Can An Employer Legally Ask Their Employees To Pay Any Part Of Another Employees Wages?

So here’s the situation- I work at a commission based salon in Colorado. Our higher level/ more experienced stylists work with an associate/ assistant stylist either for part of our their entire schedule. Up until this year, the salon was paying the hourly wage for our associates and then expected the educator stylist to tip them out of our own wages at the end of the day. This is presented as a requirement and not just encouraged, the structure is you tip the associate $1 per hour for every goal that was hit that day on top of the hourly wage that was paid by the salon. I’m not sure this is even legal but I didn’t question it because my associates deserve their tips in my eyes. However, my boss informed all of the educator stylists that starting the 1st of the year, if they didn’t hit their service $ goal for the days they work with an associate stylist, the educator would have to pay out of their wages towards the associate’s hourly wage for the days. It also sounds like she’s just expecting us to Venmo/ Zelle that money to the associate like we do for tips, so essentially we are paying them with our money that has already been taxed and the associate would not be claiming it on their taxes. We are all W2 employees under the salon. To me it doesn’t sound like there’s any way this could be legal, but it’s such a nuanced situation I’m not sure where to even begin with google. If anyone has any resources I can direct my boss to that would be incredibly helpful. Thank you all in advance!