If youre interested, id be happy to detail the realtities of waiting tables. Here’s a big one non-waiters don’t always know: all your tips are claimed these days. Your gross tips are taxed, after which your tips are split (either required tip-out % or full tip pooling) between the other staff.
I have never worked a full service restaurant but I was at a huge pizza chain for 8 years, 6 as general manager. We only had the drivers report credit card tips and cash was left alone. They also didn’t tip out the kitchen. What has changed to make cash tips reported? Couldn’t you just lie about the amount?
When I moved cities I got a delivery job with a different company. It was fantastic. So much less volume, less stress, and the other drivers wanted to just chill and smoke weed so I would take most of the orders. A few times I broke $300 in tips on a 12+ hour shift if someone called off. Good money if you have a reliable car and put money back for when it inevitably needs repairs.
We only had the drivers report credit card tips and cash was left alone
Where i worked mgmt claimed the irs would come after them and us if we didn’t claim our cash tips. I don’t know if that is true though since mgmt would come have a talk with you if your cash tips claimed were less than 10%. Even back then cash was such a small percentage of my daily sales that i didn’t really care bout it.
In only 10 years of experience i got to see the business change for the worse.
My first waiting job (at red lob in '97) was so so different from the last one i had in '10. In '97 there were no mandatory tip-outs. When i came back to the business in '04 i was shocked that i had to tip the bartender, the busser. I have since witnessed the restaurant business getting only worse. Expo/host tipouts, full pooling, you name it. One time i went to a restaurant where they shifted staff between front and back of house so everyone got 2.13/hr. Its only gotten more dire since i got out.
I don’t have personal experience with delivery but there is a guy i know who works for himself delivering wood. He would often get tipped even so, for doing a great job or placing the bundles exactly where the customer wanted. I’m just guessing but its kinda likely you’d have gotten those sweet tips even if your boss had paid you well.
See, I don’t need to think hypothetically. I lived it. This “you’ll akshually make more money this way” is the shit owners spout so they don’t have to pay you. Self-serving prop to feed those who don’t know better, simply and completely untrue.
I used to love looking at my negative dollar paychecks showing my paltry 2.13 didn’t even cover the fuggen taxes on my tips while the manager espoused that falsehood in the mandatory monthly meetings
Sadly, though, there are a lot of servers who do buy the lie… Doesn’t make any sense to me but I’ve seen plenty argue quite vehemently against ending tips
Yeah… You’ll find those types in every industry really, thoughtlessly accepting boss-mans self-serving lies… like if you’ve been working any length of time you see they’ll step over your corpse for a nickel but they are paying me less… for my benefit? This is for me? Maybe if it has ever seemed like any of my bosses cared that i was a human being with needs, but naw. Maybe i’m the weird one. Maybe im too prideful. Maybe im just untrusting in general . But im not wrong here, as a rule. Why would anyone believe they have our interests at heart when we live the way they treat us every day?
They’re not against it, and they don’t.
Source: was waiter for a decade
You must have been paid very well as a waiter to do better than tips.
If youre interested, id be happy to detail the realtities of waiting tables. Here’s a big one non-waiters don’t always know: all your tips are claimed these days. Your gross tips are taxed, after which your tips are split (either required tip-out % or full tip pooling) between the other staff.
Yes I am interested in the details.
Ive written a couple other responses itt, now idunno where to start. is there anything in particular you’d like to ask? :)
I have never worked a full service restaurant but I was at a huge pizza chain for 8 years, 6 as general manager. We only had the drivers report credit card tips and cash was left alone. They also didn’t tip out the kitchen. What has changed to make cash tips reported? Couldn’t you just lie about the amount?
When I moved cities I got a delivery job with a different company. It was fantastic. So much less volume, less stress, and the other drivers wanted to just chill and smoke weed so I would take most of the orders. A few times I broke $300 in tips on a 12+ hour shift if someone called off. Good money if you have a reliable car and put money back for when it inevitably needs repairs.
Where i worked mgmt claimed the irs would come after them and us if we didn’t claim our cash tips. I don’t know if that is true though since mgmt would come have a talk with you if your cash tips claimed were less than 10%. Even back then cash was such a small percentage of my daily sales that i didn’t really care bout it.
In only 10 years of experience i got to see the business change for the worse.
My first waiting job (at red lob in '97) was so so different from the last one i had in '10. In '97 there were no mandatory tip-outs. When i came back to the business in '04 i was shocked that i had to tip the bartender, the busser. I have since witnessed the restaurant business getting only worse. Expo/host tipouts, full pooling, you name it. One time i went to a restaurant where they shifted staff between front and back of house so everyone got 2.13/hr. Its only gotten more dire since i got out.
I don’t have personal experience with delivery but there is a guy i know who works for himself delivering wood. He would often get tipped even so, for doing a great job or placing the bundles exactly where the customer wanted. I’m just guessing but its kinda likely you’d have gotten those sweet tips even if your boss had paid you well.
That is so stupid and greedy. Straight bullshit.
If you are paid $15/h that is 20% of $75. Don’t you think that the clients you will serve will pay way more than that during an hour?
See, I don’t need to think hypothetically. I lived it. This “you’ll akshually make more money this way” is the shit owners spout so they don’t have to pay you. Self-serving prop to feed those who don’t know better, simply and completely untrue.
I used to love looking at my negative dollar paychecks showing my paltry 2.13 didn’t even cover the fuggen taxes on my tips while the manager espoused that falsehood in the mandatory monthly meetings
Sadly, though, there are a lot of servers who do buy the lie… Doesn’t make any sense to me but I’ve seen plenty argue quite vehemently against ending tips
Yeah… You’ll find those types in every industry really, thoughtlessly accepting boss-mans self-serving lies… like if you’ve been working any length of time you see they’ll step over your corpse for a nickel but they are paying me less… for my benefit? This is for me? Maybe if it has ever seemed like any of my bosses cared that i was a human being with needs, but naw. Maybe i’m the weird one. Maybe im too prideful. Maybe im just untrusting in general . But im not wrong here, as a rule. Why would anyone believe they have our interests at heart when we live the way they treat us every day?
Answer? Lots n lots of people.
survey some waiters around you and report back.
Source, am not a waiter, i don’t know.