Tipping Point: Did the Recent Change to the NH Minimum Wage Statute Clarify or Confuse Rules on Tip Pooling and Tip Sharing?

By Attorney Jim Reidy

In the last session of the New Hampshire Legislature, a bill regarding tip pooling passed and became law.  Employers with tipped employees hoped that this amendment to the State’s minimum wage law change would make a meaningful change to how tipped employees can share their tips with other employees.  Sadly, some confusion remains.

Under the State’s minimum wage law (RSA 279:21), tipped employees, meaning those who work in a restaurant, hotel, motel, inn, cabin or ballroom and customarily and regularly receive at least $30 per month in tips directly from the customers may be paid base hourly rate at 45% of the current minimum wage as long as the employee’s tips at the end of each pay period at least equal minimum wage for the hours worked in that pay period.

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