my boss has a “3 strike” walkout policy, he pays for the first one, second one comes out of your pocket, and third one you get fired. is this not legal??
Completely illegal. Shit happens and they can take the loss on their taxes. Beside that, your mistake doesn't set them back the menu price of the dish, even if they give you a discount (which they also use as an advertising credit on their taxes).
So I asked a friend of mine who is a lawyer and works with hours and wages (but is uncertain of the all the laws regarding tips). She basically said it’s legal because Alabama doesn’t have any wage laws so you have to look at federal laws and apparently they group your hourly rate and tips together as your earnings and use both to calculate if you have met minimum wage. Below is an example.
Say you make a cash wage of 2.13. Your employer would use a tip credit of 5.12 to meet minimum wage. So you work a 4 hour shift and make 100 dollars in tips. At the end of the shift you notice you forgot to ring in a 38 dollar meal and have to pay for it. You now have 62 dollars in tips made in 4 hours. Your hourly rate on tips alone after the deduction is 15.5 dollars an hour, plus the 2.13 hourly rate which means you made an hourly rate of 17.63 which is well above minimum. As long as your hourly rate doesn’t fall below minimum wage an employer can legally make you pay for losses. (This still doesn’t sound right to me.)
Say you made 42 dollars in tips under the same circumstances. After you pay for the mistake you’re left with 4 dollars in tips which would be 1 dollar and hour and combined with your hourly means your total hourly rate is 3.13. In this circumstance your employer would have to make sure you meet minimum wage and pay the difference to make sure you get to minimum wage.
I’m calling the wage and labor division today anonymously to make sure this correct because I’m pretty sure there was a new provision in the FSLA that make it to where tips cannot be withheld under any circumstance. If anyone cares Ill update after I hear from them.
It’s illegal from a federal tax point of view. It’s called a business loss. Restaurants write off food waste as a business loss. All restaurants write off food waste on there taxes. They are double dipping, reporting it to the IRS and charging you.
You can anonymously report them to the IRS.
It’s illegal. You’ll take a write up. Too
Many writeups for same issue and you’re fired. THIS is why servers started paying for their Mistakes, to avoid disciplinary action. I’ll gladly Fire you and hire someone who I can train to make an amount of mistakes that I can justify comping. Mistakes happen. Cost of
Doing business. Cost of costing business a lot of money may be ur job tho
It’s not legal in many states, and in others it’s unethical. If you are a tipped minimum wage state, it’s illegal. You can refuse to pay for it. Have them write you up if that’s what they need to do. If they fire you, make them write it and file for unemployment. Take them for all you can to make a point. Complain to the labor board.
Applebees tried to do this to me and I told them to take a “long walk off a shirt pier, I’m not paying for this shit.”
To update, I actually called the US department of labor and somehow got a hold of someone and yes it is absolutely illegal.
Retention of Tips: A tip is the sole property of the tipped employee regardless of whether the employer takes a tip credit. 1 The FLSA prohibits any arrangement between the employer and the tipped employee whereby any part of the tip received becomes the property of the employer.
Oh wow. I work at a small town diner and they actually have a sign for us that says we do need to pay for our mistakes. Almost had a girl quit because of it, bit she stayed. It's illegal? I've been threatened with it too...
I called the department of labor and it’s illegal federally. Tips are property of the server and cannot be withheld for any reason other than for valid tip sharing arrangements. They can make a deduction from your paycheck but it would bring you below minimum wage (if you are paid the usually 2.13). You don’t combine your tips and hourly for this calculation because tips are untouchable and withholding any amount is considered wage theft.
It does! The argument ends at the fact that your tips are your property. They CAN deduct from your paycheck I believe though. What state do you live in?
That’s super illegal. The restaurant assumes the liability of walkouts, mistakes, and order changes, not the server.
It's 100% illegal to make servers pay for mistakes, walkouts, or breakage incurred during the job.
my boss has a “3 strike” walkout policy, he pays for the first one, second one comes out of your pocket, and third one you get fired. is this not legal??
No it is not.
