# Question for waitstaff **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 2, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-waitstaff/216559 "2003-12-02T20:02:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-waitstaff/216559/21 "2003-12-04T17:05:50Z")
The IRS assumes 8% per check total, or at least that’s the minimum you can get away with declaring. A pattern of always declaring ONLY 8% though will probably eventually get someone audited; maybe not on the server level but likely on the establishment level. Then they will come after the servers. ---
**Author:** ![TygerDralion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@TygerDralion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TygerDralion)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-waitstaff/216559/22 "2003-12-05T05:27:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Odinoneeye \* > \*\*Side question… > > How do servers handle it when multiple servers wait on a table. > > A few months ago my wife and I had a situation where a different person took our order, brought us our salads and brought us our dinners. \*\* That doesn’t necessarily mean that you have “different servers”. Where I work, we rarely run the food to our own tables. The way it works, we run food whenit gets ready to whose-ever table it is to assure that the fresh food is delivered in a timely manner to ALL guests, not just those who are lucky enough to be there when you have time to go check on their food to see if it’s done every minute or so. Also, we have one server scheduled each night that is scheduled for “Food Runner”, meaning that that is ALL they do that night. ~TygerD. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-waitstaff/216559/23 "2003-12-05T05:47:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by YoudNeverGuess \* > \*\* > The one thing about tipping cash is I do sometimes wonder if someone else will pick it up be they dishonest thieving restaurant patron or dishonest thieving fellow staff member and it’s kind of embarrassing and also sometimes inconvenient to wait to give it directly into the waiter’s hand. > \*\* This happens occasionally, but it’s unlikely that a fellow employee would take the tip. They have to keep coming back to work. Before long, they will be suspected, set up, caught, fired and/or prosecuted. At the end of the night, when everyone goes out to whatever bars offers SIP,(Service Industry Personel), discounts, the person is balcklisted, (after a fashion). Tip thieves don’t last long in the industry. Customers, on the other hand… I’ve never known of an instance where this has happened, but given the nature of humans, it prob’ly has. Rest assured that 99.9%+ of the time the server gets the tip. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-waitstaff/216559/24 "2003-12-05T05:58:18Z")
Although **Ruadh** is presumably based in Ireland, not the UK, I recently visited the UK and was surprised to find that on three occasions in restaurants, the credit card slip did not even have a space to enter a tip. It was cash or nothing. I’m English, and don’t remember this before - so has something changed? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-waitstaff/216559.md?page=1)