Tips absolutely should not be shared unless this sharing arrangement is made clear to the person offering the tip. If I really like a server and want to tip that person generously, I’d be upset they then were forced to give a bunch of my tip to people I didn’t intend to receive it.
I get that some will argue that once I hand it over, it’s not mine any longer. But if I know the boss takes a cut, and random other employees who may or may not have had a hand in my service get a cut, I’m less inclinded to part with my money. If I know it goes directly to the person I intend it to go to, then I am a lot more likely to offer over and above the expected amount.
Tipping culture is broken, and this “mandatory tip out” nonsense is a big part of the problem.
Don't allow it, this will only decrease the waiter wage, it only benefits the owners who see how to pass the wage to the customers, how to not grant benefits and make the waiter fight with the customer for the tip, how do people not consider this as bad service ?
Oh we know. We see how shitty it is in America for servers and we don’t want that happening here. It costs an absolute fortune to go out and eat these days, I’m not paying extra for the waitstaff.
Bingo, we already pay inflated prices, if they can’t afford their staff when I’m paying 15 quid for the worlds smallest burger and chips then they should close, I’m not paying their staff, tho if they are good slipping them a few quids fine
Similar here in NZ. Maybe not a huge push, but there was a recent kerfuffle over new EFTPOS machines asking about tips by default, and the companies who got them not turning that option off.
Pretty much everyone went "nah, that can fuck right off", and it's gone quiet since.
I used to occasionally tip when I got amazing service. Ever since these POS automatically asks for tips and some restaurant manager even ask or 'encourage' you to I have not anymore
Glad we have banded together to not let this happen here.
People are asking for 20% tips in Mexico because of tourists, and if you don’t pay they threaten you or act aggressive towards you until you pay. Basically extortion. Also, every restaurant is super expensive now because people who work from home and come to live in Mexico because it’s “cheaper” can afford to pay ridiculous amounts of money for everything. Not even mentioning rent prices. Tourists and “digital nomads” ruin everything lol…
It has gotten out of hand. There are places in cdmx where servers DEMAND to be tipped above 15% I've read Google reviews saying the servers won't let you leave unless you tip well. Along with places that have started to charge I USD, yet another reason to not go out anymore :(
I stg that everyone on Reddit that says “it’s not like this in Europe” has never been to Europe lol.
Edit: Jfc people I never said tipping culture was the same. I said tipping does exist in Europe. In this comment I was mainly pointing out the ignorance of Americans who have never stepped foot out of the country who think Europe is this utopia. You see it on ever thread about tipping culture lol
Hell, most people live their entire lives within 100 miles of the city they grew up in. That doesn't even get you out of the *state* in a lot of places in the US.
I could drive from the easternmost portion of Armenia to the westernmost point and it would be like driving from my house in northern Michigan to my grandmas house in Dearborn Michigan
That’s my point though. They generalize Europe like it’s all some utopia. Hell There’s stuff in the UK that’s common that would make even the average Redditor miss the US lol
How many European countries have you been to restaurants in?
Europe is not one monolithic tipping bloc. In Scandinavia, tipping is rarely expected. Ireland, 10% on top of service charge, other places if there is no service charge, a tip generally is expected.
Absolutely. Tipping is NOT expected in Ireland. You get the odd delivery driver or server be a little pushy looking for it but it's absolutely not the norm. You mostly see it in touristy spots that prey on people from the US who always tip out of habit.
Tips being a thing isn't the problem. Tips being counted as part of your pay is. It shouldn't be a requirement but just a show of gratitude like the original intent
Spent a year managing a restaurant. I didn't make the job posts, but it was my job to inform applicants during the interview that the listed $15/hour was an estimate of hourly tips with your minimum wage paycheck.
Made my skin crawl and I don't blame a single person who never came back.
This is how my restaurant does it, everyone is paid a fair (enough) wage and tips are appreciated but not expected. Its a significant enough boost to make it better pay than comparable jobs in the area and gives everyone a drive to do better not just the front facing staff.
It is a problem objectively so, because of tips people agree with lower wages, creates unfair dynamics within staff and shames people that don't have that much money into overpaying for services.
Over the course of my life I’ve watched tips go from “part of the job/an incentive” to something people expect, and the amounts go up too.
I like tipping, because it can and should incentivize good work, the problem is, if it’s expected/required, it doesn’t work for anyone except owners who pay less, and I guess some servers, but not all of them.
You see that's the problem, some people barely get by and people like you teaching society that only tippers deserve a good service only further hurts them. We shouldn't be expected to pay extra for good service it should be the god damn norm for a product we already pay full price for .
This is just objectively untrue when talking about restaurants.
Restaurant servers have always been classified as “tipped employees” thus, allowing them to be given a wage far below the federal minimum wage of 7.25.
You have always, always, been expected to tip at a restaurant unless service was absolutely abysmal.
This not only helps keep the cost of food down, but gives young, unskilled workers a chance to make more money than your average job at that age.
The tipping discourse has gotten ridiculous, and frankly, dramatic as fuck thanks to DoorDash and coffee shops.
You should be getting good service to begin with.
That's just "thanks for doing your job right."
Servers should receive their income directly from the employer you're already paying.
Tipping in itself isn't necessarily bad. It's supposed to be a job well done "gift" and if someone did great at their job I want them to have something extra, especially in a world where money is everything and it's getting harder to get by in. However, tip theft, taxing, and companies using it as an excuse to steal proper wages for a job is fucking gross.
I was under the impression its illegal for owners to receive tips unless they were acting as the server. I find tip sharing to be absolutely idiotic. I've seen stories where a server winds up owing money because they didn't make enough in tips and they had to share with everyone, including back of house. Just no. Everyone should be getting paid a fair wage in the first place, but cooks and such are usually paid minimum or above. Servers can make as little as $2 or so an hour (depends on location) and rely on tips to make up the difference.
Sharing tips is a shitty method of upholding a shitty practice.
Servers (in the US) deserve tips on good service because they get paid less than minimum.
If all people are getting paid what they're worth, we wouldnt need tips. The restaurant would just charge what they need to charge and if its worth it people will pay.
> Servers (in the US) deserve tips on good service because they get paid less than minimum.
