THIRTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC ) 
OF THE PHILPPINES 
1 
5 OCT 21 
Second Regular Session 
) 
Introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
The Constitution, in its declaration of State Policies, provides: 
Section 18. The State affirms labor as a primary social economic force. It shall 
protect the rights of workers and promote their welfare. 
Pursuant to the policy, laws have been enacted to protect the rights of the workingman. In 
the case of wait staff employees, service employees, and service bartenders, however, the 
pertinent laws are the following: Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended, otlxerwise known as 
the Labor Code of the Philippines in Section 96, and the Omnibus Rules Implementing the labor 
Code in Book 111, Rule VI. A cursory study of these laws reveal that they focus merely on the 
distribution of service charges - what portion goes to the employees and to the management - 
without any provision to safeguard the tips paid to the wait staff employees, service employess, 
and service bartenders personally. Neither is there any provision that regulates the interference of 
management in the payment of such tips. 
In view of the dearth of laws to protect the wages and tips of wait staff employees, 
service employees, and service bartenders, this Bill seeks to extend the State's protection to the 
such employees by ensuring the gratuities given to them shall be theirs alone and not subject to 
any deduction or interference by their employers. 


THIRTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC ) 
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
1 
Second Regular Session 
1 
~ 
~~ 
Introduced by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago 
AN ACT 
PROTECTING THE WAGES AND TIPS OF CERTAIN EMPLOYEES 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House ofRepresentatives of the Philippines in Congress 
assembled: 
SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the “Wages and Tips Protection 
Act.” 
SECTION 2. Purpose. - Pursuant to the State’s policy of protecting the rights of 
workers, the purpose of the Act is to protect the wages and tips of certain employees - 
particularly wait staff employees, service employees, or service bartenders - from unlawful 
deductions and interference by their employees. 
SECTION 3. Definition of Terms. -For the purposes of this Act, the term 
(A)“wait staff employee” means a person, including a waiter, waitress, 
bus person, and counter staff, who: 
(1) serves beverages or prepared food directly to patrons, or who 
clears patrons’ tables; 
(2) works in a restaurant, banquet facility, or other place where 
prepared food or beverages are served; and 
(3) has no managerial responsibility. 
(B) “service employee” means a person who works in an occupation in 
which employees customarily receive tips or gratuities, and who 
provides service directly to customers or consumers, but who works in 


an occupation other than in food or beverage service, and who has no 
managerial responsibility. 
(C)“service bartender” means a person who prepares alcoholic or 
nonalcoholic beverages for patrons to be served by another employee, 
such as a wait staff employee. 
(D)“employer” means any person or entity having employees in its 
service, including an owner or officer of an establishment employing 
wait staff employees, service employees, or service bartenders, or any 
person whose primary responsibility is the management or supervision 
of wait staff employees, service employees, or service bartenders. \ 
(E) “patron” means any person who is served by a wait staff employee or 
service employee at any place where such employees perform work, 
including, but not limited to, any restaurant, banquet facility or other 
place at which prepared food or beverage is served, or any person who 
pays a tip or service charge to any wait staff employee, service 
employee, or service bartender. 
(F) “service charge” means a fee charged by an employer to a patron in 
lieu of a tip to any wait staff employee, service employee, or service 
bartender, including any fee designated as a service charge, tip, 
gratuity, or a fee that a patron or other consumer would reasonably 
expect to be given to a wait staff employee, service employee, or 
service bartender in lieu of, or in addition to, a tip. 
(G)“tip” means a sum of money, including any amount designated by a 
credit card patron, a gift or a gratuity, given as an acknowledgment of 
any service performed by a wait staff employee, service employee, or 
service bartender. 
SECTION 4. Payment of Sewice Charges or Tips by Employers. - Any service charge or 
tip remitted by a patron or person to an employer shall be paid to the wait staff employee, service 
employee, or service bartender by the end of the same business day, and in no case later than the 


time set forth for timely payment of wages under Article 103 of the Presidential Decree 442, as 
amended, otherwise known as the Labor Code of the Philippines, and Section 4, Rule VI, Book 
111 of the Omnibus Rules Implementing the Labor Code. 
SECTION 5. Acts Prohibited. - Any agreement to the contrary notwithstanding, the 
following acts shall be unlawful when committed by an employer or any other person against a 
wait staff employee, service employee, or service bartender: 
(A)To demand, request or accept from any wait staff employee, service 
employee, or service bartender any payment or deduction from a tip or service 
charge given to such wait staff employee, service employee, or service 
bartender by a patron. 
(B) To retain or distribute in a manner inconsistent with this Act any tip or service 
charge given directly to the employer or person. 
(C)To cause, require or permit any wait staff employee, service employee, or 
service bartender to participate in a tip pool through which such employee 
remits any wage, tip or service charge, or any portion thereof, for distribution 
to any person who is not a wait staff employee, service employee, or service 
bartender, except as provided in Section 6 of this Act. 
(D)To submit a bill, invoice or charge to a patron or other person that imposes a 
service charge or tip, where the total proceeds of that service charge or tip is 
not remitted to the wait staff employees, service employees, or service 
bartenders in proportion to the service provided by those employees. 
SECTION 6. Valid Tip Pool. - The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is 
hereby tasked to promulgate implementing rules and regulations for the creation and 
administration of a valid tip pool. Such tip pool may be maintained by the employer or any 
person who is also a wait staff employee, service employee, or service bartender of the 
establishment for which the tip pool contributors work. Such employer or person shall keep a 
record of the amounts received for bookkeeping or tax reporting purposes. He shall be required 
to pay the wait staff employee, service employee, or service bartender his share in the tip pool in 


accordance with Section 4 of this Act and any rules and guidelines to be promulgated by the 
Department of Labor and Employment. 
SECTION 7. House or Administrative Fee. - Nothing in this Act shall prohibit an 
employer from imposing on a patron any house or administrative fee in addition to a service 
charge or tip, if the employer provides a designation or written description of that house or 
administrative fee and informs the patron that the fee does not represent a tip or service charge 
for wait staff employees, service employees, or service bartenders. 
SECTION 8. Exemption by Special Contract or Other Means. - No employer or person 
shall by a special contract with an employee or by any other means exempt itself from the 
provisions of this Act. 
SECTION 9. Penalties. - Any person, corporation, trust, firm, partnership, association or 
entity found violating this Act or the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder shall be 
punished by a fine not exceeding Twenty-five thousand pesos (P25,OOO) or imprisonment of not 
less than thirty (30) days nor more than six (6) months. 
If the violation is committed by a corporation, trust or firm, partnership, association or 
any other entity, the penalty of imprisonment shall be imposed on the entity's responsible 
officers, including, but not limited to, the president, vice-president, chief executive officer, 
general manager, managing director or partner directly responsible therefor. 
SECTION 10 . Nondiminution Clause. - Nothing in this Act shall be construed to reduce 
any existing benefits of any form granted under existing laws, decrees, executive orders, or any 
contract, agreement or policy between employer and employee. 
SECTION 11. Appropriations. - The amount necessary to carry out the provisions of this 
Act shall be included in the budget of concerned government agencies in the General 
Appropriations Act of the year following its enactment into law and thereafier. 
SECTION 12. Repealing Clause. - AI1 laws, decrees, executive orders, administrative 
orders or parts thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed, amended 
or modified accordingly. 


SECTION 13. Separability Clause. - If any provision of this Act is held invalid or 
unconstitutional, other provisions not affected thereby shall continue to be in full force and 
effect. 
SECTION 14. Effectivity Clause. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days following 
its complete publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2) newspapers of general 
circulation. 
Approved,