On December 22, the DOL announced a final rule revising its tipped employee regulations. The DOL also provided FAQs. Among other things, the final rule:

• Allows employers that do not take a tip credit to implement mandatory "nontraditional" tip pools that include employees who do not customarily receive tips;
• Explicitly prohibits employers-regardless of whether they take a tip credit-from keeping employees' tips for any purpose, which includes prohibiting managers and supervisors from keeping tips received by employees;
• Incorporates a new recordkeeping requirement for employers that do not take a tip credit but collect employees' tips to operate a mandatory tip pool;
• Codifies recent guidance that an employer may take a tip credit for time that an employee in a tipped occupation performs related non-tipped duties either contemporaneously with or for a reasonable time immediately before or after performing tipped duties.

This final rule is effective sixty days after publication in the Federal Register.