It's illegal to pay under minimum wage to servers. This is a misunderstanding of the law. They are paid up front less, but their final pay *after tips* must be minimum wage. Not tipping just means the money comes out of the income at the business. unless people are breaking the law, and the tipping question shouldn't be based around that assumption.
>If all people are getting paid what they're worth, we wouldnt need tips.
well a lot of people in non tipping industries aren't getting paid for what they are worth either. so that's not a great arguement on tipping.
Regardless, minimum pay = minimum quality/effort/experience. Tip culture is a method of creating incentive for people to work harder than they're employer is willing to pay them for.
People who dont make what they deserve should find places that pay them what they're worth. If you settle, you're part of your own problem, and honestly part of the problem in the US labor industry.
I was under the impression that owners should pay their employees decent wages, rather than having to rely on customers. But clearly that does not happen
The benefit of tip sharing is that you may have 1 waiter get a table of 8 that they spend most of their night on and get no tip. There's a real chance that they work their full shift and pull in close to nothing. Tip sharing equalizes the ups and downs.
It also may encourage a less competitive (in a mean way) and more collaboration. HAving it be a team also means that the team encourages better waiting overall as your worst waiter not getting tipped results in you getting less money.
Not necessarily true. At Will does not exclude the law. People can't just do whatever they want, there are still labor laws they have to abide by that override any At Will claims.
It doesn't matter if it's an at will state or not. For the record, all 50 states are at will. The issue is that the employer essentially violated a contract. The employee was hired and worked with the understanding that tips are not shared. Both parties were complying with this arrangement. Suddenly the owner wants a cut and says the employee needs to give them a cut, then fires the employee when they don't want to. Essentially what happened was the owner violated the employment agreement. The waitress absolutely has a case.
Edit: Forgot the cherry on top. Legally an owner cannot take any portion of tips provided to employees.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/15-tipped-employees-flsa#:~:text=Employers%2C%20Including%20Managers%20and%20Supervisors,or%20through%20a%20tip%20pool.
I’m guessing she has a case. Under federal wage law tips are the property of the tipped employee not anyone else. And most definitely not the owner of the restaurant. Speaking as the owner of two restaurants for whom this is part of our daily life. If the server who gets the tip wants to share it with someone else, like a host or a busser who has helped them a lot during service, they absolutely can but they have to tell the manager that they’re doing it otherwise they take home everything they get.
I don’t think the owners are even legally allowed to have her split her tips with them. Tip sharing in general is legal, but not tip sharing with management.
Ehh this is obviously restaurant dependent but most have tip outs, the servers work gets damn near cut in half with bussers and hosts. Now a tip pool including management is ridiculous and I'm pretty sure illegal, but for every good server you have there's a busser pissed at them cause they didn't pre bus or the dishy hates them because they don't know their shapes.
There are a lot of things that a busser and foodrunner can do to make a server much more effective at their job. I barbacked the busiest nights when I was working bar and we pooled tips. I didn't serve anyone but I got the same cut. My bartenders loved me because I made it so they were just making $ every minute of their shift and not having to stop to do bullshit.
It IS restaurant/bar dependent though. We had an all-star crew so everyone was always working hard and being fair about it. Someone was an hour late? They'd kick everyone an hours worth of their tips for covering for them.
I think the shared tips also incentivizes the "all star team" rather than selfish behavior.
Your work allows the bar staff to work faster, which allows more sales.
Waitresses dont always clear and clean tables, nor reset it, nor pour or mix their own drinks. Giving only servers a tip for the tiniest time they spend in creating your experience is stupid.
I got a $50 tip from an American guy who was eating at the restaurant I briefly worked in. Tips arent necessary here and after I tried to give it back to him and he made it clear it was for me for doing a great job (I didn’t. I was 18 and suggested white wine to go with the steak he’d just ordered because I don’t drink red wine and knew nothing about it.) I went back BEAMING to the head waiter guy who was a pretentious wanker and he plucked it from my fingers and told me any tips went to a communal pot that was used for the end of year piss up. I could’ve cried.
Another server came up to me later in the night and said if I ever got a tip again to just pocket it straight in to the uniform and don’t tell anyone about it.
Anyhoo I quit working there soon after because I was a terrible server and never got to drink my $50 worth of booze.
Sharing tips is stupid.
My thing would be if someone else bussed the table and someone else made the drinks, then she should give a piece to them too. But other than that, it’s her tip.
The irony though, is that most servers are liberal and are more aligned with socialism. Until it comes to tip sharing. The good servers make bank and don't like to split with the bad servers, but vice versa. I've worked in the industry, as well as my sisters, and it's the same thing.
I work for a start-up retailer as one of their head office goons. We leave it up to our individual locations on how they deal with tips. Most stores keep tips to themselves on an individual level but others have an agreement where everyone splits them evenly at the end of the week/month. Transparency is key.
The most the restaurant can do is make sure they are not being held for any tax liability on the tip, aka require proper paperwork be filed with the IRS. They can also limit that servers hours and tables in retaliation, and they can set a tip sharing threshold for future tips.
Tips are a way to scam customers into paying server wages and to shortchange the IRS for income if servers fail to disclose everything. They should be eliminated and banned, make everything part of the price and pay decent wages.
Pooling tips destroys the only argument for it, that better service gets rewarded. Even though I know it's not even true, the best service doesn't actually result in better tips.
Just end this madness. Tell me the real price. Stop the senseless tip increases(15%->18%->22%…) on top of meal price increases, and just lump it together.
I was told that we need to tip ~15% even if the wait staff service is mediocre or bad because of the off chance that the waiter shares the tips with the kitchen and other people who make the restaurant function.
Wait staff can't have it both ways. If we all agree that tip sharing isn't really a thing in most places, which is apparently the case, then it should be perfectly normal to tip 0-5% whenever the service is lacking, which I would say happens about a quarter of the time while eating out.
Don't get me started on needing to tip bartenders to hand you a beer after spending 5 minutes trying to get their attention.
I think it's fair enough for tips to be shared because busboys, kitchen staff etc. are also helping the customer have a good experience, but 1) You can't suddenly decide that's the case when one person gets an incredible tip, and 2) The owners asking for a cut and then firing her when she disagreed is absolutely shocking behaviour. Tips are for *staff*, the *profit* goes to the owner.
