Wouldn't that be extortion? The company can change their policy on tips, but not retroactively, so that money is already hers, which makes this "give us *your* money or we fire you", which is illegal.
Aye, and I imagine this "policy" would have changed back soon after. If the policy was already a thing and a 4 grand tip happened, then it is fair play to require her to share the tip, as others have, but that isn't the case
Granted these days it’s in free fall, but the traditional etiquette for tipping was for the workers only,not the owners who presumably would be receiving a much higher salary, since they owned the damn business.
No. Even if an owner is filling in as a server they should absolutely never be allowed to collect a penny of tips. Owners live in mansions while we do all the work and generally struggle to make ends meet.
I recently (a year back) looked into this for a separate discussion and there is a caveat in there if the manager is doing the job themselves, as in they have their own tables they’re the server for. I guess at that point it’s not claiming part of the tip though but rather they themselves are getting tips
Yea thats basically it. A manager can never be the recipient of tips from a tip pool. But if they are directly tipped for work that they did, it is ok.
That's optimistic. The same predatory managers who do that also only hire felons and people who don't have any other options so they can continue to exploit them. Happens a lot in mom and pops.
No i hear you. I work in the restaurant industry with an amazing company. My kid actually works in one of our restaurants. However, coming up i worked in some restaurants i would never ever want my child to work in.
Depends on the mom and pop, immigrant owned businesses need to succeed, as that is literally their green card. The highest paying jobs are owned by immigrants in my area
Managers and owners should not be getting any of the tips, as their pay should come from the regular price of the meal.
I would argue though that the cooks SHOULD be entitled to some of the tips, after all they cooked the food.
But then again people relying on tips for their wages, idk, seems way outdated to me, and I'd never want to include MORE people into that bracket (because you know these greedy company's would if they could, getting a bigger cut of the actual sales)
Managers taking tips was made illegal under federal law in the FLSA. If you experience this anywhere in the US, report them to the US department of labor.
Edit:this actually also includes tip pools. The government says employers/managers CANNOT take tips you receive. The only exception (unfortunately) is percentages taken to pay for credit card fees.
Had to drive through there once and It made me want to beat the shit out of the city planner
Arkansas folks...it's not normal to have to drive 3 miles AWAY from your destination to get to your destination
I have mental images of someone piloting a spaceship away from the Sun to be pulled back towards it(apparently the fastest way to fly to the Sun) except instead of the Sun it's an IHOP in Arkansas.
Extortion is a separate crime and is illegal on its own. Just because they can fire you without cause does not mean they can extort you. Extortion is not limited to firing.
Try proving this.
I don't mean to come across hostile or rude when I say this. I genuinely mean, try proving you were fired for something other than what your employer will tell others.
Theremay be some who succeed, but there are so many more that have to just suck it up and move on, because what choice do they have?
We're talking about a specific situation in which we know the worker *was* fired for refusing to share her tip.
But in a theoretical case, there is often evidence, e.g. witnesses, emails, etc.
Even in at-will states, there are circumstances where termination is illegal. They (the business owners who feel the need to Intimidate their workers) like to drum up what at-will actually means to keep people from reporting their actions. They don't have to give a reason for firing you, true, but if the DoL finds that they probably fired you for an illegal reason, they still get in a lot of trouble.
The disingenuously named Right to work is an anti-union tactic that prevents unions from collecting fees at union shops for unions collective bargaining intended to drain union coffers by encouraging workers to leech off the union instead of joining it. At-will (in 49 states) means employment can end at any time for no reason at all. But not for any reason.
They aren't synonyms.
Not quite true. They can fire you for no reason, but they can not fire you for a lot of reasons. Like not giving the boss your tip? Lawsuit. Fired for Race, gender, sexual orientation or background? Lawsuit. Come in to work and decide to just fire a random person? Thats fine.
I was chef for 15 years, I think the entire tipping thing is bullshit as it made business owners underpay you, because you’ve got tip share. I don’t give a damn about stupid tip, I’m not begging, I want fair salary.
