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As an employee, you should be aware of the following:

• Employees in Texas and across the US (unless exempt) must receive at least 1.5 times the regular hourly rate as overtime pay for hours they worked above 40 hours in a given workweek.
• Employers may pay tipped employees as little as $2.13 per hour. However, tips and direct pay must total at least the minimum federal wage of $7.25 per hour (note that some states have a higher minimum wage). This is known as a “tip credit.” If an employee’s tips and the employer’s direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour together do not equal the minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference.
• Tips are the property of the employee. The employer may not use an employee’s tips for any reason other than as a “tip credit” against the minimum wage obligation to the employee or for a valid tip pool. The FLSA prohibits any arrangement between the employer and the tipped employee whereby any part of the tip becomes the property of the employer. A valid tip pooling arrangement may only include employees who customarily and regularly receive tips.

Employees with similar claims can join together in one lawsuit, a “collective action,” to pursue claims against their employer under the FLSA. The employees must be “similarly situated” to bring a collective action. This means that they must be subject to a common employer policy. For example, a group of servers at a restaurant chain might bring a collective action claiming that the employer requires them to contribute to a tipping pool that includes managers. These employees are similarly situated under the FLSA and could likely bring a collective action claim against their employer.