Terms are defined the way they are used in hotel compliance practice, alphabetically, each with a stable anchor link you can cite in internal documents. Search them all with /.
7#
- 7(i) commission exemption #
- The FLSA §7(i) overtime exemption for employees of a retail or service establishment whose regular rate exceeds 1.5× the applicable minimum wage and more than half of whose earnings in a representative period are commissions. Hotels use it for commissioned spa and salon staff; DOL opinion letter FLSA2026-4 (January 2026) clarifies which minimum wage applies and how tips count toward the commission test.
A#
- ABC test #
- A strict state-law classification test that presumes employment unless the hiring entity proves the worker is (A) free from its control, (B) performing work outside the usual course of its business, and (C) engaged in an independently established trade. Under prong B, a "1099" server working a California hotel's banquet is almost always an employee (Dynamex; AB 5).
- Administrative exemption #
- Exemption for office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, exercised with discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. Revenue managers and HR managers may qualify; front desk agents, reservationists, and night auditors generally do not — their work is the hotel's production, not its administration.
- Allocated tips #
- Amounts a large food or beverage establishment must allocate among directly tipped employees when total reported tips fall below 8% of gross receipts, shown in W-2 Box 8 with no tax withheld. Chronic allocations are a red flag for tip under-reporting and an audit magnet.
- Alternative workweek schedule (AWS) #
- A California arrangement, adopted by a two-thirds secret-ballot vote of the affected work unit and reported to the DLSE, that lets employees work up to 10 hours a day without daily overtime (Lab. Code section 511 and the applicable IWC wage order). The adoption procedure is exacting, and a defective election is a common source of unpaid daily-overtime liability across an entire department.
- Arbitration class waiver #
- An agreement requiring employment disputes to be arbitrated individually, enforceable under Epic Systems v. Lewis. For PAGA, Viking River and Adolph v. Uber send the plaintiff's individual claims to arbitration while non-individual claims persist in court; Leeper v. Shipt (pending before the California Supreme Court) will decide whether "headless" PAGA filings can sidestep these agreements.
- Auto-gratuity #
- A gratuity automatically added to the check for banquets or large parties. Because the customer has no choice, the IRS (Rev. Rul. 2012-18) and DOL treat it as a service charge, not a tip — it is ordinary FICA wages, cannot support a tip credit, and does not qualify for the OBBBA tips deduction.
B#
- Belo contract #
- A narrow FLSA section 207(f) guaranteed-pay arrangement for employees whose hours fluctuate for reasons beyond the employer's control, fixing a weekly wage that builds in some overtime. The conditions are strict and rarely met in hotels; the term is worth knowing mainly to dispel the belief that a flat salary can lawfully absorb fluctuating overtime.
- Berman hearing #
- California's informal administrative wage-claim process before the Labor Commissioner (DLSE) — an alternative to court for an individual's unpaid-wage claim, with a streamlined hearing and a decision either side may appeal to the superior court for a trial de novo. A common first forum for a single hotel employee's final-pay or premium claim.
C#
- Cash wage #
- The direct hourly wage actually paid to a tipped employee before tips — at least $2.13 federally, but far higher in most states (for example, $11.35 for downstate New York food service workers, and the full minimum wage in California). Cash wage plus tip credit must always equal at least the applicable minimum wage.
- CBA waiver / supersession #
- A provision letting a collective bargaining agreement waive an ordinance's requirements — common in hotel minimum wage, workload, retention, and scheduling laws, and usually valid only if the waiver is set out in clear and unambiguous terms. Core FLSA rights, by contrast, can never be waived by contract.
- Civil money penalty (CMP) #
- A fine the Wage and Hour Division may assess on top of back wages and liquidated damages — for repeated or willful minimum-wage and overtime violations, and per-violation for child-labor breaches (29 CFR pts. 578–579), with amounts adjusted annually for inflation. It is a separate exposure that a private back-wage settlement does not necessarily resolve.
- Class / collective action #
- FLSA claims proceed as collective actions requiring each worker to opt in (§216(b)); state-law claims proceed as class actions binding everyone who does not opt out. Hybrid cases stacking a federal collective on top of state classes are the standard architecture of hotel wage litigation.
- Client-employer liability (CA 2810.3) #
- California Labor Code §2810.3 makes a "client employer" share civil liability with its labor contractor for unpaid wages and for failure to secure workers' compensation coverage for supplied workers. A California hotel cannot contract this exposure away when it outsources housekeeping or stewarding, although indemnification agreements between the companies are permitted.
