ILLINOIS - Illinois Governor JB Pritzker recently signed legislation that clears up a law about tips.
In a news release Monday, Illinois officials say the new law that took effect at the start of 2020 amends the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act. KWQC TV6 reports that tips are the property of the employees who earned them and employers cannot retain them.
“People in the various service industries work hard for their money and in many cases, such as for restaurant servers, tips make up an important part of the overall compensation,” said Michael Kleinik, Director of the Illinois Department of Labor. “This law leaves no doubt that gratuities belong to the workers who earned them.”
The new law requires that tips be paid to employees within 13 days after the end of the day when they were earned.
Tips and their wage, which has to be at least 60-percent of the minimum wage, must equal at least the minimum wage of $9.25 an hour. Tip pooling arrangements among employees is still permitted.