant to protect workers from harm. They are unnecessary and burdensome new legal requirements that do nothing to improve working conditions. We strongly urge you to vote NO on all the above bills.
If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Heydemann. Thank you, John Gray, Director, Legislation, Service Employees International Union.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I also include in the Record a January 13, 2026, letter from the Economic Policy Institute to Speaker Johnson. January 13, 2026. Re Opposition to H.R. 2988, Protecting Prudent Investment of Retirement Savings Act; H.R. 2270, Empowering Child and Elder Care Solutions Act; H.R. 4366, Save Local Business Act; H.R. 2312, Tipped Employee Protection Act; and H.R. 2262, Flexibility for Workers Education Act. Hon. Mike Johnson, Hon. Hakeem Jeffries, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Members of Congress: The undersigned organizations dedicated to worker rights and building a just and inclusive economy write in opposition to H.R. 2988, Protecting Prudent Investment of Retirement Savings Act; H.R. 2270, Empowering Child and Elder Care Solutions Act; H.R. 4366, Save Local Business Act; H.R. 2312, Tipped Employee Protection Act; and H.R. 2262, Flexibility for Workers Education Act. If enacted, these bills would harm workers by weakening longstanding labor and employment laws, leading to lower pay, reduced employer accountability, and more precarity. H.R. 2988, Protecting Prudent Investment of Retirement Savings Act
The Protecting Prudent Investment of Retirement Savings Act would amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to block retirement plan fiduciaries from considering climate change and other environmental, social, and governance factors when they select retirement investments. The bill would constrain plan fiduciaries' ability to account long-term financial risks in their investment decisions, which would undermine workers' retirement security. H.R 2270, Empowering Employer Child and Elder Care Solutions Act
The Empowering Employer Child and Elder Care Solutions Act would exclude child, dependent, and elder care payments from the rate used to compute overtime compensation for eligible workers. This would result in workers receiving less overtime than they are owed under current law, which would in turn incentivize employers to impose longer workweeks on already over-worked employees. Further, workers who face longer workweeks as a consequence of H.R. 2270 would likely experience higher childcare costs as childcare providers who operate during nontraditional hours (including evenings and weekends) tend to cost more. H.R. 2270 would contradict the basic premise, going back to 1938. that employers should be deterred from requiring employees to work excessive and burdensome hours. H.R. 2262, The Flexibility for Workers Education Act
The Flexibility for Workers Education Act would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to excuse employers of their responsibility to pay workers for trainings or other professional development opportunities that are outside of regular work hours. Despite the bill's generous-sounding title, this bill would not give workers any more flexibility. Instead, it allows employers to hold trainings and professional development opportunities after work hours and not pay workers who attend--as long as the employer does not say it's required. However, employers can still lead workers to believe these trainings and professional development opportunities are required, which would result in workers not being paid for their time. H.R 2312, Tipped Employee Protection Act
This bill amends the FLSA's definition of ``tipped employee'', by allowing employers to classify workers as tipped employees--and thus allow employers to take a tip credit--if workers receive (1) any amount of tips (2) over a period of time selected by the employer, (3) regardless of the employees' duties. Eliminating the requirement that workers must be ``engaged in an occupation in which he customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips.'' And allowing employers to choose any time period would give employers nearly unfettered discretion to re- classify almost any worker receiving any amount of tips for any amount of time as tipped employees and pay them a subminimum wage of $2.13 an hour, including for time spent doing non-tipped duties. This goes well beyond reversing the 80/20 rule challenged by the restaurant industry and would only further exacerbate the precarity of workers in an industry that already includes many of the nation's lowest- paid occupations and suffers from already high rates of wage theft. If Congress truly wants to protect tipped workers, it should pass the Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage floor and gradually phase out the subminimum wage for tipped workers. H.R. 4366, Save Local Business Act
The ``Save Local Business Act'' would ensure that trillion- dollar corporations like Amazon can use subcontracting and outsourcing arrangements to escape accountability to their workers. Businesses have long relied on subcontracting arrangements--such as hiring workers through temporary staffing agencies--to avoid their responsibility to comply with the FLSA and NLRA, even though they maintain power to control working conditions and that the workers are integral to their business. These contracting work-arounds were present when the FLSA and NLRA were passed in the 1930's, and versions of this outsourcing are used today by companies. Indeed, businesses across the economy--including in labor- intensive and low-paid sectors like construction, home and health care, janitorial and building services, hotels and hospitality, and warehousing and logistics--use similar contracting arrangements to insulate themselves from accountability. Limiting employer accountability and enabling corporations to avoid responsibility for violations of workers' rights under the FLSA and the NLRA will hasten race-to-the-bottom on labor standards, with businesses that treat their workers fairly finding it harder to compete.
Should H.R. 2988, Protecting Prudent Investment of Retirement Savings Act; H.R. 2270, Empowering Child and Elder Care Solutions Act; H.R. 4366, Save Local Business Act; H.R. 2312, Tipped Employee Protection Act; and H.R. 2262, Flexibility for Workers Education Act be brought to the floor, we strongly urge all Members of Congress to vote No.
With any questions, please reach out to Charlotte Dodge, National Employment Law Project; Sam Sanders, Economic Policy Institute or Michelle Feit, National Partnership for Women & Families. Sincerely, Economic Policy Institute. National Employment Law Project. National Partnership for Women & Families.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, this is an open invitation for employers, particularly those involving restaurants and hotels, to lower their employees' wages by combining traditionally tipped occupations with nontipped occupations. For example, they will be able to put a line cook on the floor for a few hours a day and then apply the tip credit to all of the hours that the employee works.
Tipped workers already are paid less per hour and have less access to benefits such as paid sick leave, healthcare, short-term disability and life insurance, and under this bill employers would be given a pass to not pay workers what they otherwise would have been owed.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to reject the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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