A ban on restaurants using staff tips to make up wages to the legal minimum could be delayed after the hospitality industry claimed the move could put jobs at risk.

Ministers promised last year to change the law so that staff in restaurants, hotels and bars would no longer have to rely on customers' generosity to make up their pay packets to minimum-wage level. The move followed a union campaign warning diners that tips left for staff in some well known high-street chains were being used by managers to make up basic wages.

However the British Hospitality Association (BHA) has told the Department for Business that if the change is introduced in October, as planned, it would come at the worst possible time for restaurants already struggling with falling takings. Whitehall sources said there were serious questions over whether it could be introduced in the current climate.

The BHA says it estimates about 6,000 jobs could be lost directly if the law was changed, while more jobs would be lost as businesses cut hours or posts to cover the cost of an enforced pay rise: "We don't think this is the right time to introduce any new legislation that would cost millions." A Department for Business spokesman said a final decision would be announced next month.

The decision is likely to be announced shortly before a review of the minimum wage itself is published. Employers have called for it to be frozen this year.