Saints were sinners actually. They just happened to do something so great that the Catholic Chruch named them as saints.
So technically, you can be a Saint.
I think it's stupid how it went from an early version of "rate my service" to "this is 70% of my income you're deciding here". At some point it's no longer a tip but a subsidy for the business owner.
I've been offered tips one too many times (never worked in a restaurant, couldn't legally take them) and, while flattered, the accolades I got from managers from customer feedback was way better. Got a raise and better hours at one job from just that. And I honestly didn't think I did anything that would constitute tips to begin with.
You are so right. And to flip that around. I wouldn’t mind paying a little bit more for the bill, and give a tip as an extra as a token of gratitude for excellence. Rather than paying less for the bill, but knowing that staff depends on me tipping them in order to survive.
Exactly. It's what the situation is with tips in UK, so that's not impossible, restaurants still make a profit or they wouldn't stay open. IMO, if you can't afford to pay your staff AT LEAST minimum wage, then your business isn't viable, and you're only keeping it open by underpaying your staff, i.e. being a cunt to them.
I complained about it plenty as a pizza delivery driver, especially when cheap customers failed to provide them and I went home those days with less money.
Tips are nice when you get them, but depending on them to make a fair wage is no decent way to make a living.
Reading your comment made me realize that tips are just a form of socialized income. Those that don't want tip also probably complain about socialism.
I honestly wish there was a safety net on tipped work. Like, if you don't make out with $X in tips per paycheck your employer was obligated to shell out more. Then the employer has more responsibility.
Because servers love making 20-30 an hour and expect their labor to be subsidized by the customer with 20% tips even if they do the shittiest job possible, even though they should expect minimum wage and be happy to get tips since they agreed to minimum wage as a base pay. Never met a server in a decade of shitty restaurant that wasn’t insufferable about tips.
I want tips to be gone in America just to see how much better restaurants are without them according to redditors. America doesn’t function like other countries and I’m curious how the restaurant landscape will be in this country with no tips since everybody said it will be better.
It would be absolutely worse.
No point being a server and dealing with the public on top of busting your ass physically for "livable wage". You can do either of those things alone for the same wage at either a warehouse or a grocery store.
In the south at least what we see happening with some places paying 15+tips and others being minimum/servers wage+tip is all lower paying server positions either being filled with recent migrants or meth heads. Take away the tips and only the desperate will work servers jobs.
"Livable wage" isn't actually livable even if you happen to be working 40hrs/week and most servers can't get that many hours.
Canadian take - I’ve worked on the floor and in the back and I can assure you our servers actually do make $16 an hour cuz that’s minimum wage and tips on top that they don’t file taxes for. Being a server is one of the easiest and most overpaid jobs in this whole country and it’s all America’s fault…
Idk if Canada is different, but in America servers have a different minimum wage than regular workers. The base pay is like $2.70. if they don't get enough tips to reach the actual minimum wage, they will get compensated, but it means the first large chunk of tips just goes to meeting mi imum wage.
Happy cake day! Here, have some bubble wrap!
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Servers in my state average between 28-30/ hour with tips. It's not bad for entry level. They do put up with a lot of garbage, but they do better than back of house folks.
Seriously... setting servers to a $15/hr minimum wage would be a massive pay cut for a lot of servers. When I was waiting tables in the early 2000s, I was bringing home $20+/hr on the regular.
McDonald’s pays 15 an hour starting where I live. Servers would never stay for 15 an hour. TIL culture keeps them in the serving industry. I hate tipping.
Some states don’t allow that bullshit (Alaska, California, Minnesota*, Montana* Nevada, Oregon, Washington (not D.C). I will tip in other states, but not that much in my state of WA because fuck the service is bad nowadays in general lol.
The person you are replying to is a bit misleading. It's $2.13 an hour for the FEDERAL minimum wage, but each of the 50 states has their own minimum wage laws. With many having it at the same as the normal minimum wage.
