Washing dishes if you can't pay the restaurant bill

[Shalmanese]

It’s a recurring theme in movies where the diner suddenly discovers that he doesn’t have enough cash to pay the bill and is thus “sent off” to wash dishes for the rest of the night until his bill gets paid. Does this happen in real life or is it strictly a literary invention?

[DrDeth]

I heard from my Mom & Dad they did this once in the late 40’s. So, it would seem that it’s an outdated scenario, but not completely made up.

[wasson]

When this happened to me, they took my drivers license and credit card (even though this particular restaurant didn’t accept them, hence my dilemma) while I went to an ATM.

I imagine when getting cash was a lot less convenient and they didn’t have much on them to act as collateral, the “washing dishes” thing could happen.

[Hampshire]

I think this begs the question for those in the restaurant industry:

What do you do with customers who say “I forgot my wallet/purse”?

How often do customers sneak out without paying their bills?
While totally wrong and criminal to do, it seems too easy to get away with for those lowlifes that would want to do it.

[SmackFu]

I just saw a quite relevant bit about this on a blog.

9. Dine and Dash – Thinking about skipping out on the bill? Don’t even think about it. I will chase you down like a dog and hold you till the cops arrive. You ain’t doing dishes – you’re going to jail. If a customer skips out on the bill it’s the WAITER who has to pay for it. I’m sorry but I don’t like you that much

10. No money? Hey it happens. People occasionally leave their wallet or purse at home. If you’re a regular, no sweat, we’ll get you the next time. But if I don’t know you? I’m taking hostages. Leave your wife or girlfriend behind as a bargaining chip while you go and secure funding. If you don’t come back? You’ll have given your companion a date she’ll never forget.
    (It also helps to leave your cell phone, PDA, Rolex, or youngest child with the waiter until you come back with the money. Don’t worry. We’ll take good care of them.)

[bordelond]

@Hampshire

What do you do with customers who say “I forgot my wallet/purse”?

99 times out of a 100, it’s an honest mistake. Every instance is treated individually, so it’s hard to say there in one covering rule. But solutions like wasson’s are typical nowadays.

A similar situation is when a patron plans to pay by credit card, but the card is declined. Assuming the patron gives the impression of being genuinely dismayed and contrite, it’s not uncommon for the manager to simply collect a name and address (voluntarily) and to be satisfied with a promise to return promptly (or at least soon) to pay by an alternative method … no “collateral” required… This is not, AFAICT, a common scam technique – far more people than you might suppose do, in fact, return and pay.

@Hampshire

How often do customers sneak out without paying their bills?
While totally wrong and criminal to do, it seems too easy to get away with for those lowlifes that would want to do it.

This, unfortunately, is a common scam technique (well, common among scams) – the ol’ “dine and dash”. It’s not that hard to get away with, either. Thankfully, the proportion of diners who try this is almost negligible – though it seems that there can be considerable variation among establishments.

Having sharp-eyed co-workers can help a lot. Some less-than-brilliant dashers have their license plate numbers taken down by staff as they drive off. Still, even with the staff’s best efforts, dashers sometimes get through. In most places (esp chain restaurants), the restaurant will eat the bill. A few mom-and-pop places may attempt to extract the bill from the server upon threat of loss of employment (not a legal practice).

[mhendo]

@SmackFu

I just saw a quite relevant bit about this on a blog.

Beat me to it. I read the WaiterRant blog on a regular basis.

[mhendo]

@bordelond

A few mom-and-pop places may attempt to extract the bill from the server upon threat of loss of employment (not a legal practice).

Do you have any evidence that the practice of taking the money from the waiter is illegal?

I’ve always been of the opinion that it should be illegal, but i’ve never actually seen any law saying that it is.

[bordelond]

@mhendo

Do you have any evidence that the practice of taking the money from the waiter is illegal?

I’ve always been of the opinion that it should be illegal, but i’ve never actually seen any law saying that it is.