- Clopening #
- Working a closing shift followed closely by an opening shift — the 11 p.m. lounge close and the 6 a.m. breakfast open. Fair-workweek laws that cover hotels give workers the right to decline shifts without a minimum rest gap and/or premium pay for working them; even uncovered hotels should watch the daily-overtime and spread-of-hours effects.
- Comp time (the private-sector myth) #
- Paid time off granted in place of overtime cash. It is lawful only for public-sector employers under FLSA section 207(o); for a private hotel, banking overtime as future time off is illegal — overtime must be paid in cash for the workweek it was earned. "We gave her a day off instead" is not a defense.
- Compensable time #
- All time an employee is "suffered or permitted" to work — pre-shift lineups, post-shift cash-outs, radio pickup, work performed during an unpaid meal period. The Portal-to-Portal Act excludes ordinary commuting and pre/post-shift activities unless they are integral and indispensable to the employee's principal duties.
- Conditional certification / opt-in #
- The FLSA collective-action mechanism (section 216(b)): unlike a Rule 23 class, employees are bound only if they affirmatively opt in, typically after a court authorizes notice to "similarly situated" workers. The notice standard has tightened in some circuits (Swales v. KLLM, 5th Cir. 2021), making early, rigorous similarity scrutiny a key employer lever.
- Continuous workday #
- The doctrine that everything between the first and last principal activity of the day is compensable (IBP v. Alvarez). Once a houseperson collects a radio and assignment board, the clock generally runs until the last principal task of the shift ends.
- Corresponding employment #
- The H-2B rule that U.S. workers performing substantially the same work described in the job order must receive at least the same wages and benefits offered to the H-2B workers. In practice it pulls an entire seasonal housekeeping department up to the H-2B offered wage.
- Cure (PAGA) #
- The post-reform mechanisms for fixing violations and capping exposure: employers with fewer than 100 employees can cure through an LWDA conference, larger employers through a court early-evaluation process. Penalties are capped at 15% where the employer took "all reasonable steps" before receiving a PAGA notice, and 30% where it acted within 60 days after.
D#
- Day of rest / seventh-day premium #
- California's guarantee of one day's rest in seven, measured by the workweek (Lab. Code sections 551–552, clarified in Mendoza v. Nordstrom, 2017), together with the wage orders' seventh-consecutive-day overtime: 1.5× for the first eight hours and 2× beyond. Six-day banquet weeks and clopening housekeeping rotations routinely implicate both.
- De minimis #
- The federal doctrine disregarding insignificant slivers of time that are administratively difficult to record. California rejects it for regularly recurring minutes (Troester v. Starbucks) — a nightly five-minute alarm-and-lockup routine is payable time there.
- DLSE #
- California's Division of Labor Standards Enforcement — the Labor Commissioner's office — which investigates wage claims, adjudicates Berman hearings, and publishes opinion letters and the Enforcement Policies and Interpretations Manual that practitioners treat as the agency's working interpretation of California wage law.
- Donning and doffing #
- Time spent changing into required uniforms or protective gear. It is compensable when integral and indispensable to the work and required to occur on premises; under FLSA §3(o), a collective bargaining agreement or established custom can make clothes-changing time noncompensable.
- Dual jobs / the 80-20 rule #
- The doctrine separating an employee with two occupations (a maintenance worker who also serves — the tip credit applies only to the serving hours) from a tipped employee whose single occupation includes related side work (a server rolling silverware). The aggressive federal "80/20/30" version was vacated in 2024 and the pre-2021 occupational test restored — but New York's 80/20/two-hour rule survives.
- Duties test #
- The qualitative half of exemption analysis: what the employee actually does, not the job description. Federal law looks to the "primary duty"; California requires that exempt work consume more than 50% of working time — a test that sinks many hotel working supervisors who mostly cover the desk, the floor, or the line.
E#
- Economic reality test #
- The multifactor federal test — control, opportunity for profit or loss, investment, skill, permanence, and integration into the business — that separates employees from independent contractors. WHD currently applies the pre-2024 articulation in Fact Sheet #13 (2008), as informed by opinion letter FLSA2019-6.
- Engaged to wait vs. waiting to be engaged #
- The test for whether idle time is paid. An employee "engaged to wait" — a banquet captain holding for a delayed event, a valet between arrivals, an engineer covering a quiet shift — is working and must be paid; one "waiting to be engaged," genuinely relieved and free to use the time, is not (29 CFR 785.14–.17). The distinction turns on the degree of the employer's control.
