Wednesday, June 23, 2021 The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), again seeking to regulate the circumstances under which an employer may pay a tipped employee a direct wage below the minimum wage. The NPRM withdraws provisions of a recently published Final Rule that formally eliminated the so-called “80/20,” or “20%,” Rule, which limited the amount of time ( i.e., no more than 20%) tipped employees could spend performing tasks related to their allegedly tip-generating duties, while still allowing their employer to claim a tip credit. When the Tip Regulations Final Rule was published in December 2020, the DOL deemed the 80/20 Rule “unwise,” “difficult to administer,” and a failing to “adequately consider the practical difficulties” of complying with it. What a difference a few months — and an election — makes. Now, the DOL seeks not only to resurrect the confusing and difficult 80/20 Rule, but to do so with a confounding addition: the “30-Minute” Rule.