On March 23rd, President Trump signed into law a massive spending bill. Buried on page 2025 of the spending bill, available here, is the following amendment to Section 203(m) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal wage-hour law: βAn employer may not keep tips received by its employees for any purposes, including allowing managers or supervisors to keep any portion of employeesβ tips, regardless of whether or not the employer takes a tip credit.β The new law also states that any employers who violate this rule will be liable to the employees in the amount of the tips that were taken, βan additional equal amount as liquidated damages,β and βa civil penalty not to exceed $1,100 for each such violation,β as the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) shall determine. The back story to this change in the wage-hour law is important to understanding its impact on wage-hour enforcement going forward.