On February 23, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a 2-1 panel decision upheld the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2011 revisions to 29 C.F.R. § 531.52 applying tip-pooling restrictions to employers that do not use a tip credit to satisfy minimum wage obligations.1 Under the revised rules, tips are the property of the employee who receives them, whether or not the employer uses the tip credit. The employer is prohibited from using the tips for any reason other than the tip credit, or in furtherance of a valid tip pool that includes only employees who “customarily and regularly” receive tips. This means that employees in “back-of-house” or other positions that are not “customarily and regularly” tipped may not share in any portion of tips left by customers.