Sharing tips

Factual Questions
1

I was watching a show on casinos on the Travel channel and they said that all the tips are placed in a pot and distributed evenly to all the employees. I have also had friends who have worked in restaurants who say this method is used. How does this work? It seems to me like the ultimate result of this would be lower quality work.

I tried to think of an example to show what I mean. Okay, say there are 2 employees who work on tips, one hustles and makes a $10 tip. The other slacks and makes a $2 tip. At the end of the day, they put it together. The hard worker gets $6 which is less than he got in tips. The slacker gets $6 which is MORE than he got in tips. So, after seeing this played out, wouldn’t a hard-working employee start slacking since he will never make his maximum tip level? And wouldn’t a slacker keep slacking since he would always get more than he deserves?

How does this play out in the real world? Am I missing something? Is sharing tips a better alternative to keeping the tips you have earned? I have never worked for tips, btw.

2

Yes, this is exactly why Atlas Shrugged.

3

Theoretically, it would lead to all of the waitstaff wanting to be sure all of the customers were happy instead of each concentrating only on his/her tables. It would (again theoretically) lead to greater cooperation when one person is having a “bad day” and can’t work as hard as she usually does. Or who just happens to be the unlucky one who gets several tables of people who are impossible to satisfy or tip badly even if the service is excellent. In some places there is an agreement also with the people who bus the tables and who are “runners” for the bartender whereby the servers and bartender share a portion of the tips with those workers.

I’ve never worked for tips, either, but one of my daughters has waited tables in several different places and is now a bartender.

4

My roommate was a parking valet for some time- they pooled their tips and received a good hourly wage instead. The net result of the system in that application isn’t that standards are lower; there simply has to be greater oversight of each worker, which isn’t too hard when there are, say, three valets at a restaurant. If one slacks, the senior valet present yells at him, and if it happens again he gets permanently sent home.

So it does produce high turnover- but it makes accounting much easier for the company.

5

The theory that higher quality service equals higher tips is for the most part bunk. I have worked tipped professions for quite some years. Most people have a set percentage, or amount that they will tip, period.

Since tipping usually comes at the conclusion of business, people serving the tipper are rarely seen again after the patron has tipped. Regulars are of course a different story.

This is exhibited most effectively in cheap hotels or motels when food is being delivered. The patrons will probably NEVER see their delivery person again, so by their reasoning, they will never recieve sub-standard service as a result of their non-tipping via the fact that they will almost never be in that area again.

If you are a regular orderer of delivered food, you are a known entity. I can STILL (being 4 years after the fact) take you on a tour of my previous delivery area, and point out the non-tippers, the good tippers, and the in-betweens.

If you think that you can be cheap and not tip, and still recieve the same level of service that other customers enjoy, you are kidding yourself. Habitual non-tippers recieve the absolute lowest level of service and courtesy…that’s a fact…like it or not…EVERYWHERE! This is the livelyhood of the delivery person, could you actually think that you would go under the radar as a “stiffer” and be unnoticed? You might become legend.

On the other hand, fantastic tippers recive service and quality that is unrivaled in this realm. I’ve had people say to me that they’ve never, ever waited more than 20 minutes for a pizza to be delivered.

My point is this, If you’re at a bar or restaurant, the minumum tip is 15%… I rarely tip less than 20%. Think of the dollar amount you’re giving, and realize that the server gets far less than $3.00 an hour in wages. If you are having food delivered, realize that these people are bringing food to your house and usually less than %10 of the “delivery charge” actually goes to them. $1 to $2 tippers have the unique ability to be annonymous, everyone else is remembered… and I mean that.

I consider myself to be relatively cheap, I usually tip (for pizza delivery) $2 plus whatever change is left.

If anyone that reads this post, which I guess includes you since you’re reading it, doubts me, go to your local pizza shop and ask ANY one of the drivers to name some of the best and worst tippers in their area. I hope you have a few minutes, cuz it’ll probably take a while before they’re through.

BTW a “good” tip is usually $2 plus change, be remembered for generosity, not cheapness. If you “don’t tip” like Mr. Pink, god help you.

6

I was under the impression that in casinos, this was done to discourage cheating, especially tipping to dealers. I could be wrong though.