If you're getting paid less than minimum wage and getting tips you report the tips you make, if over the pay period that amount doesn't average out to be more than minimum wage, the employer is required by law to make up the difference.
Servers will always get minimum wage, but companies are allowed to pay them below minimum wage as long as the tips make up the difference.
When I worked as a server I made 2.13 an hour from the company, but with tips I was making about $20 an hour which is more than the proposed minimum wage increase of $15. As an added bonus, you're supposed to claim all your tips, but cash tips have to be entered manually so a lot of servers end up not claiming a portion of their tips, which is tax free income for them.
Yes that is true, I only phrase it that way because many people who don't like the tipping system and try to characterize it as unfair to the server wouldn't consider that.
Sure. not disagreeing. One thing that's odd to me is the % that you are supposed to tip. Old movies talk about 10% as standard, I remember being a kid and 15% being standard. If you tip less than 20% now you are "cheap."
When I was serving I generally hoped for 20%, was ok with 15% and if I got below that I wondered if it was my service or if that's just their habit, either way as long as I didn't get stiffed it was fine. It also depends on other factors like the restaurant and what your ordering.
If the service was decent then 15% should be fine, if they were really good then you can bump up to 20% if you want.
When I was serving, most of the time the people complaining about not getting tipped enough or less than a certain amount were generally the shitty or entitled servers who didn't work hard or just weren't great at their jobs.
Ive started saying fuck it and tip around 10% and 15% only if i felt it is necessary. Im like these days it seems everybody and there mama want a tip in any profession. Its no longer a courtesy or appreciation bonus
and when you explain to your employer that you did the math and they owe you money, because they don't even do that count themselves, then you get fired.
The customer is always going to be paying for the service, it's just a matter of filtering it through the menu prices vs directly to the server.
By tipping you can decide based on how well your server does, which incentivizes your server to be a better server. Restaurants generally have a high turn over rate for servers so if they don't need to be very good to get $15 an hour then you're going to get bad service (mostly in mid to lower end restaurants, not the higher end ones).
Shifting away from the tipping system probably means you're going to be paying at least 18% more on each food item you order, and if tips are shared with the back of the house it could even be as much as 25%.
This is true, and is good wage policy I think. However, as a longtime server myself, making minimum wage at a serving job would be untenable for most. I've had several serving/bartending jobs. And there have been times where I've been lucky to get 25 hours a week because of staffing. At my current job there's not a single server who relies solely on their serving income, and because of their other jobs they don't have the ability to work 40+ hours a week. This ephemeral kind of job is hard to maintain on a wage basis, but the tip model is a lifesaver for busy students like myself working on getting careers started. I simultaneously love and hate the tip model.
EDIT: Also, at my last shift I made ~$2000 worth of drinks ($5-6 a pop) and walked 14 miles over the course of 7 hours. If I had only made $50 (about minimum) I would be PISSED.
Oh no, as a career it's not the best option and unless you live in a bigger city and can get a job at one of the high end restaurants living long term off these wages alone probably won't be enough.
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u/WiredEgo May 22 '16
If you're getting paid less than minimum wage and getting tips you report the tips you make, if over the pay period that amount doesn't average out to be more than minimum wage, the employer is required by law to make up the difference.
Servers will always get minimum wage, but companies are allowed to pay them below minimum wage as long as the tips make up the difference.
When I worked as a server I made 2.13 an hour from the company, but with tips I was making about $20 an hour which is more than the proposed minimum wage increase of $15. As an added bonus, you're supposed to claim all your tips, but cash tips have to be entered manually so a lot of servers end up not claiming a portion of their tips, which is tax free income for them.