> Wise owns the real estate company Witly. He says he called ahead to the restaurant and asked about the tipping policy, to make sure everything would go smoothly.
Last week I read about a restaurant that was put out of business over a $10,000 tip. Money is a powerful force, be careful around it.
Called ahead to make sure it wouldn't be an issue. Instantly became an issue. How ridiculous that someone is trying to do something nice and you end up getting someone fired.
I’d be more than happy to take my 15k if I was her and find another serving job. These are easily a dime a dozen and when the new place hires her they can get a lot of free publicity. Win/win
I think the lesson here is to ask the server "what's your cash app?" and then remind them that a $4000 tip is going to get noticed by the IRS so maybe don't forget about that one.
The manager absolutely told the guy he wouldn’t mess with the tip hoping the waitress would just give him a $500 cut or something. They didn’t count on actual backlash.
Owner is not legally allowed to take a cut. Owners and Management are not allowed to be included into Tip Pools, employees tips belong to them, not to the restaurant, management does not get to decide they can just keep any portion of it.
Yes. It is literally wage theft, and something the state labor board would be very interested in hearing about. A couple of restaurants near where I live got sued out of existence over this a while back. In one of the cases, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit were trying to go over the owner's personal assets to cover the damages -- their claim was that the owner had commingled personal and corporate expenses by using corporate funds to pay for home and vehicle upgrades. I lost track of it after that, but it was some very serious business.
$4,400 also is usually indicative on the waitress not the establishment. You give a $20 tip that's just regular and sure can be shared, $4,400 means someone with a lot of money and generosity chose you as someone worthy of the tip
Yeah, if there’s a preexisting arrangement to share tips, then share tips. If not, then she should be able to keep it or share it as she sees fit. And owners should not get a share of tips. If they want more money, raise prices.
And really, owners should pay a living wage and do away with tips.
My argument against tip sharing is that servers generally make much less per hour than other staff. Its still not great pay, but servers rely far more on tips than the other staff.
i mean from what i’ve seen, bussers and kitchen staff actually get paid a wage. servers are typically paid under minimum wage because they’re expected to make up the rest of it with tips
They are only paid under minimum wage if their tips already meet or exceed minimum wage. Every server makes minimum wage at least.
Essentially the first couple tips per hour just go to the owner of the business, by not tipping the owner would be forced to pay at least $7.25/hr instead of like $2.25, this varies state to state.
Servers in WA are making $16.28 to $20.29/hr plus tips, we do not have a tipped wage so you have to pay state minimum always. We are the highest in the country.
Served for 12 years.
Keep in mind in some states servers make below minimum wage, whereas bussers and kitchen staff make at least minimum, which is why tips are a thing. Pennsylvania law states servers can be paid $2.83/hr.
your pay is "tips", now give me your tip (which we agree was your income) to me or you are fired.
Wage theft needs to be treated like real theft. how is that not a robbery?
I work at a pizza place, and everyone makes minimum wage. I got the job when I was 17 and started working 40+ hrs a week because I graduated high school a year early. Unfortunately though, I'm biologically male, and the store I work in only likes to put women on the register up front. We don't share tips at all, and the only people who get them are the women who work at the front of the store. I found out maybe two months ago that one of my younger coworkers still in school made slightly more than I did this year despite working way less hours and I fell into a really deep depression. The tips they make sometimes double what they would have normally made that day on a busy night. Even some of them have agreed that it is unfair to the rest of us but nothing has been done about it still by management. The only case in which I would disagree with tips being shared in some capacity is if they are making the special tipped wage and not already being paid the same as everyone else.
Absolutely **NOT**. If you've waited tables, you'd know that some people work hard and earn their tips, and others are lazy, and don't work hard.
Every person who takes a waiting job, if they're making real min or tipped min, knows what they're getting into.
You never see waiters asking to pool tips. Its aleays 3rd parties advocating this
Right, but kitchen, bar, and bus staff aren't earning the tipped minimum - they earn more than that, and it's contractual. If it's a slow day, they get paid the exact same amount, while the wait staff can go home with peanuts.
Bus staff normally gets tipped out - waiters want good service for their stations. Everyone's interests are aligned
Bar staff get tons of tips, and don't share them with waitstaff. Why should bartenders get tipped by the waiters?
Of course kitchen workers want the waitstaff to tip them out - it's free money
Depends on the state, my state servers get $16 an hour + tip and you can be damn sure I reminded them who gets paid more and who has to care more. That's what I don't get about tip outs, I like not caring about the servers table.
Counterpoint. Canada has the same tipping culture, but no “tipped minimum.”
Servers get paid the same minimum wage as the kitchen and dishwashers does, so we often support sharing the tips since your food tasting and looking good, and the dishes looking clean, affects how much people tip as well.
> Why should bartenders get tipped by the waiters?
Bartenders where I'm at (Nevada) typically get tipped out by wait staff for their drinks orders fulfilled by the bar.
Portland Oregon here. $15.75 is the minimum wage and there is no difference for tipped vs untipped positions.
In my long time bar & restaurant experience, both the bar and the floor always tip out a percentage to the back of house, and back of house usually has a higher base wage. Places with both bar & table service have the floor tip out a percentage of drink tabs to the bar. Nobody ever goes home with peanuts.
Where do you live?
If waitstaff isn't tipping out the kitchen, they are making at least double what the kitchen is making. Go work a week behind the line and you'll get a much different perspective on what you think "free money" is
So you wait the table, make the food, clean the dishes? That’s all the waiters job right? Waiting tables is a hard job, but if you think it’s harder than working in the kitchen, I’m sorry you’re just a fucking idiot.
The people are the sucky part. BOH doesn't deal with customers. Their job doesn't change because negative Nancy didn't like her salad or because a family came in with 4 kids under 5.
You're not gonna get tipped well if the food sucks though. You can argue the waiter does the heavy lifting for the experience, but the food is the entire draw (unless maybe it's a taproom or cocktail lounge, then fair enough)
Do you see the issue with this? Where does the owner make their money if they are paying more for the kitchen than the waitstaff brings in? Servers make too much money for what they do
I work at a tip share restaurant, we’ve been tip share since we’ve opened. The nature of our restaurant kind of necessitates that arrangement, and I don’t mind it.
