Bill Text: MS SB2092 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Restaurants; prohibit from deducting credit card processing fees from employees' gratuities.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2020-03-03 - Died In Committee [SB2092 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2020-SB2092-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2020 Regular Session
To: Labor; Business and Financial Institutions
By: Senator(s) Blackwell
Senate Bill 2092
AN ACT TO PROHIBIT RESTAURANT EMPLOYERS FROM DEDUCTING CREDIT CARD PAYMENT PROCESSING FEES OR COSTS FROM EMPLOYEES' GRATUITIES; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. As used in this act:
(a) "Agent" means every person other than the employer engaged in any restaurant in this state that has the authority to hire or discharge any employee or supervise, direct, or control the acts of employees.
(b) "Employer" means every person engaged in any restaurant in this state that has one or more persons in service under any appointment, contract of hire, or apprenticeship, express or implied, oral or written.
(c) "Employee" means every person rendering actual service in any restaurant for an employer, whether gratuitously or for wages or pay and whether the wages or pay are measured by the standard of time, piece, task, commission, or other method of calculation.
(d) "Gratuity" includes any tip, gratuity, money, or part thereof that has been paid or given to or left for an employee by a patron of a restaurant over and above the actual amount due the restaurant for services rendered or for goods, food, drink, or articles sold or served to the patron.
(e) "Restaurant" means a facility that prepares and sells food directly to consumers for immediate consumption.
SECTION 2. No employer or agent shall collect, take, or receive any gratuity or a part thereof that is paid, given to, or left for an employee by a patron, or deduct any amount from wages due an employee on account of a gratuity, or require an employee to credit the amount, or any part thereof, of a gratuity against and as a part of the wages due the employee from the employer. An employer or agent that permits patrons to pay gratuities by credit card shall pay the employees the full amount of the gratuity that the patron indicated on the credit card slip, without any deductions for any credit card payment processing fees or costs that may be charged to the employer by the credit card company.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2020.
