No, federal law prohibits employers from taking employee tips. Tipped employees, such as waitstaff and bartenders, must receive all their tips, and employers must ensure total earnings meet the federal minimum wage. Mandatory tip pooling is permitted but must be transparent, and tips from such pools cannot go to employers., Under the FLSA, when tips are charged on customers’ credit cards and the employer can show that it pays the credit card company a percentage on such sales as a fee for payment using a credit card, the employer may pay the employee the tip, less that percentage., Federal law prohibits employers from keeping employees’ tips. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), gratuities or tips belong to the employee who directly receives them, not to their employer. That said, employers cannot: Deduct credit card processing fees from tips; Use tips to offset wages; Require tip pooling with managers or supervisors, Under federal law, you can deduct credit card processing fees from employees’ credit card tips, but you’ll need to follow specific rules. You can only deduct the actual processing fee percentage that applies to the tip amount, not the entire bill., In most states, employers can never withhold tips or deduct wages based on the amount of tips earned, unless it is for a credit card fee or a tip pool. This is regardless of whether the employer takes a tip credit. Managers and supervisors can only keep tips that they directly and solely earned, and cannot benefit from tip pools., .