I WAS interested in your article pertaining to service industry tips (April 29) but I am not sure that I share your interpretation of the new legislation.

Rightly or wrongly, I read the new legislation as a move to penalise the less than scrupulous business owner using tips to top up pay to the national minimum wage and/or using tips to create a more attractive contracted wage structure. These "tips" will now attract National Insurance for the first time.

None of the other regulations has changed allowing the scrupulous owner to continue to pay above the minimum wage while at the same time distributing tips in full within the Inland Revenue guidelines.

Stuart Hall,

Owner of Tricksters Lane Restaurant and Mason's Bistro, Fossgate,

York.

Updated: 10:46 Tuesday, May 10, 2005