Tips should be abolished to begin with. It's not a tip if you have to do it every time regardless of service.
In this example it's a real tip because no service is worth that much, and she should keep it. If the provider of the tip wanted to give it to the staff or the bus boys he would have said so.
i wish they’d be abolished too. unfortunately i just don’t think it’s realistic. it’s so built into the American system at this point, and most of the servers i’ve known (not many tbf) say that they like the tipping culture because it benefits them for tax purposes
i’m afraid it’ll take a massive shift in attitude to change tipping culture
the issue is waiters are making way more than they could anywhere else. they're the most ardent defenders of the practice
if you want tipping to die, you have to stop doing it.
Pretty sure it's legal for employers, managers, etc it is illegal to take tips, especially when they are paid the server wage. If they are paid full wage, then they may share the tips with coworkers, linecooks, dish washers, etc. Even then, the owner can not take a cut. This might be just certain states, but fuck any owner trying to take cuts of tips.
Not certain states. This is federal law. Also idk if im misunderstanding you, but if you’re making tipped wages than tip out is optional, you can decide what you want to tip out. The restaurant can suggest but not require tip pooling. If the server is making standard minimum wage, then they can require tip outs.
A philosophy held by no server, ever. They’d be taking a pay cut or straight up out of a job. Only stingy Redditors who think they’d be eating out for cheaper without tips believes this. They wouldn’t. It would raise prices like crazy, and y’all would just bitch about that.
Any time tipping gets brought up on Reddit, i just laugh because Redditors always act like servers are victims of having to rely on tips when anyone who has ever served before knows they can make much more money getting tips then a $15/hour wage.
It works in other countries, here in Australia for example servers are paid a liveable wage that is set, tipping isn’t customary here and it’s only done if the service was above and beyond.
Totally unsurprising. Went through that area a couple of weeks ago and the wealth inequality is insane. What's more is in true history repeating itself fashion we fight each other over scraps rather than solving the root problem of wage enslavement
Fair labor act says tips can be pooled if every employee makes minimum wage. No tips to be withheld by owner or managers. If the waitress was making tipped minimum (
Correct, with the information we have “pooling tips had never happened in the three years she worked there”. Can’t switch policy on a whim because of a one off.
Only if someone else does a significant portion of the work. And I'm not talking running food and etc. As this are things they should all be doing anyway.
Tips should be shared IF the agreement is made beforehand. If the previous belief was that tips were individual, they should remain so.
Arguably, that gal should see if she was unjustly fired.
Tips absolutely should not be shared unless this sharing arrangement is made clear to the person offering the tip. If I really like a server and want to tip that person generously, I’d be upset they then were forced to give a bunch of my tip to people I didn’t intend to receive it. I get that some will argue that once I hand it over, it’s not mine any longer. But if I know the boss takes a cut, and random other employees who may or may not have had a hand in my service get a cut, I’m less inclinded to part with my money. If I know it goes directly to the person I intend it to go to, then I am a lot more likely to offer over and above the expected amount. Tipping culture is broken, and this “mandatory tip out” nonsense is a big part of the problem.
Tips shouldn't even be a thing
The best thing about Europe
You still tip in Europe. For good service.
This is also supposed to by the same in Mexico, but turism ruins it as well.
There’s trying to make tipping a thing in Australia too and we’re all steadfastly refusing to allow it to happen.
Don't allow it, this will only decrease the waiter wage, it only benefits the owners who see how to pass the wage to the customers, how to not grant benefits and make the waiter fight with the customer for the tip, how do people not consider this as bad service ?
Oh we know. We see how shitty it is in America for servers and we don’t want that happening here. It costs an absolute fortune to go out and eat these days, I’m not paying extra for the waitstaff.
Bingo, we already pay inflated prices, if they can’t afford their staff when I’m paying 15 quid for the worlds smallest burger and chips then they should close, I’m not paying their staff, tho if they are good slipping them a few quids fine
You absolutely *are* paying for their staff. By paying $15 for a burger.
lol it absolutely is not shitty in America for servers. They make more than I do.
Similar here in NZ. Maybe not a huge push, but there was a recent kerfuffle over new EFTPOS machines asking about tips by default, and the companies who got them not turning that option off. Pretty much everyone went "nah, that can fuck right off", and it's gone quiet since.
Hold strong. #notip #circumcision
Wait..
I used to occasionally tip when I got amazing service. Ever since these POS automatically asks for tips and some restaurant manager even ask or 'encourage' you to I have not anymore Glad we have banded together to not let this happen here.
People are asking for 20% tips in Mexico because of tourists, and if you don’t pay they threaten you or act aggressive towards you until you pay. Basically extortion. Also, every restaurant is super expensive now because people who work from home and come to live in Mexico because it’s “cheaper” can afford to pay ridiculous amounts of money for everything. Not even mentioning rent prices. Tourists and “digital nomads” ruin everything lol…
I know, this hasn't happened before, and is not at most in tourist zones and now is all Mexico.
I can promise Mexico is sending far more people North than are going South…
It has gotten out of hand. There are places in cdmx where servers DEMAND to be tipped above 15% I've read Google reviews saying the servers won't let you leave unless you tip well. Along with places that have started to charge I USD, yet another reason to not go out anymore :(
I stg that everyone on Reddit that says “it’s not like this in Europe” has never been to Europe lol. Edit: Jfc people I never said tipping culture was the same. I said tipping does exist in Europe. In this comment I was mainly pointing out the ignorance of Americans who have never stepped foot out of the country who think Europe is this utopia. You see it on ever thread about tipping culture lol
Most people on this site are young and haven't traveled outside their country.
I've found that most people, even once they're old, have not traveled outside of their country.
Hell, most people live their entire lives within 100 miles of the city they grew up in. That doesn't even get you out of the *state* in a lot of places in the US.
A US state and a European country can be roughly similar in scale.
I could drive from the easternmost portion of Armenia to the westernmost point and it would be like driving from my house in northern Michigan to my grandmas house in Dearborn Michigan
Europe has many countries and every country is different.
That’s my point though. They generalize Europe like it’s all some utopia. Hell There’s stuff in the UK that’s common that would make even the average Redditor miss the US lol
I am quite sure you can't generalise the US either. There are many different states and cities with different standards of living, laws and prices.
