Labor Dept. withdraws 3 tipped-worker opinion letters in Oct. 19 bulletin

On Oct. 19, 2026, the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2026-1 on how related duties performed by tipped employees are treated under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The bulletin withdraws the division's 1979, 1980 and 1985 opinion letters on applying dual jobs regulations to tipped employees, which the division says brings its guidance into line with current regulations.

Facts are thin: the full DOL release returned an error (HTTP 403), so this draft works from the announcement excerpt and does not describe the bulletin's replacement guidance. The dual-jobs rules decide when a tipped worker's non-tipped tasks, such as setup or cleanup, can still be paid at the tip-credit rate. They only apply if you claim a tip credit, which means paying a cash wage below minimum wage and counting tips to make up the difference. The federal floor is $2.13 an hour against a $7.25 minimum, a gap of up to $5.12 an hour. Several states ban the tip credit entirely. Take an 18-person residential cleaning company whose customers tip through the booking app. If it pays every cleaner at least minimum wage before tips, nothing here changes. If it claims a tip credit for 18 cleaners working 30 hours a week, it counts up to $2,765 a week of tips toward wages, and that is the amount at risk if task-splitting is handled wrongly. Owners of HVAC, plumbing, electrical, accounting, law and agency businesses that pay full wages can ignore this.