- Executive exemption #
- Exemption for an employee whose primary duty is managing the enterprise or a recognized department, who customarily directs two or more full-time employees, and whose hiring/firing input carries particular weight. Hotel twist: anyone who meets this test may not receive tips from a mandatory tip pool (DOL opinion letter FLSA2025-1).
- Exempt employee #
- An employee excluded from FLSA minimum wage and overtime, most often under the executive, administrative, or professional exemptions — each requiring a salary basis, a salary at or above the threshold ($684/week federally), and qualifying duties. Titles like "manager on duty" prove nothing; duties control.
F#
- Fair reading (of exemptions) #
- The interpretive rule that FLSA exemptions get a "fair reading" rather than the historically narrow construction against the employer (Encino Motorcars v. Navarro, 2018). It modestly improves an employer's odds in a duties-test dispute over working managers or sales roles, but it changes the lens, not the facts of who actually performs exempt work.
- Fair workweek law #
- A predictive-scheduling ordinance requiring advance posting of schedules, predictability pay for employer-initiated changes, and minimum rest between shifts (no "clopening"). The laws that reach hotels include Chicago, Philadelphia, Berkeley, and Evanston, plus Oregon statewide; coverage and thresholds vary, so each property must be checked against its own jurisdiction.
- FICA tip credit (§45B) #
- A dollar-for-dollar income tax credit for the employer's share of FICA paid on reported tips above those used to satisfy the minimum wage (computed at a frozen $5.15 base for food and beverage). OBBBA extended it to "specified beauty services" — including body and spa treatments — for tax years beginning after December 31, 2024, using a $7.25 base; the credit is claimed on Form 8846.
- Field Operations Handbook (FOH) #
- The Wage and Hour Division's internal manual telling investigators how to run an audit and apply the law; chapter 30 (minimum wage, tips, and the section 3(m) lodging/meal credits) and chapter 32 (overtime) are the hospitality core. It is not law and binds no court, but it predicts the path of a hotel audit better than any treatise.
- Fluctuating workweek #
- An FLSA pay method (29 CFR 778.114) under which a fixed salary covers all straight-time hours in weeks that fluctuate, with overtime paid at an additional half of the salary-derived rate. California rejects the method and Pennsylvania courts have rejected half-time overtime under state law, so multistate hotel groups should deploy it carefully.
- Form 8027 #
- The annual IRS information return for "large food or beverage establishments" — operations where food or beverage is served on premises, tipping is customary, and more than 10 employees worked on a typical business day — reporting gross receipts and tips. It is filed per establishment, so one hotel may file separately for its restaurant, lounge, and banquet operation.
- Franchisor #
- The brand licensor in a hotel franchise system. Brand standards, inspections, and reservation systems alone generally do not make a franchisor a joint employer of the franchisee's staff, but the analysis is fact-specific — and DOL has flagged interest in a new joint-employment rule that could reshape the line.
- Free and clear rule #
- 29 CFR 531.35: wages must be paid finally and unconditionally. "Kickbacks" for the employer's benefit — required uniform purchases, tools, till shortages — are unlawful to the extent they cut any workweek below the minimum wage or overtime due.
G#
- Gap time #
- Unpaid straight-time hours in a workweek where the employee still averaged at least the minimum wage and worked no overtime. The FLSA generally affords no remedy for pure gap-time (it polices the minimum-wage and overtime floors, not every promised hour), but state contract and wage laws — California among them — often do.
- Good-faith defense (section 259 vs section 260) #
- Two distinct FLSA defenses that are often blurred. Portal-to-Portal section 259 is a complete bar to liability when an employer acts in good-faith conformity with and reliance on written DOL guidance; section 260 is narrower, letting a court reduce or eliminate liquidated damages (never the back wages themselves) on a showing of good faith and reasonable grounds. A documented compliance program is the evidence for both.
- Gratuity (state law) #
- Many states define "gratuity" more broadly than the FLSA defines "tip." In New York, a banquet service charge is presumed to be a gratuity owed to service staff unless the hotel clearly discloses otherwise in writing; California's O'Grady decision allows mandatory charges to be treated as gratuities depending on how they are presented to guests.
H#
- Hazardous orders #
- DOL's Hazardous Occupations Orders bar workers under 18 from listed dangerous jobs regardless of state law. HO 10 covers power-driven meat-processing machines — including the deli slicer, for operating and cleaning — and HO 7 covers power-driven hoists such as forklifts, both recurring issues in hotel kitchens, delis, and loading docks.