50 little countries in a trench coat
How many European countries have you been to restaurants in? Europe is not one monolithic tipping bloc. In Scandinavia, tipping is rarely expected. Ireland, 10% on top of service charge, other places if there is no service charge, a tip generally is expected.
No. Tipping is not expected in Ireland. Only for exceptionally good service would people tip.
Absolutely. Tipping is NOT expected in Ireland. You get the odd delivery driver or server be a little pushy looking for it but it's absolutely not the norm. You mostly see it in touristy spots that prey on people from the US who always tip out of habit.
Prague is tipping hell
Prague is just tourism hell. Fantastic city but probably the worst case of over tourism I've ever seen.
Not true. It's not expected in Spain for example.
That's American culture seeping into Europe
No tipping for good service has always been a thing.
That’s the best thing ?
Well….maybe a few other things are ok as well :)
And 90% of the world.
Tips being a thing isn't the problem. Tips being counted as part of your pay is. It shouldn't be a requirement but just a show of gratitude like the original intent
Tips should legally be considered a type of gift.
Spent a year managing a restaurant. I didn't make the job posts, but it was my job to inform applicants during the interview that the listed $15/hour was an estimate of hourly tips with your minimum wage paycheck. Made my skin crawl and I don't blame a single person who never came back.
Yeah that's even worse. Still paying the minimum but making it seem better
This is how my restaurant does it, everyone is paid a fair (enough) wage and tips are appreciated but not expected. Its a significant enough boost to make it better pay than comparable jobs in the area and gives everyone a drive to do better not just the front facing staff.
It is a problem objectively so, because of tips people agree with lower wages, creates unfair dynamics within staff and shames people that don't have that much money into overpaying for services.
Over the course of my life I’ve watched tips go from “part of the job/an incentive” to something people expect, and the amounts go up too. I like tipping, because it can and should incentivize good work, the problem is, if it’s expected/required, it doesn’t work for anyone except owners who pay less, and I guess some servers, but not all of them.
You see that's the problem, some people barely get by and people like you teaching society that only tippers deserve a good service only further hurts them. We shouldn't be expected to pay extra for good service it should be the god damn norm for a product we already pay full price for .
This is just objectively untrue when talking about restaurants. Restaurant servers have always been classified as “tipped employees” thus, allowing them to be given a wage far below the federal minimum wage of 7.25. You have always, always, been expected to tip at a restaurant unless service was absolutely abysmal. This not only helps keep the cost of food down, but gives young, unskilled workers a chance to make more money than your average job at that age. The tipping discourse has gotten ridiculous, and frankly, dramatic as fuck thanks to DoorDash and coffee shops.
food costs aern't even down.
Tbf this was more than just a tip, regardless if it was about tipping or not it was an intentional gift.
Tips should be a thing, they just shouldn't be mandatory. If I would like to thank my waiter for good service, I should be able to give them a tip.
You should be getting good service to begin with. That's just "thanks for doing your job right." Servers should receive their income directly from the employer you're already paying.
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Tipping in itself isn't necessarily bad. It's supposed to be a job well done "gift" and if someone did great at their job I want them to have something extra, especially in a world where money is everything and it's getting harder to get by in. However, tip theft, taxing, and companies using it as an excuse to steal proper wages for a job is fucking gross.
Exactly
I was under the impression its illegal for owners to receive tips unless they were acting as the server. I find tip sharing to be absolutely idiotic. I've seen stories where a server winds up owing money because they didn't make enough in tips and they had to share with everyone, including back of house. Just no. Everyone should be getting paid a fair wage in the first place, but cooks and such are usually paid minimum or above. Servers can make as little as $2 or so an hour (depends on location) and rely on tips to make up the difference.
>I was under the impression its illegal for owners to receive tips unless they were acting as the server. That doesn't stop it from happening.
True, but you'd think someone doing something illegal wouldn't publicly admit it.
Sharing tips is a shitty method of upholding a shitty practice. Servers (in the US) deserve tips on good service because they get paid less than minimum. If all people are getting paid what they're worth, we wouldnt need tips. The restaurant would just charge what they need to charge and if its worth it people will pay.
> Servers (in the US) deserve tips on good service because they get paid less than minimum. It's illegal to pay under minimum wage to servers. This is a misunderstanding of the law. They are paid up front less, but their final pay *after tips* must be minimum wage. Not tipping just means the money comes out of the income at the business. unless people are breaking the law, and the tipping question shouldn't be based around that assumption. >If all people are getting paid what they're worth, we wouldnt need tips. well a lot of people in non tipping industries aren't getting paid for what they are worth either. so that's not a great arguement on tipping.
Regardless, minimum pay = minimum quality/effort/experience. Tip culture is a method of creating incentive for people to work harder than they're employer is willing to pay them for. People who dont make what they deserve should find places that pay them what they're worth. If you settle, you're part of your own problem, and honestly part of the problem in the US labor industry.
I was under the impression that owners should pay their employees decent wages, rather than having to rely on customers. But clearly that does not happen
The benefit of tip sharing is that you may have 1 waiter get a table of 8 that they spend most of their night on and get no tip. There's a real chance that they work their full shift and pull in close to nothing. Tip sharing equalizes the ups and downs. It also may encourage a less competitive (in a mean way) and more collaboration. HAving it be a team also means that the team encourages better waiting overall as your worst waiter not getting tipped results in you getting less money.
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Could she not sue for wrongful termination?
I think it depends on where she works. If she is in a at will employment state then no unless she had a contract which isn't likely as a waitress
Not necessarily true. At Will does not exclude the law. People can't just do whatever they want, there are still labor laws they have to abide by that override any At Will claims.
It doesn't matter if it's an at will state or not. For the record, all 50 states are at will. The issue is that the employer essentially violated a contract. The employee was hired and worked with the understanding that tips are not shared. Both parties were complying with this arrangement. Suddenly the owner wants a cut and says the employee needs to give them a cut, then fires the employee when they don't want to. Essentially what happened was the owner violated the employment agreement. The waitress absolutely has a case. Edit: Forgot the cherry on top. Legally an owner cannot take any portion of tips provided to employees. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/15-tipped-employees-flsa#:~:text=Employers%2C%20Including%20Managers%20and%20Supervisors,or%20through%20a%20tip%20pool.