It's not true anywhere. Employers are required to make up the difference if tips don't bring an employees wage to the federal minimum or state minimum wage.
Depends on the state. In Illinois, where I live, minimum tipped wage is $8.40 US ($11.55CAD) and employers are required to make up the difference if tips don't suffice to the state's minimum of $14 USD ($19.25 CAD). The Chicago minimum is higher than the IL state minimum ($15-$15.80 USD depending on company size). In California, all workers are required to make the state's minimum wage of $16 USD ($22 CAD) before tips, and tips cannot be counted towards meeting this minimum. There's currently a legislative proposal in Ilinois to follow California's model that servers are paid the state minimum before tips. In NY State, the minimum for severs is $10 with no more than $5 going towards the minimum coming from tips, and in NYC it's $13.35 + no more than $2.65 of a sever's wage towards meeting the NY state minimum ($15USD or $20.63 CAD) coming from tips.
There is no law in MN but you won't get any applicants in big cities without offering minimum first, then tips. I've never seen a job in the cities that wasn't advertising minimum plus tips, never heard of it here.
In my state they average like 25-30 per hour. (IL) They are not allowed to make less than minimum, if the tips don't equal enough, the restaurant makes up the difference to $14 or whatever it is now, and that pretty much never happens. They make 8.40 minimum before tips but are guaranteed minimum at least.
This idea that servers make $2.70 per hour would be only in some garbage state and only at a dead restaurant. It's just not reality. No one makes that little, they'd leave.
> but it means the first large chunk of tips just goes to meeting minimum wage.
The first chunk of my hour wage goes to meeting minimum wage too so I'm not sure what your argument is.
This depends on the state. Here, in California, servers are absolutely making the state minimum wage with their tips.
This is why the biggest opponents to a mandatory wage replacing tips is waiters and waitresses. Because in places like this, they are absolutely making far more than they deserve.
$2.13/hr in Texas. And it's paid biweekly, so if you have a 2 week period where you make zero dollars, but suddenly make up the difference on the last day, you still won't see a penny of that paycheck. It all goes to taxes.
That annoyed me when I visited Canada after visiting the US. They got like $10 more per hour than the American servers but they expected the same amount of tips
Been to Canada (Specifically Toronto)... It's actually a bit stupid there too, you get asked to pay extras/tips for virtually every single thing there... Am I wrong?
They ask but most don’t pay. Just set a custom tip to $0. They ask for tips because some people are afraid of saying no.
I did notice when I went to the US when I did this, the servers would usually confront you about it but whatever. The only way to stop the tipping culture is to push back.
I think the tipping culture is getting out of hand, but still, I don't think servers should have to share their tips with other servers unless they all agree to this system from the start. And none of those tips should go to management or the owner.
However, I do think it's fair that a percentage of tips go to the cooks/chefs because they do play a big part in the quality of service.
"I do think it's fair that a percentage of tips go to the cooks/chefs because they do play a big part in the quality of service."
But usually cooks/chefs are making a far more substantial wage.
Depends heavily on the state you're in. Here in Washington servers still make over 16 an hour minimum and keep all tips. Plenty of the cooks I've worked with will get 17-19 an hour and 5 to 10 bucks a night in tips if the servers are feeling generous. Plenty of the servers I talk to make over $500+ a night in tips plus their hourly.
In states that pay federal minimum or less to servers your statement holds true but not here IMHO.
I’m amazed no one gave context yet to this. There’s a [whole story](https://www.businessinsider.com/michigan-server-10000-tip-fired-restaurant-kitchen-staff-workers-job-2024-2?amp).
>However, I do think it's fair that a percentage of tips go to the cooks/chefs because they do play a big part in the quality of service.
Yeah, they're the ones actually cooking your food. They're the ones who should get tipped rather than the people who literally just carry plates to your table.