- Headless PAGA #
- A pleading tactic of bringing only the representative PAGA claim while expressly disclaiming the plaintiff's own individual claim, to keep the case out of arbitration after Viking River and Adolph. Whether the maneuver works is the central question in Leeper v. Shipt, pending before the California Supreme Court — a decision that will reshape California hotel arbitration strategy.
- Healthcare-expenditure ordinance #
- A local mandate requiring covered hotel employers to spend a set amount per hour on employee healthcare, or pay the shortfall to the city (Seattle SMC 14.28; the Los Angeles hotel health payment). These survived ERISA preemption challenges and behave as fixed wage costs — budget them, and watch the model spread.
- Highly compensated employee #
- A streamlined federal exemption (29 CFR 541.601) for employees paid at least $107,432 in total annual compensation — including at least $684/week on a salary basis — who customarily and regularly perform at least one exempt duty. California recognizes no HCE shortcut; its full duties test always applies.
- Hospitality Industry Wage Order #
- New York's wage order for hotels and restaurants (12 NYCRR Part 146). It sets tipped cash wages and tip thresholds by occupational class and region, requires written tip-credit notice, preserves the 80/20/two-hour side-work rule, and layers on spread-of-hours pay, call-in pay, and uniform-maintenance pay — the single most important regulatory text for a New York hotel.
- Hotel management agreement (HMA) #
- The contract under which a brand or independent operator manages a hotel on the owner's behalf; the manager is typically the W-2 employer of property staff. Wage liability questions — joint employment, successorship under retention ordinances, recall obligations on a change of operator — follow the contract structure, not the flag on the building.
I#
- Independent contractor #
- A worker in business for themselves and therefore outside FLSA protection. DOL announced it will not enforce the 2024 IC rule (FAB 2025-1) and proposed a replacement in February 2026, but misclassified valets, spa therapists, and gig banquet staff remain a top hotel exposure because private plaintiffs can still sue under any framework.
- IWC wage order #
- California's Industrial Welfare Commission wage orders, which sit alongside the Labor Code; Wage Order 5 (Public Housekeeping) governs hotels and restaurants and is the source of the state's meal/rest, reporting-time, split-shift, and uniform rules. When a California hotel question is not answered in the Labor Code, the applicable wage order usually answers it.
J#
- Joint employer #
- Two businesses that share or codetermine the essential terms of a worker's employment — a hotel and its staffing agency, or two commonly controlled sister properties. Joint employers are each fully liable for minimum wage and overtime, and the employee's hours for all joint employers are combined in a single workweek.
L#
- Learned professional #
- Exemption for work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by prolonged specialized intellectual instruction. Rare on hotel org charts: DOL regulations recognize degreed executive chefs and sous chefs as potential learned professionals, but cooks never qualify regardless of skill.
- Liquidated damages #
- The FLSA's default doubling remedy: an amount equal to the unpaid minimum wage or overtime, owed unless the employer proves good faith and reasonable grounds for the violation. Many states have analogues, including New York's 100% liquidated damages.
- Lodging credit #
- Crediting employer-provided housing toward the minimum wage under FLSA §3(m): permitted only at reasonable cost or fair value (no profit), voluntarily accepted, primarily for the employee's benefit, and documented. State law varies sharply — California requires a written agreement and caps the amounts, while Washington allows no credit toward its minimum wage.
- Loper Bright (end of Chevron) #
- The 2024 Supreme Court decision (Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369) holding that courts, not agencies, decide what an ambiguous statute means, overruling Chevron's mandatory deference. For wage-and-hour work it means DOL regulations and sub-regulatory guidance are now weighed for persuasiveness, which makes well-reasoned, durable guidance more valuable than rulemaking that swings with the political cycle.
M#
- Makeup time #
- A California option (Lab. Code section 513) that lets an employee take personal time off and make up those hours later in the same workweek without triggering daily overtime — but only on the employee's signed written request for each occasion. It is an employee accommodation, not an employer scheduling tool, and cannot be required.
- Manageability (Estrada) #
- Whether a representative PAGA claim can be tried efficiently across many employees. The California Supreme Court held in Estrada v. Royalty Carpet Mills (2024) that trial courts lack inherent authority to strike a PAGA claim as unmanageable — closing a defense employers had used against sprawling representative actions and raising the value of pre-suit compliance instead.
- Manual worker (NY §191) #
- Under New York Labor Law §191, a worker who spends more than 25% of working time on physical labor (per NYSDOL's standard) — squarely covering hotel housekeepers, porters, and most banquet staff. Manual workers must be paid weekly within seven days; a May 2025 amendment limits first-violation damages to lost interest when the employer paid at least semi-monthly on schedule.