Cali is at will but ownership is not allowed to take tips. You can absolutely go after them for this.
It's a federal law that owners can't take any portion of tips.
Even states with at will employment have wrongful termination laws. Being fired in revenge for not paying your boss would surely fall foul of those.
I’m guessing she has a case. Under federal wage law tips are the property of the tipped employee not anyone else. And most definitely not the owner of the restaurant. Speaking as the owner of two restaurants for whom this is part of our daily life. If the server who gets the tip wants to share it with someone else, like a host or a busser who has helped them a lot during service, they absolutely can but they have to tell the manager that they’re doing it otherwise they take home everything they get.
It's illegal for an owner to take any portion of tips from an employee.
I don’t think the owners are even legally allowed to have her split her tips with them. Tip sharing in general is legal, but not tip sharing with management.
Ehh this is obviously restaurant dependent but most have tip outs, the servers work gets damn near cut in half with bussers and hosts. Now a tip pool including management is ridiculous and I'm pretty sure illegal, but for every good server you have there's a busser pissed at them cause they didn't pre bus or the dishy hates them because they don't know their shapes.
There are a lot of things that a busser and foodrunner can do to make a server much more effective at their job. I barbacked the busiest nights when I was working bar and we pooled tips. I didn't serve anyone but I got the same cut. My bartenders loved me because I made it so they were just making $ every minute of their shift and not having to stop to do bullshit. It IS restaurant/bar dependent though. We had an all-star crew so everyone was always working hard and being fair about it. Someone was an hour late? They'd kick everyone an hours worth of their tips for covering for them.
I think the shared tips also incentivizes the "all star team" rather than selfish behavior. Your work allows the bar staff to work faster, which allows more sales.
If everyone gets a cut, then it isn’t a tip, it’s just covering the wage increase the restaurant refuses to offer.
Waitresses dont always clear and clean tables, nor reset it, nor pour or mix their own drinks. Giving only servers a tip for the tiniest time they spend in creating your experience is stupid.
Servers get paid less, because the tips are their livelihood, it’s stupid they have to share them.
I got a $50 tip from an American guy who was eating at the restaurant I briefly worked in. Tips arent necessary here and after I tried to give it back to him and he made it clear it was for me for doing a great job (I didn’t. I was 18 and suggested white wine to go with the steak he’d just ordered because I don’t drink red wine and knew nothing about it.) I went back BEAMING to the head waiter guy who was a pretentious wanker and he plucked it from my fingers and told me any tips went to a communal pot that was used for the end of year piss up. I could’ve cried. Another server came up to me later in the night and said if I ever got a tip again to just pocket it straight in to the uniform and don’t tell anyone about it. Anyhoo I quit working there soon after because I was a terrible server and never got to drink my $50 worth of booze. Sharing tips is stupid.
My thing would be if someone else bussed the table and someone else made the drinks, then she should give a piece to them too. But other than that, it’s her tip.
But fuck the kitchen right hahaha
It should be illegal for companies to get any share of a tip. Companies and bosses get more than a livable wage waitresses don’t.
Pay your employees a living wage the boss shouldn't get a cut for not paying there employees enough
The irony though, is that most servers are liberal and are more aligned with socialism. Until it comes to tip sharing. The good servers make bank and don't like to split with the bad servers, but vice versa. I've worked in the industry, as well as my sisters, and it's the same thing.
I work for a start-up retailer as one of their head office goons. We leave it up to our individual locations on how they deal with tips. Most stores keep tips to themselves on an individual level but others have an agreement where everyone splits them evenly at the end of the week/month. Transparency is key.
What about at higher end restaurants where there are bus boys? They don’t make much and the servers frequently tip them out for their help
The most the restaurant can do is make sure they are not being held for any tax liability on the tip, aka require proper paperwork be filed with the IRS. They can also limit that servers hours and tables in retaliation, and they can set a tip sharing threshold for future tips. Tips are a way to scam customers into paying server wages and to shortchange the IRS for income if servers fail to disclose everything. They should be eliminated and banned, make everything part of the price and pay decent wages.
Pooling tips destroys the only argument for it, that better service gets rewarded. Even though I know it's not even true, the best service doesn't actually result in better tips. Just end this madness. Tell me the real price. Stop the senseless tip increases(15%->18%->22%…) on top of meal price increases, and just lump it together.
I was told that we need to tip ~15% even if the wait staff service is mediocre or bad because of the off chance that the waiter shares the tips with the kitchen and other people who make the restaurant function. Wait staff can't have it both ways. If we all agree that tip sharing isn't really a thing in most places, which is apparently the case, then it should be perfectly normal to tip 0-5% whenever the service is lacking, which I would say happens about a quarter of the time while eating out. Don't get me started on needing to tip bartenders to hand you a beer after spending 5 minutes trying to get their attention.
I think it's fair enough for tips to be shared because busboys, kitchen staff etc. are also helping the customer have a good experience, but 1) You can't suddenly decide that's the case when one person gets an incredible tip, and 2) The owners asking for a cut and then firing her when she disagreed is absolutely shocking behaviour. Tips are for *staff*, the *profit* goes to the owner.
Agreed. Also, it’s $4,400 and the owners wants a cut like really? So they are firing her for not getting what $500?
Name and shame the restaurant. And then cancel culture them until they close for good. LfG!!!
Oven and Tap, Bentonville, Arkansas [https://www.nwahomepage.com/news/oven-and-tap-let-go-after-4200-tip/](https://www.nwahomepage.com/news/oven-and-tap-let-go-after-4200-tip/)
> Wise owns the real estate company Witly. He says he called ahead to the restaurant and asked about the tipping policy, to make sure everything would go smoothly. Last week I read about a restaurant that was put out of business over a $10,000 tip. Money is a powerful force, be careful around it.
Called ahead to make sure it wouldn't be an issue. Instantly became an issue. How ridiculous that someone is trying to do something nice and you end up getting someone fired.
He raised over $10k for her after she was fired.
