The Government has authorized the use of electronic means to pay tips for various services. The experts’ view focuses on the impact on workers’ wages.
The Government authorized the use of electronic means to pay tips as hoteliers, restaurateurs and related. Decree 731/2024 published in the Official Gazette changed the tradition of cash tips, and the Users will be able to pay from banking apps, virtual wallets or fintech, by transfer or with debit and credit cards. In that line, Market Payment announced that it will enable the feature on its platform. But how does it impact salaries and compensation?
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According to Luis Campos, Coordinator of the Social Law Observatory of the CTA-Autónoma, this change in regulation will harm workers.
“Article 113 of the LCT considered them part of the remuneration if they were habitual and not prohibited. The problem was always quantifying them, but there was no doubt: they were part of the salary. What is the importance of this? They impacted all the items that are calculated from the value of the remuneration: compensation, Christmas bonus, etc. A very important issue for restaurateurs, beach workers, tourism workers, etc.,” he expressed on his X account.
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1. The Government modified the tipping regime (art. 113 LCT) by DNU 731/24 published today in the BO. They say it is to encourage the use of digital media (no problem here), but be careful, there is a cat (elephant) locked up. Brief thread
— Luis Campos (@luiscampos76) August 14, 2024
“DNU 731/24 regulates a procedure so that tips, currently mostly paid in cash, can be delivered through digital means. In principle, there is nothing to object to here. But the elephant in the room comes with the modification of art. 113 LCT. As if by magic, tips stopped being part of the remuneration (I owe you the need and urgency to make this change)“, he added.
“As of today, the calculation basis for severance pay, among other things, for many workers is substantially reduced. It is difficult to quantify the impact, but In some cases it can be very important.”
The problem for Earnings and the calculation of compensation
For Campos, in the case of compensation, the calculation takes the best normal and usual remuneration of the last 12 months, while for the calculation of Earnings, the total income you had in the fiscal period is included: “Tips are no longer remuneration (they do not enter into compensation) but they are still income (they are counted towards Earnings)”. To modify this, a change in the AFIP regulation is needed.
Source: Ambito