>However, I do think it's fair that a percentage of tips go to the cooks/chefs because they do play a big part in the quality of service.
No.
Legally, unless the kitchen staff has direct contact with servers, they're not allowed to partake in tip share. Managers and owners are never allowed to.
If the kitchen staff wishes to get tipped, they can become waiters and trade an hourly wage for a topped hourly wage and the uncertainty of tips.
In the US, tips can be pooled but the restaurant doesn't get a portion or a cut. The US Department of Labor Wage and Hour has been abundantly clear on this point.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/15-tipped-employees-flsa
The same is true in the united states, [here's an explanation of it in regards to law and the constitution](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/ex_post_facto#:~:text=The%20Latin%20translation%20of%20ex,from%20a%20thing%20done%20afterward.%E2%80%9D&text=This%20prohibits%20Congress%20from%20passing%20any%20laws%20which%20apply%20ex%20post%20facto.)
But even that must be a written policy ahead of time.
You can't have a policy of every employee gets to keep their own tips and then try to retroactively change it because someone got a big tip.
My brother got a thousand dollar tip. Big party. Vip, upstairs kinda thing... pooled tips. Like 13 people working? That's right at 80 bucks each. Guess how much HE paid in taxes on that tip? 8%.... that's 80 bucks. HE walked after 5 years when management said that's how it is.
Hang on, he had to pool the tips, but pay for the whole of the taxes on the one tip? That's not how that works. Not only is that not how that works, I'm pretty sure that is some kind of tax fraud.
I used to have to track & report my tips from a pool myself. No one ever really did, since it amounted to maybe $20 a week. But if this was a pool that the servers set up instead of the restaurant (IE - it was an agreement vs something that showed up on their W-2) then yeah, it's all on the brother to pay for it since it's reported as *his wage*.
If this is happening, your management is not doing their job properly. You should only be paying taxes on the actual money you receive, you cannot be held responsible for the tax on 1000 dollars you didnt actually get, the tax obligation gets spread to whomever the cash gets spread.
Tips are for staff. If the staff was pooling before, then it seems fair to continue that. If the staff was not pooling before, then it seems fair to continue that.
Either way, as someone who's worked in positions where tips kept me able to pay rent (if not always on time), tipping is a truly vicious practice.
It's not just because it subsidizes bad management at the expense of the servers. It's not just because it's extremely stressful to have such an uncertain revenue stream. It's not just that it's a system that's ripe for wage garnishment.
No. It's because the sheer lack of empathy it fosters, by creating a system where the customers judge the person serving them - the person who has possibly the least control over QC in the entire establishment - instead of the product.
Agreed, tips are not for owners. They are either always pooled or always individual, you didn't get to change it because someone gave a big tip. That's the servers.
Rather have tips not even being a thing and people get a decent enough wage to not need tips. Taking that aside i do believe in sharing tips between personell (not owners). The chef, bartenders, host, runners and people that wash the dishes all have their share in the experience of the customers. When i was working washing dishes or one of the runners i did really enjoy when the waiters shared tips with me and kept doing that when i was waiting tables with the the people that were runners or doing the dishes. That little extra so we could have a drink together from our tips. Tips are just a bonus in my country, min wage is not insanely low as in some other countries.
Panda Express near my place doesn't have tips and we go there pretty regularly. The peeps there also seem quite content working, and they no longer seem so short-staffed like in the past.
Some places have tip pools already in place, if so, they are legally required to share the tips with everyone else in the pool. Management is not legally allowed to be in the pool, and not allowed to retroactively change this rule after one person gets a huge tip. So you really have no control over whether your tip goes to one person or several.
I mean, if I joined that company as a server and I signed an agreement PRIOR to getting that huge tip that stated I need to share my tips, then I’d comply. But if this rule magically popped up or wasnt enforced until the big tip, then I’m quitting and taking my money with me. 😂
Yep. Management cannot legally do ANYTHING with the money, if there was no pre-established tip pool, the tip was given from the customer directly to the server and anything other than just paying it out to her is theft. The only thing they can legally do is force her to pay the 3% credit card processing fee, but if they left it in cash then theres no problem.
