Sign petition against Labor Department’s ‘tip theft’ rule

UPDATE (March 22, 2018) — Late Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced an agreement with Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta to fix the Trump administration’s proposed tip rule, so that employers are not able to pocket workers’ tips and keep them for themselves.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 21, 2018) — President Donald Trump’s Department of Labor has proposed a new regulation that will allow restaurant owners to pocket workers’ tips, without including any analysis done by the agency to show how devastating the economic impact would be for working families.

Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta has stated that he will support Congress’ legislative efforts to stop companies from claiming ownership over tips instead of the workers who earn them. Last week, Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) offered up legislation that will strengthen protections for tipped workers and secure tips as the property of the workers who earn them.

TAKE A STAND — Please sign this petition to oppose Trump’s regulation legalizing tip theft. The petition urges Acosta: “Please stand by your commitment to support legislation clarifying that employers cannot take workers’ tips. The Department of Labor seeks to foster, promote and develop the welfare of America’s wage earners and should not allow a rule to be finalized that strips tipped workers of protections. I urge you to unconditionally refuse to finalize this rule until the bill is passed.”

An independent analysis estimates this proposed rule would steal $5.8 billion from working people’s pockets each year. A whopping $4.6 billion of that would come out of the pockets of working women.

This is bigger than simply the well-deserved tips of restaurant workers. This is another example of extreme legislators, greedy CEOs and corporate lobbyists uniting in opposition to working people. They want to further rig the economic playing field against workers, people of color and women.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans already have spoken out, sending comments of opposition to the rule straight to the Department of Labor. It’s time for working people to take the next step together. Please sign this petition to hold Trump’s Department of Labor accountable and make sure that Congress hears our opposition to this ridiculous and unfair change.