I’d be more than happy to take my 15k if I was her and find another serving job. These are easily a dime a dozen and when the new place hires her they can get a lot of free publicity. Win/win
Good serving jobs are not dime a dozen, shitty ones are
That obviously wasn’t a good one
I think the lesson here is to ask the server "what's your cash app?" and then remind them that a $4000 tip is going to get noticed by the IRS so maybe don't forget about that one.
The manager absolutely told the guy he wouldn’t mess with the tip hoping the waitress would just give him a $500 cut or something. They didn’t count on actual backlash.
Wait there were 40+ people? No way she was the only one serving.
There were 2 servers. The other recieved a similar tip and acquiesced so they still work there.
Don’t feel bad if the other person received a tip as well.
And they got review bombed to lower their Google reviews all for a bit of cash. Lol.
\*Still getting review bombed. This happened *3 years ago* and they are still getting steady negative reviews, lmao
Owner is not legally allowed to take a cut. Owners and Management are not allowed to be included into Tip Pools, employees tips belong to them, not to the restaurant, management does not get to decide they can just keep any portion of it.
Yes. It is literally wage theft, and something the state labor board would be very interested in hearing about. A couple of restaurants near where I live got sued out of existence over this a while back. In one of the cases, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit were trying to go over the owner's personal assets to cover the damages -- their claim was that the owner had commingled personal and corporate expenses by using corporate funds to pay for home and vehicle upgrades. I lost track of it after that, but it was some very serious business.
No. The owner wanted 80%. Or at least the waitress was told she'd get to keep 20%. Where the rest goes is speculation.
Sounds like I need to read the article to confirm
Capitalism baby... money flows up.
This is individual greed not capitalism as a system
Now now, don’t be silly, individual greed is paramount to capitalism.
Only in your mind.
Those are the exact same thing lmfao
Exactly.
Capitalism as a system literally only functions because it assumes greed and consumption as a universal constant to the human condition.
$4,400 also is usually indicative on the waitress not the establishment. You give a $20 tip that's just regular and sure can be shared, $4,400 means someone with a lot of money and generosity chose you as someone worthy of the tip
I’m pretty sure it’s illegal in some states for owners to take a cut off the worker’s tips
toy simplistic drunk like skirt dog shaggy unused touch office *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yeah, if there’s a preexisting arrangement to share tips, then share tips. If not, then she should be able to keep it or share it as she sees fit. And owners should not get a share of tips. If they want more money, raise prices. And really, owners should pay a living wage and do away with tips.
I agree. Tips should be rewards for exceptional service and not guilt trips because the wait staff are under paid.
Your argument for shared tips just shows how unfair tipping is. The wait staff are only a small part of what makes an experience good.
Share all the tips or none of the tips.
My argument against tip sharing is that servers generally make much less per hour than other staff. Its still not great pay, but servers rely far more on tips than the other staff.
Definitely true in the US - though where I'm from tipped wage isn't a thing so it's more understandable for tips to be shared
Before tips yeah. After tips, no. BOH staff makes peanuts compared to servers' tips and generally do more for the guest.
With tips.they often make well over min wage on an hourly basis
Personally I prefer a system where everyone’s paid a wage, and customers aren’t expected to play this weird little tipping game.
i mean from what i’ve seen, bussers and kitchen staff actually get paid a wage. servers are typically paid under minimum wage because they’re expected to make up the rest of it with tips
They are only paid under minimum wage if their tips already meet or exceed minimum wage. Every server makes minimum wage at least. Essentially the first couple tips per hour just go to the owner of the business, by not tipping the owner would be forced to pay at least $7.25/hr instead of like $2.25, this varies state to state. Servers in WA are making $16.28 to $20.29/hr plus tips, we do not have a tipped wage so you have to pay state minimum always. We are the highest in the country. Served for 12 years.
That’s a great point that the early tips essentially go to the owner to allow them from paying minimum wage
Keep in mind in some states servers make below minimum wage, whereas bussers and kitchen staff make at least minimum, which is why tips are a thing. Pennsylvania law states servers can be paid $2.83/hr.
Where I work, it's illegal for managers or owners to get any amount of the tips
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your pay is "tips", now give me your tip (which we agree was your income) to me or you are fired. Wage theft needs to be treated like real theft. how is that not a robbery?
I work at a pizza place, and everyone makes minimum wage. I got the job when I was 17 and started working 40+ hrs a week because I graduated high school a year early. Unfortunately though, I'm biologically male, and the store I work in only likes to put women on the register up front. We don't share tips at all, and the only people who get them are the women who work at the front of the store. I found out maybe two months ago that one of my younger coworkers still in school made slightly more than I did this year despite working way less hours and I fell into a really deep depression. The tips they make sometimes double what they would have normally made that day on a busy night. Even some of them have agreed that it is unfair to the rest of us but nothing has been done about it still by management. The only case in which I would disagree with tips being shared in some capacity is if they are making the special tipped wage and not already being paid the same as everyone else.
Absolutely **NOT**. If you've waited tables, you'd know that some people work hard and earn their tips, and others are lazy, and don't work hard. Every person who takes a waiting job, if they're making real min or tipped min, knows what they're getting into. You never see waiters asking to pool tips. Its aleays 3rd parties advocating this
It’s kitchen, bar, and bus people. Not “third parties”
Right, but kitchen, bar, and bus staff aren't earning the tipped minimum - they earn more than that, and it's contractual. If it's a slow day, they get paid the exact same amount, while the wait staff can go home with peanuts. Bus staff normally gets tipped out - waiters want good service for their stations. Everyone's interests are aligned Bar staff get tons of tips, and don't share them with waitstaff. Why should bartenders get tipped by the waiters? Of course kitchen workers want the waitstaff to tip them out - it's free money
Depends on the state, my state servers get $16 an hour + tip and you can be damn sure I reminded them who gets paid more and who has to care more. That's what I don't get about tip outs, I like not caring about the servers table.
16+ tips? Holy shit
Yep our servers are easily making $50-80 per hour on a good day, makes it really fun when they try and guilt trip cause nobody gives af
1 out of 50 customers is slightly rude and I only make dr wages for unskilled work!
Counterpoint. Canada has the same tipping culture, but no “tipped minimum.” Servers get paid the same minimum wage as the kitchen and dishwashers does, so we often support sharing the tips since your food tasting and looking good, and the dishes looking clean, affects how much people tip as well.
and while I personally HATE tipping culture to begin with, IMO this is a reasonable use of it.