Here’s what a quick search turned up:

The U.S. Department of Labor’s somewhat surprising (to me) stance. The clear implication is that in at least some states, the practice is specifically outlawed:

**Bill Skipping **
Q: Is it legal for an employer to make servers pay for customers who skip out on the bill?

A: The U.S. Department of Labor, under federal wage-hour laws, does not object to such a practice unless payment is taken out of a server’s tips or the payment reduces the employee’s cash wage (assuming the cash wage paid to the server is above the minimum wage) over the work week below the hourly minimum wage. Even if the federal law allows the practice, however, your state law may still restrict the practice. Check with your state department of labor.

Lousiana state law (I waited tables in the New Orleans area):

Issues surrounding tipped employees are generally regulated only by the United States Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (USDOL). The USDOL enforces the Fair Labor Standards Act FLSA. Information regarding the relationship of the FLSA to tipped employees can be found at the USDOL web site: http://www.dol.gov/

Under the FLSA, an employer must meet minimum standards concerning tipped employees. These requirements are as follows:

…

The employer must allow the tipped employee to retain all tips, whether or not the employer elects to take a tip credit for tips received, except to the extent the employee participates in a valid tip pooling arrangement.

…

Retention of Tips: The law forbids any arrangement between the employer and the tipped employee whereby any part of the tip received becomes the property of the employer. A tip is the sole property of the tipped employee. Where an employer does not strictly observe the tip credit provisions of the Act, no tip credit may be claimed and the employees are entitled to receive the full cash minimum wage, in addition to retaining tips they may\should have received

…

Under Louisiana law, R.S. 23;635. an employer is prohibited from penalizing an employee or deducting any sum of money as a penalty or fine from an employee’s wages. Exceptions are made for the accidental or deliberate damage by an employee to the property of the employer.

…

5.) If there is money missing from the restaurant’s bank, do the employees have to come up with the amount that is missing?

The application of R.S. 23:635 applies to this situation also. (An employer cannot penalize employees absent proof that the employee damaged property belonging to the employer or in the possession of the employer.) Some Louisiana courts have ruled that employers who are unable to show that an employee is solely responsible for a cash drawer shortage are unable to deduct for that shortage. It should be noted that under federal law, it is also illegal for an employer to deduct any money from an employee’s wages which would bring the employee’s wages below minimum wage ($5.15/hr) for any pay period.

In the second article I quoted, there is nothing specific about “dine and dashers”. But it seems reasonable to me that the answer to Question #5 would also cover situations with dashers. There is a local phone number I can call to get a more specific answer for Louisiana if you’re interested (heck, the Lousiana DOL office is probably just a few blocks from my office).

All that said – I have seen managers twice give a waiter an opportunity to save face and preserve their jobs by paying for a dasher’s bill. In both cases, the manager strongly suspected the waiters of letting friends eat free – IOW, an allegation of being an accomplice to theft. I wish I could recall more details about who knew what and how – there was probably some loose lips and “ratting out” involved.

[mhendo]

Thanks for the info.

I worked as a waiter for a number of years before and during my undergrad degree, in three different countries, and i was lucky enough never to have a dine’n’dash. If i had, and the employer had tried to make me pay the money, i would have dropped my stuff right there and walked out the door.

[bordelond]

mhendo, I see you’re in Baltimore – this would appear to be the applicable section of the Maryland law:

**The Maryland Guide to Wage Payment and Employment Standards -
Wages and Compensation - Deductions from Wages **

Work, whether satisfactory or not, must be awarded compensation. Wage deductions are extraordinary, and are prohibited unless:

1. A court has ordered or allowed the employer to make the deduction. Examples include court ordered wage garnishments and orders to pay child support.

2. The Commissioner of the Maryland Division of Labor and Industry has allowed the deduction to offset or “pay for” something of value the employee has received. Examples include long distance telephone calls on the employer’s business phone, personal loans, wage advances, etc.