- Meal credit #
- Crediting meals furnished to employees toward the minimum wage at reasonable cost, never at menu price. States cap the amounts — New York's hospitality wage order publishes per-meal figures that update each year — and the credit must reflect actual cost to the employer.
- Meal period #
- Federally, a bona fide meal period of 30 minutes or more may be unpaid only if the employee is completely relieved of duty. States add affirmative mandates: California requires a meal before the end of the fifth hour with one-hour premiums for violations; New York Labor Law §162 sets hospitality-relevant meal rules of its own.
- Minimum wage preemption #
- State statutes barring local governments from setting their own minimum wages — the rule in Texas, Florida, Georgia, and many other states. Where preemption is absent (California, Washington, Illinois), hotel-specific local wage ordinances flourish.
- Mt. Clemens inference #
- Where an employer's time records are inadequate, an employee may prove the amount of uncompensated work by "just and reasonable inference" — often only testimony — and the burden shifts to the employer to negate it (Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 680 (1946)). Without a clean punch trail, a housekeeper's recollection of daily unpaid linen runs becomes the evidence.
N#
- Nonproductive time (CA 226.2) #
- Under California Labor Code §226.2, time under the employer's control that is not directly tied to the piece-rate activity — waiting for room assignments, traveling between floors, attending stand-up meetings. It must be paid separately at no less than minimum wage, and rest/recovery periods at the employee's average hourly rate.
- Nontraditional tip pool #
- A tip pool that includes non-tipped back-of-house workers such as cooks, dishwashers, and stewards. It is lawful under the FLSA only when the employer takes no tip credit and pays the full minimum wage in cash — and even then, managers and supervisors stay out.
O#
- On-call time #
- Time an employee must remain available is compensable when the on-call conditions are so restrictive the employee cannot effectively use the time for their own benefit; California reaches that result for on-premises residential guards (Mendiola v. CPS Security, 2015). A resident engineer required to stay on property overnight presents the question squarely — the looser the leash, the likelier it is unpaid.
- On-duty meal agreement #
- A narrow California exception allowing a paid, on-duty meal period where the nature of the work prevents relief from duty — think a solo overnight front desk agent — under a written agreement the employee may revoke at any time. It is routinely attacked in litigation and should be used only where no coverage is genuinely possible.
- Opinion letter #
- A written response from the DOL Wage and Hour Division to a specific employer's fact pattern, explaining how the agency would apply the FLSA. It binds no court, but reasonable, contemporaneous reliance on a directly on-point letter supports the good-faith defense to liquidated damages. Reliance must be genuine — file the letter with the policy it supports, and confirm it has not been withdrawn.
- The extra half-time (the ".5" in time-and-a-half) owed on hours over 40 in a workweek under FLSA §7. Only this FLSA-required premium portion qualifies for the OBBBA overtime deduction — premiums required solely by state law, such as California daily overtime, do not.
P#
- PAGA #
- California's Private Attorneys General Act, which lets a single "aggrieved employee" sue for civil penalties on behalf of the state and all affected workers. The June 2024 reform tightened standing to violations the plaintiff personally suffered, capped penalties for proactive employers, and raised the employee share of penalties to 35%.
- Laws requiring hotels to give portable emergency devices to staff who work alone in guest rooms. Statewide laws exist in New Jersey, Washington, and Illinois; local versions include Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Oakland, and Anaheim; New York City's Safe Hotels Act and many union contracts add more.
- Per-room pay #
- The housekeeping version of piece rate: paying room attendants per room or credit cleaned. Hours must still be tracked, minimum wage trued up every workweek, and overtime computed on the regular rate — and in California, rest breaks and waiting time between assignments must be paid separately on top of the room rate.
- Piece rate #
- Pay per unit of output rather than per hour. Lawful under the FLSA only if weekly earnings divided by all hours worked meet the minimum wage and overtime is paid on the piece-rate regular rate; California adds separate-payment requirements for rest periods and nonproductive time (Labor Code §226.2).
- Portal-to-Portal Act #
- The 1947 statute (29 U.S.C. sections 251–262) that excludes ordinary commuting and merely "preliminary or postliminary" activities from compensable time unless they are integral and indispensable to the job, sets the FLSA's 2-/3-year limitations period (section 255), and creates the good-faith defenses to liquidated damages (sections 259–260). Its preliminary/integral line decides most hotel off-the-clock disputes.