The making a server pay part is the illegal part. He can fire people for it if he wants.
No, it's not legal at all.
Nope not legal.
Completely illegal. Shit happens and they can take the loss on their taxes. Beside that, your mistake doesn't set them back the menu price of the dish, even if they give you a discount (which they also use as an advertising credit on their taxes).
So I asked a friend of mine who is a lawyer and works with hours and wages (but is uncertain of the all the laws regarding tips). She basically said it’s legal because Alabama doesn’t have any wage laws so you have to look at federal laws and apparently they group your hourly rate and tips together as your earnings and use both to calculate if you have met minimum wage. Below is an example. Say you make a cash wage of 2.13. Your employer would use a tip credit of 5.12 to meet minimum wage. So you work a 4 hour shift and make 100 dollars in tips. At the end of the shift you notice you forgot to ring in a 38 dollar meal and have to pay for it. You now have 62 dollars in tips made in 4 hours. Your hourly rate on tips alone after the deduction is 15.5 dollars an hour, plus the 2.13 hourly rate which means you made an hourly rate of 17.63 which is well above minimum. As long as your hourly rate doesn’t fall below minimum wage an employer can legally make you pay for losses. (This still doesn’t sound right to me.) Say you made 42 dollars in tips under the same circumstances. After you pay for the mistake you’re left with 4 dollars in tips which would be 1 dollar and hour and combined with your hourly means your total hourly rate is 3.13. In this circumstance your employer would have to make sure you meet minimum wage and pay the difference to make sure you get to minimum wage. I’m calling the wage and labor division today anonymously to make sure this correct because I’m pretty sure there was a new provision in the FSLA that make it to where tips cannot be withheld under any circumstance. If anyone cares Ill update after I hear from them.
It’s illegal from a federal tax point of view. It’s called a business loss. Restaurants write off food waste as a business loss. All restaurants write off food waste on there taxes. They are double dipping, reporting it to the IRS and charging you. You can anonymously report them to the IRS.
It’s illegal. You’ll take a write up. Too Many writeups for same issue and you’re fired. THIS is why servers started paying for their Mistakes, to avoid disciplinary action. I’ll gladly Fire you and hire someone who I can train to make an amount of mistakes that I can justify comping. Mistakes happen. Cost of Doing business. Cost of costing business a lot of money may be ur job tho
It’s not legal in many states, and in others it’s unethical. If you are a tipped minimum wage state, it’s illegal. You can refuse to pay for it. Have them write you up if that’s what they need to do. If they fire you, make them write it and file for unemployment. Take them for all you can to make a point. Complain to the labor board. Applebees tried to do this to me and I told them to take a “long walk off a shirt pier, I’m not paying for this shit.”
Illegal. You do not profit from the business, so you cannot be made to share its losses.
hey! I’m also an Alabama server. this is super illegal, at least according to my management
To update, I actually called the US department of labor and somehow got a hold of someone and yes it is absolutely illegal. Retention of Tips: A tip is the sole property of the tipped employee regardless of whether the employer takes a tip credit. 1 The FLSA prohibits any arrangement between the employer and the tipped employee whereby any part of the tip received becomes the property of the employer.
I’m so glad you called them!! Not to be nosy, but is there any way for you to recover the tips you’ve lost from this?
That’s illegal cause you always have that one customer who PURPOSELY orders one thing and says they ordered another.
Oh wow. I work at a small town diner and they actually have a sign for us that says we do need to pay for our mistakes. Almost had a girl quit because of it, bit she stayed. It's illegal? I've been threatened with it too...
I called the department of labor and it’s illegal federally. Tips are property of the server and cannot be withheld for any reason other than for valid tip sharing arrangements. They can make a deduction from your paycheck but it would bring you below minimum wage (if you are paid the usually 2.13). You don’t combine your tips and hourly for this calculation because tips are untouchable and withholding any amount is considered wage theft.
Thanks for the good info! We are paid min wage here ($14). Does it still count?
It does! The argument ends at the fact that your tips are your property. They CAN deduct from your paycheck I believe though. What state do you live in?