Can my manager make me roll silverware and clean at $2.13 an hour?
The short answer
What to check
The federal rule works by example. Here’s how the examples DOL uses line up with a server’s side work.
| Duty | What DOL’s current rule says |
|---|---|
| Cleaning and setting tables | Named as a related duty of a server. The tip credit can apply. |
| Toasting bread, making coffee | Named as related duties. |
| Washing dishes or glasses | Named as a related duty when it’s occasional. |
| A second, separate job (DOL’s example: a hotel maintenance worker who also waits tables) | No tip credit for the hours in the non-tipped job. Those hours need at least $7.25 in cash wages. |
| Rolling silverware, restocking, closing side work | Not named in the rule. The rule doesn’t list every task and doesn’t set a time limit. |
- Check the weekly floor first. DOL says that if your cash wage plus tips doesn’t reach $7.25 for every hour in a workweek, your employer has to make up the difference. That applies to side-work hours too.
- Ask whether you’re really working a second job. If you’re scheduled for shifts that are only dishwashing or only prep, with no tables, those hours look more like DOL’s maintenance-worker example than like a server’s related duties.
- Write down what you did and for how long, shift by shift. The rule turns on the facts.
Not tax or legal advice. This is the federal rule only; your state may not allow a tip credit at all.
Plain English
What the rule says now
The federal regulation on this is called the “dual jobs” rule. It says a worker can hold two jobs for the same employer, like a hotel maintenance worker who also serves as a waiter. That worker is a tipped employee only for the serving hours, and no tip credit can be taken for the maintenance hours.
The rule then says that’s different from a server who spends part of their time cleaning and setting tables, toasting bread, making coffee, and occasionally washing dishes or glasses. Those are “related duties” of a tipped job, and the rule says they don’t have to be aimed at producing tips themselves. DOL’s tipped-employee fact sheet repeats the same examples today.
How the rule changed, 2021 to 2024
In 2021, DOL published a stricter version. It said a worker paid less than the full minimum wage had to get the full minimum wage whenever untipped support work went over 20 percent of the workweek or 30 minutes in a row. That version took effect on December 28, 2021.
On October 29, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated the 2021 text in Restaurant Law Center v. U.S. Department of Labor. DOL says the effect was to bring back the original rule. On December 17, 2024, DOL put the original wording back into the Code of Federal Regulations. That original wording is the one quoted on this page, and it has no percentage or minute limit.
The minimum still applies every week
Whatever the side work, the tip credit only works if you end up with at least $7.25 an hour for the workweek. DOL also says an employer taking a tip credit has to keep records of the hours you work each day in any job where you don’t get tips. For how the $2.13 math works on your check, see Why is my server paycheck so small?
Your state may have stricter rules
DOL says that when state law differs, your employer has to follow the rule that protects you more. Some states require a higher cash wage or don’t allow a tip credit. DOL keeps a list of state labor offices.
Where to ask
DOL’s Wage and Hour Division takes calls at 1-866-487-9243. For the other questions in this group, see Is my manager allowed to do that?
Common mistakes
- Assuming the 2021 time limits still apply. That text was vacated in 2024.
- Assuming any side work at all is fine. Hours in a separate, non-tipped job get no tip credit.
- Forgetting the weekly floor: slow nights full of side work still have to add up to $7.25 an hour.
- Not writing down which duties you did and how long they took.
Official sources
- 29 CFR 531.56, “More than $30 a month in tips” (paragraph (e), dual jobs)ecfr.gov
- U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the FLSA (dual jobs, minimum wage floor, recordkeeping)dol.gov
- Federal Register, 89 FR 101884 (Dec. 17, 2024): Tip Regulations Under the FLSA; Restoration of Regulatory Languagefederalregister.gov
- U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division: State Labor Officesdol.gov
Last verified:
Checked 29 CFR 531.56 on eCFR (current through September 21, 2026), DOL Fact Sheet #15, and DOL’s December 17, 2024 Federal Register notice restoring the original dual jobs text.
Still open: The restored rule doesn’t say how much related side work is too much, and it doesn’t list tasks beyond its examples. As of this check, the Federal Register shows no newer DOL rule on this section.