3. Allowed by some law or regulation of the government. Examples include state and federal taxes.

4. The employee has given express written authorization to the employer to make the deduction. This should take the form of a separate and distinct statement, signed by the employee, concerning only the deduction and nothing more. Even with a proper authorization, however, employers must still pay at least the federal minimum wage in the case of a deduction made to offset a loss to the employer due to the admitted or court determined fault or negligence of an employee (for example, careless damage to the employer’s truck). If the deduction is made to offset something the employee received or retained from the employer which had monetary value (for example, personal loan, use of long-distance telephone line, materials, etc.), the deduction may, in that case, reduce the employee’s wages below the minimum wage. Finally, an authorized deduction may be invalid if it violates or is inconsistent with other federal or state laws or regulations.

[bordelond]

@mhendo

Thanks for the info.

I worked as a waiter for a number of years before and during my undergrad degree, in three different countries, and i was lucky enough never to have a dine’n’dash. If i had, and the employer had tried to make me pay the money, i would have dropped my stuff right there and walked out the door.

:smack:

I assumed you were still in the restaurant biz. Apologies.

[mhendo]

@bordelond

mhendo, I see you’re in Baltimore – this would appear to be the applicable section of the Maryland law:

Thanks again.

The interesting part of that, for me, is the issue of what constitutes “fault or negligence of an employee.” As i said, i never had a runner in my yuears as a waiter, but i’ve had fellow-waiters who did lose a table to the tactic. In none of these cases could the incident reasonably be described as being due to the “fault or negligence” of the server in question.

In one case (related to me later; i wasn’t working at the time) the runners were three men in their mid-twenties. The server was a young woman of 18, about 5’4" tall. She saw them run and chased them, yelling at them. But i can’t think of a single thing she could have done to prevent the incident. What’s she supposed to do? Tackle them? Of course, the police were called. But, equally unsurprisingly, they showed little interest in spending too much time and effort on a $40 lunch bill, and the server had nothing except physical descriptions to give them.

Luckily, the restaurant manager was a good guy and just shrugged it off as a cost of doing business.

[bordelond]

@mhendo

Thanks again.

The interesting part of that, for me, is the issue of what constitutes “fault or negligence of an employee.”

The most important thing about the way the Maryland law is written is that the employer is specifically not the one who’ll determine fault or negligence. The employee will either admit to guilt, or will be granted some kind of judicial review. The employer definitely has no legal power to enforce a “server pays for dashers” policy.

[Colibri]

Leave your wife or girlfriend behind as a bargaining chip while you go and secure funding. . . . It also helps to leave your . . . youngest child with the waiter until you come back with the money.

I recall an anecdote about a woman who inadvertently found she did not have enough money to pay a restaurant bill. When she offered to leave her child there until she could return with, the manager said with a smile, “Ma’am, in this restaurant we don’t take hostages.”

I would think having the responsibility to watch a small child while a parent went away for an indefinite period would not be worth the trouble, not to mention the potential liability, compared to the average restaurant bill.

[robardin]

@Colibri

I recall an anecdote about a woman who inadvertently found she did not have enough money to pay a restaurant bill. When she offered to leave her child there until she could return with, the manager said with a smile, “Ma’am, in this restaurant we don’t take hostages.”

Hey, this could be the framework for a re-remake of the movie Little Miss Marker…

[Troy_McClure_SF]

@Colibri

I recall an anecdote about a woman who inadvertently found she did not have enough money to pay a restaurant bill. When she offered to leave her child there…

:eek:

[Bear_Nenno]

One time while working as a waiter, I misplaced my Server Book and it was stolen. The book contains all the cash and CC receipts for all the meals that day. All the money is turned in at the end of the shift. So this book had several hundred dollars in it.
This turned into the equivelant of dozens of people not paying for dinner. (Because I no longer had their cash to give the restaurant)
The management did not make me pay for the loses, even though it was clearly my carelessness that caused it. We were able to reprint the CC receipts, but all the meals paid by cash had to be comped.
I didn’t make any money that night. But that sure beats having to pay a couple hundred dollars to the restaurant.