Employers now allowed to take tips from waiters, split them with other workers | Hacker News Reader

Employers now allowed to take tips from waiters, split them with other workers

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I don't really have a horse in the race other than a few friends that are waiters, cooks, and bartenders as their primary income source.

One I wish tipping would go away. Employers should have to pay minimum wage to employees even if they get tips. (This will raise the cost of food and services that's all right in my opinion).

Second when I write a tip out I'm usually thinking I am tipping the restaurant, not the individual. I know the waiter did not cook the food or mix the drink. Seems like being able to divide that up would be nice.

If there is something wrong with the food, I make the restaurant redo it. There is no excuse for poor food, nor is there a need to tip for good food. It is the restaurant's product.

If there is something wrong with the service (rudeness, order was wrong, drinks not refilled), then the restaurant should not suffer a loss of tip.

So you think the restaurant is responsible for the output of its cook staff, but not the output of its wait staff?

When my wife worked as a waitress, she was paid $1.95 an hour by the restaurant, so yes.

She was paid 1.95/hr plus, she was given access to the clientele that paid the rest of her salary. Something you can't get without the business giving you that privilege.

The business had the benefit of lower payroll taxes and not paying for benefits.

I can tell you that the clientele missed my wife's good service when she quit.

Work it a while and see if you think it's a healthy employment relationship.

Do car salesman share their commission? Realtors?

They are trying to address the fact that cooks can make as little as $12 an hour whereas waiters in many good restaurants make $30+ in some nights.

The solution is to pay cooks more, not to take from waiters who can make even less than $3 an hour. Also, depending on the night, waiters may make next to nothing in tips.

They can't legally make less than $3 an hour.

Yes they can, at least they could (tipped employees)

No, if their total compensation with tips winds up being below minimum wage the employer has to pay them enough to get them up to minimum wage. Do companies abuse this, probably, but according to the law they need to be paid at least minimum wage. Waiter/waitresses need to declare their tips to their employer so that they can make sure they are getting paid at least minimum wage.

Citation: https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/flsa/002.htm#:~:text=T....

This will have the effect of making waiting a minimum-wage job.

My wife used to wait at a Pizza Hut during the weekdays. She was lucky if her tips brought her up to minimum wage most days. On a few, she did great, and because she liked the interaction with customers, she stayed with it for years.

Whether or not she made enough tips to bring her up to minimum wage, the manager required her (illegally) to report enough tips so her wage met minimum.

If she had to split her tips with full-wage staff, I'm sure she would refuse to report tips. Pizza Hut will likely have to pay wait staff full-wage or just not have wait staff anymore. People won't tolerate this.

Maybe make waiters full wage staff. Why is that so hard?

You would need to change the labor laws because restaurants wouldn't do it voluntarily. They pay less in wages and taxes under the current system.

We should just end tipping there is no benefit for anyone but the employer undercutting their own staff.

Why not stop tipping if only a portion goes to the waiter that is serving you? The loss of income argument is no longer valid for your server because you don't have a tipping responsibility to that particular waiter but rather to the entire staff at the restaurant and unless all waiters are ganging up on you they have no argument.

Tipping has long been more of a hidden, unwritten fee, than an actual service incentive.

Nice try but this will likely be self defeating. Fewer people willing to work as waiters and a decline in the quality of service equates to fewer customers and less profit.

Allowed or not they’ve been doing this for decades. When I was tending bar in the 90s they split the tips this way: one guy got fired for pocketing some of the money in his tip jar.

Fewer people willing to do a highly unskilled job? Yeah that’s not going to happen.

Happens constantly, I believe it was Dominos who once lobbied the UK to allow more unskilled migirants in because the UK unskilled workforce basically won't work for them. There will still people willing to do it but not at the same scale. You can see this in other labour markets where migrants are the bulk of the workforce because locals refuse to do that work at that price. Lots of people will choose to be unemployed than work in an unskilled job with unfair wages.

That means Dominos would have to pay them a reasonable wage! Such a crazy thought.

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