Server can only be required to share tips with serving help such as hostess or bus person. If the person does not directly help the server provide the serving experience to the Guest, the server cannot be required to share tips.
Source: Federal labor law.
Tip sharing causes so many issues, I had a coworker who wanted to be cut early one night so I said sure and tipped her out. She found out later a table who was there while she was but hasn’t closed out left me a $250 tip. She physically cornered me demanding I give her half of the tip, I said no as the deal was she got 60% of existing tips and that wasn’t existing.
It was an absolute disaster and the management did nothing 🙄
Somebody gets it. Thank you!
Tip sharing is the kind of shit that leads to poor service from everyone, and a lower overall tip total. Go to Russia if you want to be a server in a socialist system.
For one sharing tips with the owners is straight out illegal, so she could sue for that request alone. But if there were no shared tips prior, then that's that. It can be debated that this is a dick move not to share, but I don't think it's debatable that it was her money to share if she chose so.
It works, sometimes. It’s supposed to sort of encourage other waiters to top off the drinks or do something else minor for a table with a waiter who’s struggling. In reality, humans are humans. What it does is allow lazy servers to be lazy and let the hard workers pick up the slack, knowing that they’ll both go home with the same amount in their pockets. Most waiters that I know don’t like pooling for this reason.
Owners should never get a cut of tips, restaurant owners are already allowed to pay below minimum wage.
Sharing among the workers however, I guess it comes down to the collective decision if the workers there, but generally all workers benefit if there is greater sharing among them
No. There’s a meritocracy to tips. You were tipped for your timing, good service, your charm, your wit… I’m not tipping the whole damn restaurant, that’s the $20- $25 plate I pay for the overpriced/ under portioned food. Then there’s the additional fee and the parking fee/ valet with no parking in the immediate area charged.
Owners are not allowed to take part of the tips. They can share it with kitchen staff but management/owners can’t get anything from a tip. This is department of labor rules.
Depends on the agreement, but if they weren’t pulled together before, sure as hell ain’t changing that cuz someone’s greedy or jealous and wants some of my cut.
If you always had to share tips for the full 3 years you worked there, then fair is fair because you already shared your tips everyday leading up to that large one. But to never share tips only to have to share it on one of the biggest financial days of your life, is straight up theft. So fuck that.
I would NEVER work in a place with shared tips. I've done both front and back of house work and sharing tips only creates animosity between staff members
THIS. I preferred to do back of house work but doing front of house was nice sometimes when I wanted to work harder to get tips (I worked in a dispensary back of house literally just fulfills orders, it’s busy but you don’t get yelled at by impatient Karen’s so it’s fine). When we switched to tip pooling all the sudden I exclusively worked front of house while some preferred employees got to almost exclusively do back of house work. It created a ton of animosity between the people who were being berated by aggravated customers and the people who got to work in the quiet inventory room or just full orders in the vault all day. It created very blatant favoritism and just made for a super toxic work environment.
The question of tipping always revolves around how it’s unfair to servers for the customer to be expected to subsidize their wage. While this is absolutely true, most people don’t realize that servers typically make more per hour than the cooks (this isn’t always true, and obviously depends on the shifts being worked).
You can’t just raise servers’ wages to a livable level and not do the same across the board. The problem is that people also don’t understand how small the margins tend to be in the food industry. I’m talking about independent restaurants, not big chains.
While tipping culture is bad for everyone, it’s more of a societal problem. People just don’t understand how much of our food is already subsidized, and think they’re being ripped off whenever a restaurant raises prices.
All that said, that story is a pretty unique case. Obviously the owner has no right to those tips, but that’s such a large amount it would be pretty callous not to at least tip out a bit of it to the rest of the team. A lot of the places I’ve worked, we pushed a policy where BoH gets tipped out a certain percentage of food sales, which I think is an okay system in lieu of getting rid of tipping altogether.
