No tip

[NaLisa]

The owners at the restaurant where I worked didn't make up the difference.

It was always s-l-o-w in January and February. Many nights we didn't make minimum wage, especially if it was snowing. We would sometimes just have half a dozen tables all evening. We did ask them about it and their reasoning was that it "evened itself out" during the busy times when we made much, much more than minimum wage.

Exactly. Many, many restaurants in this country take advantage of their employees and break the law doing so. Unfortunately, the current system allows things to work that way, and servers don't complain because a poor-paying job is better than no job at all.

Did you ever have staff meetings or restaurant cleaning days? Did they pay you minimum wage for that work, or did they say it "evened itself out?"

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

If I knew I was going to have to pay tax on 10% of my sales then you better believe I would be busting my butt so I received it! No different than salespeople working on commission.

Those on commission automatically get their commission and it is recorded on their paycheck and they are taxed accordingly. They are not taxed on a percent of their sales whether or not they actually received their commission.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Originally Posted by declansdad
It's not a customer's responsibility to pay the direct wage of the restaurant's staff.

The restaurant industry obviously thinks otherwise.

 

[declansdad]

The restaurant industry obviously thinks otherwise.

Only in your country. Pretty much everywhere else pays a real wage and allows people to tip as a reward.

And if customers in the US stopped allowing the restaurants to dictate tipping it could change in yours as well.

 

[jrmasm]

I would really love it if we moved to that model. Workers are paid at least minimum wage and they know exactly what they're going to make per hour.

Not me. Even though not every night was great, over the course of week, I always made way more than minimum wage.

 

[MIGrandma]

Exactly. Many, many restaurants in this country take advantage of their employees and break the law doing so. Unfortunately, the current system allows things to work that way, and servers don't complain because a poor-paying job is better than no job at all.

Did you ever have staff meetings or restaurant cleaning days? Did they pay you minimum wage for that work, or did they say it "evened itself out?"

Well, I wouldn't say it was poor paying exactly... Most of the time it was pretty good paying actually, much better than I made as a secretary (former job) and less hours too so most of the time we didn't complain. It was generally just those two months during the winter that sometimes we didn't make minimum wage.

We had ONE staff meeting during the 12 years I worked there and I don't think we were paid for it, not that I remember anyway. As far as restaurant cleaning days, we did our regular cleaning (behind the counter, pop machine, coffee machine, vacuuming, sweeping and mopping floors after putting chairs up on tables, cleaning the bathrooms, etc.) every night after we closed and no, we didn't get even minimum wage pay for that. I made it up to a whopping $3.75/hour, I think. So that's what I made each night for the hour it took to do the clean up. It did bug me that she didn't pay us at least minimum wage for the cleaning each night, since we didn't have tables to be getting tips from at that point. Just earning our base pay didn't make any of us all that eager to do any extra cleaning. Several times we talked to her about having a professional cleaner come in at night, but she wouldn't do that, I'm sure she didn't want to pay the money for that type of service.

Now, if she wanted extra cleaning done she did pay someone (a volunteer) extra for that, but I have no idea how much.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Only in your country. Pretty much everywhere else pays a real wage and allows people to tip as a reward.
And if customers in the US stopped allowing the restaurants to dictate tipping it could change in yours as well.

It isn't customers that are taking the loss though. It's employees. And unfortunately, they have no power. So the restaurant industry gets what it wants. In the mean time when in the states, tip, or don't go out to eat.

 

[MatoMany]

Ive noticed a growing trend to automatically charge a tip to a party size over a certain number. I really resent that. Tip shouldn't be part of the bill, it should be something you do additionally IF you feel the service warrents it. Ive always been a really good tipper, Ive never not tipped and for great service tipping 25% or more is the norm. Now that some places around where I live is automatically adding a tip you better believe Im not adding more to it. Sorry but tips shouldn't be forced, when it is services goes downhill. The few times Ive eaten at these restaurants I have always had poor to horrible service since the waiters/waitresses know no matter what they get their tip. There is no incentive to do their jobs well. Its one of the reasons I will only take the kiddos to one restaurant in the local area since they don't automatically add a tip so we usually get decent service (and pay a decent tip plus some since I know my younger ones can be messy)

 

[MatoMany]

BTW we use to live in Japan, there was NO tipping allowed except on American bases. If you tried to tip they would chase you down to return your money (found that out the hard way, sorry random Japanese guy for making you run!). The best service I have ever had in restaurants there when we lived there. They were awesome.

 

[declansdad]

It isn't customers that are taking the loss though. It's employees. And unfortunately, they have no power. So the restaurant industry gets what it wants. In the mean time when in the states, tip, or don't go out to eat.

The waitstaff would get their power from the customers refusing to put up with this anymore.

 

[Arielle22]

The federal law doesn't require that minimum wage be paid for each hour that wage plus tips doesn't equal minimum wage. The law requires that during the work week (which the company can't change each week) that wages plus tips earned equal minimum wage.

So it is possible one night not to earn minimum wage per hour but it is offset by another night of high tips and still be legal.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

The waitstaff would get their power from the customers refusing to put up with this anymore.

Oh yeah, that will work. To show you evil restaurants that we shouldn't have to tip, we're not going to tip. That will show em.

 

[Hannathy]

Those on commission automatically get their commission and it is recorded on their paycheck and they are taxed accordingly. They are not taxed on a percent of their sales whether or not they actually received their commission.

You missed the point, trying to jump down peoples throat.