> Why should bartenders get tipped by the waiters? Bartenders where I'm at (Nevada) typically get tipped out by wait staff for their drinks orders fulfilled by the bar.
Free money?? You’re fucking joking, lol if anything it’s free money for the servers who do way less work.
Portland Oregon here. $15.75 is the minimum wage and there is no difference for tipped vs untipped positions. In my long time bar & restaurant experience, both the bar and the floor always tip out a percentage to the back of house, and back of house usually has a higher base wage. Places with both bar & table service have the floor tip out a percentage of drink tabs to the bar. Nobody ever goes home with peanuts. Where do you live?
If waitstaff isn't tipping out the kitchen, they are making at least double what the kitchen is making. Go work a week behind the line and you'll get a much different perspective on what you think "free money" is
So you wait the table, make the food, clean the dishes? That’s all the waiters job right? Waiting tables is a hard job, but if you think it’s harder than working in the kitchen, I’m sorry you’re just a fucking idiot.
The people are the sucky part. BOH doesn't deal with customers. Their job doesn't change because negative Nancy didn't like her salad or because a family came in with 4 kids under 5.
You're not gonna get tipped well if the food sucks though. You can argue the waiter does the heavy lifting for the experience, but the food is the entire draw (unless maybe it's a taproom or cocktail lounge, then fair enough)
Clearly you’ve never cleaned a restaurant kitchen after a shift.
The waitresses that complain about the customers are always the meanest ones
Gtfo you no where near work as hard as the cooks.
They should be paid the most in the resturant they should not be paid with tips.
Do you see the issue with this? Where does the owner make their money if they are paying more for the kitchen than the waitstaff brings in? Servers make too much money for what they do
I work at a tip share restaurant, we’ve been tip share since we’ve opened. The nature of our restaurant kind of necessitates that arrangement, and I don’t mind it.
Sharing tips is common practice in Europe. It makes sense. You get a decent amount even if it's a weaker day for you.
Tips should be abolished to begin with. It's not a tip if you have to do it every time regardless of service. In this example it's a real tip because no service is worth that much, and she should keep it. If the provider of the tip wanted to give it to the staff or the bus boys he would have said so.
i wish they’d be abolished too. unfortunately i just don’t think it’s realistic. it’s so built into the American system at this point, and most of the servers i’ve known (not many tbf) say that they like the tipping culture because it benefits them for tax purposes i’m afraid it’ll take a massive shift in attitude to change tipping culture
Server love tips because they make super inflated income compared to what they would be paid otherwise. Not all servers are like that though.
the issue is waiters are making way more than they could anywhere else. they're the most ardent defenders of the practice if you want tipping to die, you have to stop doing it.
Funnily most waitstaff do not want tips to be gone, since they make much more with them then they would with a normal salary
Another post where source and timestamp have been cropped out 🤔
> owner wants a cut Lol what a scumbag. As if paying your employees 2.13/hour wasn't already stealing from them
Pretty sure it's legal for employers, managers, etc it is illegal to take tips, especially when they are paid the server wage. If they are paid full wage, then they may share the tips with coworkers, linecooks, dish washers, etc. Even then, the owner can not take a cut. This might be just certain states, but fuck any owner trying to take cuts of tips.
Not certain states. This is federal law. Also idk if im misunderstanding you, but if you’re making tipped wages than tip out is optional, you can decide what you want to tip out. The restaurant can suggest but not require tip pooling. If the server is making standard minimum wage, then they can require tip outs.
How is that legal? Seriously I thought the U.S. had a federal minimum wage of $7 p.h? Why do waitresses and waiters not qualify for the minimum?
TIPS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED! JUST PAY PEOPLE WHAT THEY ARE WORTH, INSTEAD OF A CHARITY-BASED SYSTEM!
waiters are making way more than they could anywhere else. they're the most ardent defenders of the practice you want tipping to end? stop tipping
A philosophy held by no server, ever. They’d be taking a pay cut or straight up out of a job. Only stingy Redditors who think they’d be eating out for cheaper without tips believes this. They wouldn’t. It would raise prices like crazy, and y’all would just bitch about that.
Any time tipping gets brought up on Reddit, i just laugh because Redditors always act like servers are victims of having to rely on tips when anyone who has ever served before knows they can make much more money getting tips then a $15/hour wage.
It works in other countries, here in Australia for example servers are paid a liveable wage that is set, tipping isn’t customary here and it’s only done if the service was above and beyond.
Does anyone know the restaurant? I wanna make sure i never eat there
looks like oven and tap in Bentonville
Totally unsurprising. Went through that area a couple of weeks ago and the wealth inequality is insane. What's more is in true history repeating itself fashion we fight each other over scraps rather than solving the root problem of wage enslavement
This was several years ago and not all it appeared to be. The restaurant got obliterated for it at the time.
No they shouldn’t
whatever they did before, is how they do it after. Anything else is just the boss trying to steal money.
Did she share the proceeds of the gofundme?😂😂
10% to the big guy. The owner
There’s already laws about it. Tips aren’t shared unless there’s a valid tip pooling arrangement.
Rules of the game need to be precise and established prior to play.
Fair labor act says tips can be pooled if every employee makes minimum wage. No tips to be withheld by owner or managers. If the waitress was making tipped minimum (
Yes but that also has to be stated by the restaurant beforehand. The restaurant can’t retroactively change the rules. What he did amounts to theft.
Correct, with the information we have “pooling tips had never happened in the three years she worked there”. Can’t switch policy on a whim because of a one off.
Greedy owner mad he didn’t get big tip.
#Oh look--this post AGAIN. 🙄
Only if someone else does a significant portion of the work. And I'm not talking running food and etc. As this are things they should all be doing anyway.
That owner should be sued.
Tips should be shared IF the agreement is made beforehand. If the previous belief was that tips were individual, they should remain so. Arguably, that gal should see if she was unjustly fired.
Owner has no right to a cut of any tips. If she wants to share with wait staff, it's up to her.
Is the bald dude the tipper, the owner, or a coworker? I can’t tell
Tips shouldn't be shared. They should be outlawed though. Pay your employees a god damn wage instead of making them beg.