Applebee’s International Inc. v. Fast

Disclosure: Goldstein and Russell P.C. represents the respondents in this case.

Issue: (1) Whether an employer loses the benefit of the "tip credit" provided by the Fair Labor Standards Act toward its minimum-wage obligations for employees who regularly receive tips if a tipped employee spends more than twenty percent of his time performing duties that are related to his occupation but are not by themselves directed toward producing tips; and (2) whether the deference that the Eighth Circuit paid to the Department of Labor"s informal interpretation of its regulation conflicts with the decisions of this Court and other courts of appeals and impermissibly allowed the agency to issue de facto a new regulation under the guise of interpreting an earlier one.