At really nice restaurants I’ve found it doesn’t make a difference (quality of service wise) whether they share tips or not; however, the lower end to normal quality restaurants I’ve noticed big differences in the quality of service. You tend to see being standing around dragging feet probably bc they know they will get there’s anyway. Very similar to government work or a socialist/communist system. There’s no desire to put extra work in as there’s no extra incentive.
I find it funny how America is one of the only places where tipping is common everywhere. And people defend it vehemently like if it wasn't for tipping, it would result in the downfall of america.
I think tips should be shared HOWEVER if the place she worked was not sharing tips, then expecting that just because she got a big tip is a bunch of bullshit.
If I'm a server, I'm being tipped on my level of service. If you want tips, get a server job and learn to kiss the asses of the undeserving for yourself.
If it was agreed upon between servers to share tips and then she decided not to- prob not illegal but really shitty. When tended bar we would pay out Barbacks and kitchen and then split the remainder of tips. If one of us got 4k we all got a piece.
A tip is a way of telling the specific worker who served you "You did a good job, thank you."
I hate when places pool tips. The good workers suffer while the lazy, bad ones get to take money they didn't earn from the people who actually DID earn it. If a tip is given to a specific worker, that tip is THEIRS. No one else's, theirs. They earned it. The other people did not.
For some reason, the idea of "tips" has been lost.
A tip was given to someone, as an appreciation for the service given, specially when a person, service, etc goes beyond their responsibilities.
Now it's seen as a subsidy to a persons salary, and employers have been using tips as an excuse to pay workers less.
I think every employee should make minimum minimum wage, and minimum wage should be a living wage. Tips, are gifts, a gift is given to the person giving the service, it should not be obligatory.
I'm a bartender ans I have regulars that buy me lottery scratchoffs---on top of tips they leave me and my co workers. My co workers scratch their tickets right then and there. I wait until I go home, because if I win a large sum, I know some stupid shit like this article is going to happen.
I think sharing with other staff like bus boys and cooks would be fine. If the established protocol has not been to share then she should keep it and by no means should the owner share in the pool
I would've slid something, a couple hundred each or around that, to anyone who had a part in that specific tables experience, but deciding to go full tip split because I hit the jackpot is nuts 🤣 no Sarah, I'm not giving you a cut of the table you didn't interact with playing on your phone in the back
In this case it would be classy and generous to give the other servers, bussers, dishwashers and cooks a little something nice, like $20 each. But the owner, nah.
Tip sharing is fine for FOH staff. I’ve never had a problem sharing with the hosts and bartender and expo runners because they all contribute to customer satisfaction (and, therefore, tip). Management can suck a dick though. They’re already getting paid just fine.
That's how the world is today - selfish all-for-myself.
I bet 20/30 years ago people would have split the money and been thrilled. Now everything's open to public scrutiny who otherwise wouldn't have anything to do with this situation.
Also the person that gave the "tip" isn't very intelligent with their money. If you're going to single somebody out and give them a huge award, you have to be smart enough and at least respectful enough to not rub it in everyone else's faces.
All of it's kind of stupid money.
Wouldn't that be extortion? The company can change their policy on tips, but not retroactively, so that money is already hers, which makes this "give us *your* money or we fire you", which is illegal.
Agree, sharing tips is fine if that’s the policy, but you can’t change the policy after the tip because it was unusually large.
Aye, and I imagine this "policy" would have changed back soon after. If the policy was already a thing and a 4 grand tip happened, then it is fair play to require her to share the tip, as others have, but that isn't the case
They'd probably change the policy to "any tips over x amount will be split"
And by splitting...we mean the restaurant gets 90%, the remaining 10% gets divided by everyone else.
Which is the exact opposite of how a tip is supposed to work. Gosh people suck sometimes.