The point was people on commission know how much commission they make depends on how they treat the customer, which is what tips should represent to a server.


and I was also saying that if I knew I would be taxed on 10% then your damn right I would be busting my butt to make at least that much in tips.

 

[declansdad]

Oh yeah, that will work. To show you evil restaurants that we shouldn't have to tip, we're not going to tip. That will show em.

You need to start somewhere, what suggestion do you have?

You shouldn't have to tip, it should be a choice.

 

[Imhere]

The servers I know wouldn't be serving if they were non-tipped and making minimum wage.

A good server at most of the restaurants I go to wouldn't be working there if they were paid minimum wage with no tips.

The quality of servers would drop like a rock if they were making minimum wages.

 

[scoutie]

The servers I know wouldn't be serving if they were non-tipped and making minimum wage.

A good server at most of the restaurants I go to wouldn't be working there if they were paid minimum wage with no tips.

The quality of servers would drop like a rock if they were making minimum wages.

I completely agree. I always make this point on threads like this, and people always say, "Well, in EUROPE they're not tipped!" In Europe, they have benefits, respect, and other perks that don't exist in American restaurants. I was a server for years in college and during my first few years of teaching. Serving is fast paced, thankless, on your feet rushing around without a break type work. The tips are what make it worth it. I am not saying that other jobs aren't like this, but I'm fairly certain that the quality of your restaurant experience would not be improved by ditching tips. Think of your typical fast food experience (by workers who are making minimum wage).

 

[declansdad]

The servers I know wouldn't be serving if they were non-tipped and making minimum wage.

A good server at most of the restaurants I go to wouldn't be working there if they were paid minimum wage with no tips.

The quality of servers would drop like a rock if they were making minimum wages.

I completely agree. I always make this point on threads like this, and people always say, "Well, in EUROPE they're not tipped!" In Europe, they have benefits, respect, and other perks that don't exist in American restaurants. I was a server for years in college and during my first few years of teaching. Serving is fast paced, thankless, on your feet rushing around without a break type work. The tips are what make it worth it. I am not saying that other jobs aren't like this, but I'm fairly certain that the quality of your restaurant experience would not be improved by ditching tips. Think of your typical fast food experience (by workers who are making minimum wage).

There is nothing being said about no tips if the server makes minimum wage. Here waitstaff make at least minimum wage and still receive tips.

 

[SpringsONE]

It is the fault of multiple people, obviously the kitchen, for overcooking a steak, and subpar lobster.

The wait time would be the fault of the kitchen staff for doing those mistakes, but for actually "SERVING" it incorrectly is 100% the SERVER'S FAULT ENTIRELY! A burnt steak is OBVIOUS to the EYES considering it was supposed to be medium RARE. Total opposite color of the steak there.
Parts of lobster you should know what you are serving that is if it appears unacceptable, don't serve it.

Next the expediter (if they have one) for not double checking the ticket to make sure things were done correctly

No as far as the items getting to the table are concerned. This is where you are wrong about the expeditor. It isn't the expeditor's fault for those issues like a MISSING entree, BURNT steak, and pieces/parts to lobsters, are ALL ******OBVIOUS TO THE SERVER'S EYES*******. If another server brought the food out, if the ticket or computer screen order was correct, then it's still the fault of that server that ran the food. I wouldn't serve a burnt steak unless I knew the person ordered it burnt(which is unlikely, but some people like things burnt, but it is rare).

The expeditor is not at fault. You can't fault an expeditor for someone leaving the kitchen without an entree or burnt steak or pieces/parts of a lobster tail.

The longer wait to get another plate would be the expeditor's fault as far as not having things plated correctly, but the actual items received at the table aren't an expeditor issue since these are things that the server could notice without touching the food.

For all of these issues, the longer wait times would be the only thing that would be the fault of the workers other than the server or other server that ran the food.

The wait time when the food was brought out either obviously incorrect or the missing entree was the fault of the server or another server whichever person served the food. It takes time to bring out an obvious mistake and have to go back to the kitchen to fix it. That's the part that is the server's fault or if another server brought out the food with the order put in correctly.

If the original server that took the order put in the order wrong, then the entire thing is the server's fault completely and you can't blame ANYONE ELSE, NOT even the kitchen staff except for the pieces and parts of the lobster tail since that seems like a quality issue there for first off the kitchen staff not to have sent that out and secondly any server should have not served that. In other words, a lot of customers seem to not have common sense when it comes to this.

If the server put in the order left out an entree, you can only blame the original server. If the original server put in well done or burnt rather than medium rare, that's the server's fault, NOT the kitchen staff's fault.

My point is, you say "the kitchen, for overcooking a steak,", but what if the server put in the order wrong? Then that's not the kitchen staff's fault. You are leaving out an important detail that happens at times. You do not know if the server put in the order right, you don't. At rare times, I have had on my check seen a wrong temperature on my check and saw who was at fault, but it's rare, usually that's not on the check.

Just saying that what you are saying is not true as far as getting it to the table wrong. Time may be other worker's faults and it may not. As I said, the server may have put in the orders order and forgot to put an entree order in. We have had a number of times had servers forget to put orders in and put in orders wrong as well as forget to bring out items, brought out wrong items even though they put the order in correctly, etc. You also don't know if the server dropped the food and that's why it was missing as well. You don't know. The entire thing(except for the wait time for the lobster tail issue being made wrong) could be the server's fault.

Just something to think about....

 

[powellrj]

We only had to wait 7 pages for springs to hop in! Welcome back, I still can't see ranch dressing without thinking of you!