- Predictability pay #
- Premium pay owed under fair-workweek laws when an employer changes a posted schedule on short notice. Hotels are covered by the Chicago, Philadelphia, Evanston, Berkeley, and Oregon laws; the NYC, San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles fair-workweek laws do not reach hotels.
- The extra hour of pay at the regular rate of compensation owed in California for each workday with a meal-period violation, and another for each workday with a rest-break violation (Labor Code §226.7). Premiums are wages — they must appear on wage statements and can trigger waiting-time penalties (Naranjo).
- Prevailing wage (H-2B) #
- The wage floor for H-2B seasonal visa workers: the highest of the prevailing wage determination issued for the job and area or the applicable federal, state, or local minimum wage. Seasonal resorts using H-2B housekeepers must pay it to the visa workers and to U.S. workers in corresponding employment alike.
Q#
- Qualified overtime compensation (OBBBA) #
- The FLSA-required premium portion of overtime — only the extra half of time-and-a-half — deductible by the worker up to $12,500 ($25,000 joint) for 2025–2028. Daily-overtime premiums required only by state law (such as California's) and contractual premiums above FLSA requirements do not qualify; employers report it in W-2 Box 12 code TT starting with 2026 wages.
- Qualified tips (OBBBA) #
- Voluntary cash or charged tips received in a Treasury-listed tipped occupation, deductible by the worker up to $25,000 per year for 2025–2028 (phasing out above $150,000 MAGI / $300,000 joint). Mandatory service charges and auto-gratuities never qualify, and neither do tips paid in digital assets — the tip must have been customary in the occupation on or before December 31, 2024.
R#
- Rate in effect (7(g)) #
- The FLSA §7(g)(2) alternative to the weighted average: with an agreement reached before the work, overtime may be paid at 1.5× the bona fide rate of the job actually performed during the overtime hours. Useful for dual-role hotel staff, but only if both rates are genuine and the agreement is documented in advance.
- Regular rate of compensation #
- The base for California meal- and rest-break premium pay — and, as the parallel "regular rate of pay," for FLSA overtime — which includes nondiscretionary bonuses, incentive pay, commissions, and shift differentials, not merely the base hourly wage (Ferra v. Loews Hollywood Hotel, 2021). Paying a break premium or an overtime hour at base rate when an upsell bonus or service-charge share is in play systematically underpays.
- Regular rate of pay #
- The hourly rate on which overtime is computed: all remuneration for the workweek — including service-charge distributions, shift differentials, and nondiscretionary bonuses — divided by hours worked, unless a statutory exclusion applies. Paying overtime on the base rate while ignoring banquet service-charge payouts is a classic hotel error.
- Reporting-time pay #
- Pay owed when an employee reports for a scheduled shift but is sent home early or never put to work. California owes half the scheduled shift (minimum two hours, maximum four); New York's hospitality wage order requires at least three hours of call-in pay at the applicable minimum rate. Banquet staffing models live and die by this rule.
- Resort fee #
- A mandatory nightly fee for amenities. It is hotel revenue, not a gratuity — but since May 12, 2025 the FTC's unfair-fees rule requires it to be included in the most prominently advertised total price, and labeling a fee in ways that suggest a staff gratuity invites state-law gratuity claims.
- Rest break #
- Short breaks of roughly 5 to 20 minutes are compensable time when offered, under federal law. California requires a paid, duty-free 10-minute rest period per four hours worked or major fraction — with a premium hour for each day of violation — and Washington and Colorado have their own 10-minute rules.
- Rev. Rul. 2012-18 #
- The IRS ruling that draws the tip/service-charge line for tax purposes: a payment is a tip only if it is voluntary and the customer sets the amount and recipient. A mandatory auto-gratuity or banquet service charge is a service charge — wages, not a tip — ineligible for the section 45B FICA tip credit and not a "qualified tip" under OBBBA. The classification follows the substance, not the label.
- Right of recall #
- The obligation to offer open positions to laid-off workers, by seniority, before hiring new staff. California Labor Code §2810.8 — extended through January 1, 2027 by AB 858 — covers hotels with 50 or more rooms, and local recall ordinances (Long Beach, LA County's now-permanent version) operate independently, with multimillion-dollar citations already issued for violations.
- Rounding #
- Adjusting time punches to set increments, commonly the quarter hour — permitted federally if neutral in practice over time (29 CFR 785.48(b)). In California rounding is effectively dead: meal-period punches may never be rounded (Donohue), and the Camp v. Home Depot line of cases teaches that an employer that captures exact minutes should pay them.
