Speaker opposes HR 3212, saying it would expand employers' ability to apply tip credit

Unidentified Speaker, Unidentified Speaker, rose in opposition to HR 3212, saying the measure would change how the Fair Labor Standards Act treats tipped employees and expand employers' ability to apply a tip credit. "Mister speaker, I rise in opposition to HR 32 12, the Tipped Employee Protection Act," the speaker said, immediately adding, "It's actually the Tipped Employer Protection Act."

The speaker framed the bill as one of several measures House Republicans have presented as worker-friendly but that "ultimately fall short of what workers need." They told colleagues HR 3212 "would redefine the Fair Labor Standards Act, the FLSA, to make workers more vulnerable to wage theft and give employers an an excuse not to pay workers what they otherwise are owed."

Explaining current law, the speaker said the FLSA allows employers to take a tip credit only for employees who "regularly and customarily earn at least $30 a month in tips," and noted that when employees split time between tip-earning and non-tip-earning jobs, the employer can apply the credit only to the tip-earning shifts. The speaker said HR 3212 would remove that distinction and "expand the pool of workers employers can pay a subminimum wage rather than the full wage."

The speaker warned of concrete harms if the bill passed, saying tipped workers are paid less per hour and have "less access to benefits such as sick leave, health care, short term disability, and life insurance," and cited the federal tipped minimum wage as evidence of a low base rate: "In fact, the federal tipped minimum wage is only $2.13 an hour." The speaker added that the bill "offers bad actors an opportunity to cut corners and short term change their workers."

Concluding their remarks, the speaker urged colleagues to oppose HR 3212 and reserved the balance of their time. The transcript records no response or debate in the supplied segments.