Wynn Resorts Tip Sharing Battle Not Over Yet

In a mid-November ruling, the Clark County District Court found that the tip-pooling policy adopted by Wynn Resorts of Las Vegas violated state law limits on the sharing of tips between employers and employees.  The decision, reversing the findings announced more than a year earlier by the state labor commissioner, set up a showdown in the Nevada Supreme Court. Wynn Resorts is expected to appeal the decision.

The tip-sharing policy expands those sharing in the dealers’ tip pool to include boxmen and “Casino Service Team Leads.”  The issue is whether those additional workers have sufficient supervisory responsibilities that they should be considered “employers” for purposes of tip-pooling, and thus should be excluded from the tip pool that previously was shared only by ordinary dealers.  Mandatory tip-sharing among workers at different levels of a business is an issue that reaches beyond casinos.  Both Starbucks and the parent company of Outback Steakhouse have defended such lawsuits in recent years.