S#
- Salary basis #
- Payment of a predetermined amount each pay period that is not subject to reduction based on the quality or quantity of work performed (29 CFR 541.602). Docking an exempt front office manager for a slow shoulder-season week is the kind of improper deduction that can destroy the exemption for an entire job class.
- Salary level #
- The minimum salary for the white-collar exemptions: $684/week ($35,568/year) federally, restored by DOL's May 2026 technical amendment after the 2024 rule's $844/$1,128 steps were vacated. Several states set far higher floors — in 2026, California $1,352/week, Washington $1,541.70, downstate New York $1,275 (executive/administrative), Colorado $1,111.23.
- Seasonal amusement exemption 13(a)(3) #
- The FLSA exemption from minimum wage and overtime for amusement or recreational establishments that operate no more than seven months a year or meet a 33⅓% average-receipts test. It targets attractions — ski areas, water parks, seasonal marinas — and a resort's lodging operation rarely qualifies; the analysis runs establishment by establishment, and state wage law may apply regardless.
- Section 3121(q) notice and demand #
- The IRS mechanism for collecting the employer share of FICA on unreported or underreported tips: once the IRS issues a Section 3121(q) Notice and Demand, the employer's FICA liability on those tips is fixed as of the notice date. Underreported banquet, valet, or spa tips can surface this exposure years after the fact — the reason large operators use tip-reporting agreements.
- Section 6053 tip reporting / Form 4070 #
- The Internal Revenue Code duty of a tipped employee to report monthly tips of $20 or more to the employer (historically on Form 4070), which in turn drives the employer's income-tax withholding, FICA obligations, and section 45B credit. Clean monthly reporting is the foundation the entire tip-tax structure — including the OBBBA deduction — sits on.
- Service charge #
- A mandatory amount the hotel adds to a bill — the 24% banquet charge, a room-service delivery percentage. Under federal law it is not a tip: amounts distributed to staff are wages that enter the regular rate for overtime, and several states and hotel ordinances require the charge to be passed through to the workers who performed the service.
- Skidmore deference #
- The weight a court gives an agency interpretation that does not carry the force of law — a DOL fact sheet, opinion letter, or Field Operations Handbook passage — measured by its thoroughness, consistency, and power to persuade rather than any duty to defer (Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134 (1944)). Since Loper Bright ended Chevron deference in 2024, Skidmore is the operative lens for WHD guidance: a hotel that relies on a fact sheet earns a good-faith argument, not a guarantee a court will agree.
- Sleep-time rule #
- Under 29 CFR 785.22, for shifts of 24 hours or more an employer and employee may agree to exclude up to 8 hours of sleep time from paid hours — but only if adequate sleeping facilities are furnished and the employee usually gets at least 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep; interruptions are paid, and if 5 hours cannot be had, the whole period is compensable. Relevant to live-in resort and seasonal staff.
- California's requirement of one extra hour at minimum wage for each day an employee works a split schedule — a 10–2 lunch shift and a 5–9 dinner shift — offset by any wages earned above minimum wage for the day. A constant issue for banquet and F&B doubles.
- Spread of hours #
- New York's rule: one extra hour at the basic minimum wage whenever the interval from the start to the end of the workday — including breaks and split-shift gaps — exceeds 10 hours. It applies to all hospitality employees regardless of their pay rate, and split banquet and housekeeping schedules trigger it routinely.
T#
- Three-fourths guarantee #
- The H-2B requirement that the employer guarantee work hours equal to at least three-fourths of the workdays in each 12-week period of the job order (each 6-week period for orders under 120 days). A slow shoulder season does not suspend the guarantee — the resort owes the wages anyway.
- Tip credit #
- The FLSA mechanism that lets an employer count a limited amount of an employee's tips — up to $5.12/hour federally — toward the minimum wage, on top of a direct cash wage of at least $2.13/hour. The credit evaporates retroactively if notice, tip-retention, or pooling rules are broken, and seven states (including California and Washington) prohibit it entirely.
- Tip pool #
- An arrangement requiring tipped employees to share tips with other eligible coworkers — a valet stand pool, a bell team pool, a banquet pool. Employers, managers, and supervisors may never participate, and where a tip credit is taken the pool may include only employees who customarily and regularly receive tips.
- Tipped employee #
- A worker who customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips (FLSA §3(t)). In a hotel that typically means servers, bartenders, bell and door staff, and valets — but usually not housekeepers or front desk agents, because the dividing line DOL draws is direct guest contact in the chain of service.
