# H.R. 2312 (119th): Tipped Employee Protection Act

Tipped Employee Protection Act This bill modifies the definition of a tipped employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) to exclude consideration of an employee's duties when determining if the employee is a tipped employee. Under current law, tipped employees may be paid less than the federal minimum wage (currently $7.25 an hour), but the total of their cash wage and tips must be at least equal to the federal minimum wage. Under the FLSA, a tipped employee is currently a worker who customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips. The bill broadens the definition of tipped employee to include any worker who receives tips and other cash wages for a work period at a rate that is at least the federal minimum wage, without regard to the duties of the employee. Under the bill, the work period is a work period that is determined by the employer.

## How this bill is scored

Tier: no Tier 1 record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Lane: employment_policy. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: justice. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: labor_policy. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: labor_rights. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: minimum_wage. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: parliamentary_procedure. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: tipped_wages. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: tipped_workers. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: title_metadata_mismatch. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: wage_policy. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: worker_protection. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Tier 1 sign-off: no record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Stored polarity: mixed. Only tags the rules mark scoreable on a mixed bill are scored. A yea can draw a penalty or a credit according to the tag. A nay on a tag scored as good can draw a penalty.
Roll 21: On Motion to Recommit. Vote type: recommit.
Polarity rationale: Reviewed enrichment (llm_import) polarity: The bill concerns ordinary wage policy. It aims to protect tipped workers' effective pay near the minimum wage, which is a legitimate good, but the change to how tipped status is defined may shift pay and protections in ways that reasonable people dispute. No direct advancement of moral harm is evident from the summary, so this is a prudential dispute with concerns on both sides rather than a clear good or evil classification.
Theological note: The issue touches Scripture's concern for fair wages and the protection of workers from exploitation (Leviticus 19:13; James 5:4), as well as the duty of employers to deal justly. How tipped wages are structured, and which duties count toward tip credit eligibility, is a question of prudential application of those principles rather than a clear moral command, so the relevance is real but the bill's specific mechanics are not settled by Scripture.

## Recorded votes

Roll 21: On Motion to Recommit. Yea 209 · Nay 215 · Other 7.

HTML: https://justmeasure.org/bill/hr-2312-119/