I do not want to start an argument about when to tip or how much to tip. I do, however, have a question about standard operating procedure for tipping out and tip sharing.
My daughter recently took a job as a waitress. The restaurant has a tip sharing system. I understand the reason for this: if one section ends up getting a few big tables or a bunch of big tippers, the waitstaff pools the tip money and spreads the wealth.
In this particular restaurant, however, all the tips are pooled, and then calculated out and distributed to everyone working in the restaurant. Waitstaff and kitchen staff get full shares (calculated by number of hours worked that day), and busboys and dishwashers get half shares. The kitchen staff are all paid minimum wage, just as the waitstaff are (state law says servers may not receive less than minimum wage). The owner also takes a full tip share.
It is common for her to take home a quarter of her tips or less. In tipping discussions here on the SDMB, I got the impression that most tipouts or tip share systems let the server keep an average of more like 80-90% of what they received.
Is this common practice in the restaurant business?
I have several family members who worked years as waitstaff and this setup seems very strange to me. In particular, it is not at all customary for the owner to take a share. Tipping out bartenders or busboys is very common; tip pooling a little less so, but tipping the kitchen and the owners is not at all something I would expect.
However, this is in a state where servers can receive far less than minimum wage due to the tipping expectation.
That does seem strange to me. What is the motivation for a waittress to give better-than-average service if she only ends up lining someone else’s pockets who may have been goofing off?
When I was a waittress, we would give a cut to our busboys and bartenders, but definitely not the owner or the kitchen staff. YMMV.
Other than the owner taking a share I’ve seen this before. The argument is that since the tip is based on a team effort (from the hostess to cooks to busboys) everyone gets a slice of the pie. The only time I’ve had an owner cut a share for himself was tips left via credit card. One place I worked for a short time took 10% of those tips off the top as a processing fee. It’s one of the reasons I only tip cash.
If the kitchen staff and the waitstaff are both making minimum wage, why shouldn’t the kitchen staff get a cut? They do all the work. A monkey can carry plates.
Ditto above. My wife keeps about 80 to 850% of “her” tables. They do pay out for bussers, runners, and expiditers. Not the owner, not the kitchen staff.
Yes I have. I’ve done basically everything there is to do in a restaurant – cooking, serving, busing, dishes, hosting. Cooking is the hardest (and the thing I did the most).
When servers are paid less than minimum wage, it’s fair for them to keep all the tips. If they’re paid the same as the kitchen staff, it’s not. If the food is good, hot, prompt and well-presented, then why shouldn’t the kitchen be rewarded for that?
I’d leave management and ownership out of it, though.
It is unusual, and might not legal in her area. You should ask your daughter to check the laws in her area. Many of them were changed due to lawsuits from lawyers like him.
To me the fact the owner takes a full share would render suspect the legitimacy of every other aspect of the arrangement. While as a waiter I never was with an establishment that engaged in tip sharing, I still could see how giving 10 to 15% to the cook and clean staff would be fair if they just made minimum. But to give away 75%, a portion of that to the owner and other waiters, is BS.
I avoid restaurants that pool tips - in my experience, service at such places is always poorer than at places that allow the server to keep their own tips.
In my observation, it is unusual for cooks to get minimum wage (they usually command more), and unusual for servers to get minimum wage as a base salary – they usual get some pittance with the expectation being that their tips will bring their total compensation up to minimum wage. So it appears to me that the kitchen staff gets “official” pay of less than normal, with their share of the tips counterbalancing that, and the waitstaff gets “official” pay of more than normal, but then keeps a smaller than normal portion of the tips. Conceivably it could work out to everyone’s pay being about the same as in restaurants that have more typical pay plans.
Whether it actually does work out that way is the real question in my mind. Another aspect to consider, though, is whether this system results in a team effort that helps make it a desirable place to work. Possibly the kitchen and support staff do things that make the servers’ jobs easier and more pleasant than at some other places.
Sorry - I missed the part where the waittstaff were making minimum wage as well.
Where I worked, the kitchen staff had their own pay grades - and they got regular reviews and promotions - you start off low man making low wages, but you could quickly work your way up in pay.
The busboys, bartenders, and waitstaff were paid minimum + tips, hence the tipping out. We weren’t allowed to tip out to the hostesses - they were paid a similar pay grade system as the kitchen.