- TRAC / GITCA agreements #
- Voluntary IRS tip-compliance agreements — the Tip Rate Determination Agreement (TRAC) and, for gaming, the Gaming Industry Tip Compliance Agreement (GITCA) — under which an employer commits to employee education and reporting procedures in exchange for protection from section 3121(q) tip-FICA assessments. Common at large resorts and casino hotels with heavy tipped headcount.
- Treasury Tipped Occupation Code (TTOC) #
- The three-digit code identifying each listed tipped occupation under Treasury's final regulations (TD 10044, April 2026), reported in new W-2 Box 14b whenever Box 12 code TP is used. The hotel-core codes all qualify: 301 baggage porters and bellhops, 302 concierges, 303 hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks, and 304 maids and housekeeping cleaners.
U#
- UCL four-year lookback #
- California's Unfair Competition Law (Bus. & Prof. Code section 17200) lets employees recover unpaid wages as restitution over a four-year period — a year longer than the Labor Code's three-year limit — by recasting wage violations as unlawful business practices. It quietly extends the damages window on minimum-wage and overtime theories in nearly every California class action.
- Uniform-maintenance pay #
- New York's required weekly payment to employees who must launder their own required uniforms (12 NYCRR 146-1.7), in tiered dollar amounts keyed to weekly hours, owed whenever the employer does not wash and maintain the uniforms itself. Hotels frequently miss it for housekeeping, banquet, and F&B staff who take branded uniforms home.
V#
- Vertical joint employment #
- Joint employment that arises when a worker formally employed by an intermediary — a staffing agency, housekeeping contractor, or labor platform — is economically dependent on the client hotel that benefits from the work. DOL has signaled a possible joint-employment rulemaking, a watch item for brands, owners, and management companies.
W#
- Wage statement #
- The itemized pay-stub disclosure owed each pay period: nine required categories in California (Labor Code §226, with penalties up to $4,000 per employee plus PAGA exposure) and detailed requirements in New York (Labor Law §195(3)). Missing tip-credit or break-premium line items is among the most common derivative claims in hotel class actions.
- Waiting-time penalties #
- California Labor Code §203: up to 30 days of continued wages when an employer willfully fails to pay all final wages on time. For a room attendant earning $25/hour, that is up to $6,000 per departure — which is why final-check timing on separation day matters.
- Weighted average (dual rates) #
- The default federal method for an employee who works at two rates in one week — say, front desk shifts at one rate and banquet shifts at another: total straight-time earnings divided by total hours sets the regular rate, and overtime is paid on that blended figure.
- WH-58 / section 216(c) waiver #
- The receipt (Form WH-58) an employee signs when accepting back wages in a WHD-supervised settlement; under FLSA section 216(c) the signature waives the right to sue for those wages and that period. It is the mechanism behind the PAID program and the reason routing self-audit findings through WHD can buy finality a private check cannot.
- Willfulness (FLSA limitations) #
- The FLSA reaches back two years, or three for a willful violation — one where the employer knew or showed reckless disregard for whether its conduct was unlawful (McLaughlin v. Richland Shoe Co., 486 U.S. 128 (1988)). The third year adds roughly 50% to back-pay exposure, so willfulness is contested in nearly every collective action; a documented good-faith compliance effort is the answer to it.
- Worker retention ordinance #
- A local law requiring the incoming owner or operator of a hotel to retain the predecessor's workforce — typically for 90 days, hired by seniority and dischargeable only for cause — after a change of control. Los Angeles, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and Seattle all have hotel-specific versions that bind buyers and new management companies.
- Premium pay triggered when a room attendant's daily cleaning assignment exceeds a local square-footage cap: double time for the entire day in Los Angeles (3,500 sq ft at 60+ room hotels), Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and Oakland, and time-and-a-half on all room-cleaning hours in Seattle (4,500 sq ft). The first class action under Long Beach's housekeeper law settled for $2.25 million in 2025.
- Workweek #
- A fixed, regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods — that the employer designates. Each workweek stands alone for overtime purposes: hours may not be averaged across weeks, even on a biweekly payroll.
- WTPA notice #
- New York's Wage Theft Prevention Act hiring notice (Labor Law §195(1)): pay rate, allowances claimed (tip, meal, lodging), payday, and employer identity, in English and the employee's primary language. Skipping it costs up to $50 per workday (capped at $5,000) per employee — and without written notice the tip credit is unavailable in New York.
Y#
- Youth minimum wage #
- FLSA §6(g) allows $4.25/hour for employees under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days, provided no other worker is displaced. It is rarely usable in practice because most state and local minimum wages contain no comparable youth carve-out and the higher rate controls.