The BP Blast!: A California Employment Law Blog

The U.S. Department of Labor Determines Restaurants Cannot Deduct for Uniform Cleaning

The United Stated Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently issued a Wage and Hour Opinion Letter, FLSA 2006-21, (June 9, 2006), prohibiting restaurant owners from deducting the costs associated with laundering uniforms from staffs’ wages. The opinion letter stated that “no portion of an employee’s tips may be kicked back to the employer to cover the cost of uniform laundering,” and “even if the tips actually received exceed the maximum tip credit the employer needs to claim toward payment of the minimum wage, these excess tips are not deemed to be wages for purposes of the FLSA.”

The DOL further stated “A policy that employees must wear clean uniforms while on duty and the assurance that servers will always appear in clean, freshly pressed uniform tops, is primarily a convenience and benefit to the employer. As such, the cost of the laundering and pressing of the garment is a cost of doing business that may not be imposed on the employees if doing so would reduce their wages below minimum wage.”

While the DOL Opinion Letter specifically applies to restaurants, there is likely no reason the same standard would not be applied by the government to different work environments, such as security personnel, maintenance workers, or other similar occupations. Employers should be mindful to review their policies regarding uniforms in light of the DOL’s latest Opinion Letter.