> Something that I've always wondered, did you pay income tax on your tips, or just the base wage? My understanding was that tips were equivalent to "under the counter" pay.
In my experience, management instructs servers to dramatically underreport cash tips. Many places instruct them to report an amount that equals the minimum wage - even where the federal minimum applies, if you don't make at least $7.25 with tips, the employer has to make up the difference.
I believe the reason for this is to reduce the employer FICA contribution. Servers are generally all-too-happy to go along with it since it means paying less income taxes.
The IRS has been taking some action on this, and larger companies apparently have gotten some kind of deal where servers must report an amount based on sales, or something like that - it's been a while since I looked at the specifics, and it didn't affect me personally, so I didn't look too closely at it. It seemed pretty unfair, but tax evasion is rampant.
This is one of the factors that make it unlikely business will pay servers what they make now - there's so much tax evasion going on, to net the same amount of money, businesses would have to pay much more money than you would think at first glance.
> I dislike tipping because oftentimes the people who are making your food make less money than the person who brings it to me, which seems wrong.
This is a very fair point. It's also another reason why businesses will not be likely to pay servers what they're making now. You can get away with making that much money when the customer is giving it directly to you. There will be a lot more agitation and drama if waitstaff is being paid much more highly than the kitchen staff on their actual paycheck.
Now, suddenly either labor costs are rising by a factor of 4-5 (ha!), or servers make merely twice as much as minimum wage, or something like it.
> . People are always crying about how little servers make while neglecting the fact that society has trained people to automatically tip, meaning that you don't even have to do an exceptional job to earn 15%+ on most checks.
I will be the first to tell you that a very large proportion of servers are incredibly spoiled and entitled and complain about how much money they're making even as they leave at the end of the night having made $40/hour, right in front of the kitchen staff being paid $7.25. I can't explain this phenomenon, other than loudly and publicly complaining about tipping and poormouthing might be believed to increase income as people feel bad.
My personal belief? Don't tip if you don't feel like it. I sometimes stiff servers now. I never would have done so before I worked as one. It’s rwally not that big a deal. Being stiffed is not that unusual, you’re not going to stand out, and it’s a lot better than religious pamphlets.