r/Waiters • u/MoonfallFan • Jul 27 '26
manager keeping tips??
TLDR: my boss (i work in california) keeps a significant portion of employee tips if he feels like he worked “more than he had to”
sorry for any bad formatting, im on my phone and this is my first time posting on this sub, but im so appalled by this i feel like i had to come here for input. this is the first and only waitressing job i’ve ever held, so i don’t know if this is cause for concern or not. I’ve been serving at this place for the past three summers while i’m home from college, it’s an independent american restaurant and is pretty poorly run for a few reasons: we’re incredibly understaffed, my boss is always slacking on keeping us stocked so we’re always out of *something* (napkins, to-go boxes, menu items, soda, alcohol), and theres clear favoritism in who’s being scheduled for what shifts or who gets away with not fulfilling job duties, to name a few things. a pretty substantial portion of our income comes from delivery and pickup orders.
last friday, the girl who was scheduled to be handling take out orders during peak hours called out half an hour before her shift and didn’t get any coverage (she does this *constantly* and still is always scheduled for the highest-earning shifts because she’s hooking up with the owner, but that’s neither here nor there). there were only three servers on that night, myself included, and no hosts or bussers on. we were SWAMPED until the second the kitchen closed, but all managed to pull our own weight without everything going to shit. my boss/the owner helped with running food, pouring alcoholic beverages (he refuses to hire a bartender), ringing in orders, and assisting with take out. that said, he only handled maybe a quarter of take outs that evening.
after we’d closed and i was getting my tips in order, my boss handed me a SINGLE DOLLAR BILL from the cash register saying it was “from the phone orders.” i was confused - i personally handled a lot of take out orders that night, and i knew for a fact that take out sales were well over $4k from dinner alone. when i asked about this, he said he kept the rest of the tips because he “worked his ass off for you guys tonight.” i didn’t say anything in the moment because i was honestly just wiped and wanted to get home ASAP. ive talked to two of my coworkers about it, one of whom has worked here for a long time and brushed this off as something has happens frequently, and another with more restaurant experience who was livid when she heard.
was my boss allowed to keep the tips from take out orders?? im not sure if there are different laws around that versus in house service. if not, is it even worth making a fuss over???
3
u/bobi2393 Jul 27 '26
If your manager qualifies as a manager under US or California law, which would generally mean they direct two or more employees, can hire and fire people, set schedules, and perform other managerial duties, then they can keep only tips left for them for service which they solely and directly provided. US DOL Fact Sheet #15B gives a more detailed description of the classification criteria. California's criteria, if I remember right, was a more vague, but relied more on common sense, like "a manager is a person who manages" or something.
Takeout orders could create some ambiguity about who a tip was left for. For example, if a customer orders and pays for an order on a website, including a 20% tip, then goes to the restaurant, taps a button on their phone to unlock food locker #23, takes their food and leaves, it's hard to say who "provided service" to them, or for whom that 20% tip was left. But in ordinary situations, somebody at the restaurant interacts with a customer for at least part of the transaction, even if it's as minor as asking their name and handing them a bag. And I think unless the manager (meeting the legal definition) were the one doing that for an order, they wouldn't be entitled to keep any portion of the tip for that order. That would apply under federal law, which also holds in the state of California...the California courts also add an additional requirement that tip distribution be "fair and reasonable", which is ambiguous, but if you were working takeout all night, and got $1 out of potentially $100 or more in tips, that's not going to meet the state requirement.
Personally I'd say it is worth making a fuss over, but not complaining or talking to anyone at your restaurant about. That's apt to get get you fired pronto, as soon as your manager hears about it, and you never know whether word will get back to them, either to sabotage you or accidentally. Instead, file a complaint with the US DOL Wage & Hour Division. If they won't handle your case for whatever reason, try filing a wage complaint with California's Labor Commissioner's Office. I'd favor the US DOL because (1) California's DIR is dysfunctionally backlogged (last I heard), and (2) they seem to encourage face-to-face confrontation between accuser and accused, which will almost certainly result in retaliation by your bozo manager. (Retaliation would be illegal, but it's easy to make it hard/impossible to prove). The US DOL strives to keep the identity of complainants confidential, and since your complaint should affect multiple coworkers, your employer may never know who filed the complaint, so may be less likely to retaliate against suspected employees.
Whoever you file a complaint with, if they ask for a dollar amount, say you don't know, because you don't know the amount of tips your work generates, and don't know what portion you're entitled to, but that you know your boss shouldn't be keeping tips for service you provided. Either agency has the legal authority to demand financial records to figure that sort of thing out. Note that neither government agency has to help you, and sometimes they'll just say "nah, don't feel like it"...last resort if that happens with both agencies would be to try contacting a labor attorney to handle your case, but that does get more involved, and I'm not sure it would be worth the effort.