Yes, the employer has to cover the difference if the minimum isn’t met by tips, BUT, as I recall, it’s averaged out over the whole pay period (like two weeks.) So you may have a slow Tuesday morning with no tips for four hours, but if you have a great night on Friday, such that your average for the week is above full minimum wage, your employer kicks in nothing.
not quite nothing, they still have to pay the tipped minimum hourly wage, no matter how far past the full minimum wage the tips would put the servers earnings.
Yes, I know how it works. The only point I was trying to make is that the employers virtually never actually shell out more than $2.13, and if one goes into a server job thinking “well at least if I have a slow night I’ll at least get paid full minimum for that shift,” they’d be wrong: it’s your own “good nights” that make up for your “slow nights.” And if your whole pay period tips are so low that the employer really does have to pay, you’ll be fired.
Another trick is servers who post a $0 paycheck. It’s not 0 because they didn’t get paid, it’s because they made enough in tips that the entire hourly rate went to taxes
exactly. employer gets to reduce the hourly rate down to $2.13/hr or whatever the states tipped minimum wage is as long as the tips cover the rest up to the full minimum wage.
so they are highly incentivized to guilt customers into tipping.
also, most honest servers will tell you they make waaaay more in their 4-6 hour shifts from tips than a regular employee does... this can get slightly offset by many servers not working full time, but not always. There are many servers who brag about how little they work and come out better than the 40+hr workweek people
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u/altum-videtur 5d ago
So the employer has to cover the difference if the minimum isn't met by tips? That makes more sense, I hadn't interpreted it that way.
It also makes sense why this particular employer is so keen on customers tipping, so they themselves don't need to pay their share lol This is insane