The Wyoming Senate has given approval to a bill that will allow restaurants to set up a system where servers will turn in tips, so that they can be redistributed to other service workers at the establishment. Senator Ogden Driskill of Devils Tower says it will allow all service employees to make a greater wage. Driskill says such pooling already takes place in Wyoming, but it isn’t legal. He says workers and employers want it legalized.
“They’re a passing money back in forth…a good part of them…they’d like the employer to help smooth it out and make it fair. And we can’t allow that, at this point in time if the employer enters into it, he’s gonna get a wage claim on him,” says Driskill.
But Democrat John Hastert of Green River says it forces the server to pay other employees.
“We are asking to share wages, is what it really comes down to. I disagree with that,” says Hastert.
The bill has already passed the House and will now head to a conference committee to iron out differences in the bill.