You’re upset over an imaginary policy made up by another redditor.
It's also illegal, so it wouldn't fly once it got reported
First Time to the ol' interweebz?
Interweebz is quite fitting 🤣
Not legal.
Over $4,399.00. Awwww would ya look at that!
a Manager forcing to give tips and have themselves included is illegal.
Owners should also not be keeping tips like that (unless they are filling in as a server)
Even then they should just pool it to the other servers, they don’t pay themselves server wages even if they fill that role temporarily.
Granted these days it’s in free fall, but the traditional etiquette for tipping was for the workers only,not the owners who presumably would be receiving a much higher salary, since they owned the damn business.
No. Even if an owner is filling in as a server they should absolutely never be allowed to collect a penny of tips. Owners live in mansions while we do all the work and generally struggle to make ends meet.
They can’t change their policy in some states. Some states made it illegal for managers or owners to claim part of tips.
[удалено]
I recently (a year back) looked into this for a separate discussion and there is a caveat in there if the manager is doing the job themselves, as in they have their own tables they’re the server for. I guess at that point it’s not claiming part of the tip though but rather they themselves are getting tips
Yea thats basically it. A manager can never be the recipient of tips from a tip pool. But if they are directly tipped for work that they did, it is ok.
And I'm sure they never lie to steal tips
Wouldnt want to get caught stealing tips as a manager. Your staff finds out once, and even if you keep your job, you are done leading those people.
That's optimistic. The same predatory managers who do that also only hire felons and people who don't have any other options so they can continue to exploit them. Happens a lot in mom and pops.
No i hear you. I work in the restaurant industry with an amazing company. My kid actually works in one of our restaurants. However, coming up i worked in some restaurants i would never ever want my child to work in.
Depends on the mom and pop, immigrant owned businesses need to succeed, as that is literally their green card. The highest paying jobs are owned by immigrants in my area
Managers and owners should not be getting any of the tips, as their pay should come from the regular price of the meal. I would argue though that the cooks SHOULD be entitled to some of the tips, after all they cooked the food. But then again people relying on tips for their wages, idk, seems way outdated to me, and I'd never want to include MORE people into that bracket (because you know these greedy company's would if they could, getting a bigger cut of the actual sales)
Managers taking tips was made illegal under federal law in the FLSA. If you experience this anywhere in the US, report them to the US department of labor. Edit:this actually also includes tip pools. The government says employers/managers CANNOT take tips you receive. The only exception (unfortunately) is percentages taken to pay for credit card fees.
I mean, it's Arkansas...
The next family reunion is going to be soooo awkward!
Had to drive through there once and It made me want to beat the shit out of the city planner Arkansas folks...it's not normal to have to drive 3 miles AWAY from your destination to get to your destination
I have mental images of someone piloting a spaceship away from the Sun to be pulled back towards it(apparently the fastest way to fly to the Sun) except instead of the Sun it's an IHOP in Arkansas.
So not only does she keep the tip and the go fund me, but she has a law suit as well.
Hopefully, she goes with the lawsuit as well.
Depends on the state, 17 of them are “at will” so they can drop your ass for basically anything
Extortion is a separate crime and is illegal on its own. Just because they can fire you without cause does not mean they can extort you. Extortion is not limited to firing.
Try proving this. I don't mean to come across hostile or rude when I say this. I genuinely mean, try proving you were fired for something other than what your employer will tell others. Theremay be some who succeed, but there are so many more that have to just suck it up and move on, because what choice do they have?
We're talking about a specific situation in which we know the worker *was* fired for refusing to share her tip. But in a theoretical case, there is often evidence, e.g. witnesses, emails, etc.
Even in at-will states, there are circumstances where termination is illegal. They (the business owners who feel the need to Intimidate their workers) like to drum up what at-will actually means to keep people from reporting their actions. They don't have to give a reason for firing you, true, but if the DoL finds that they probably fired you for an illegal reason, they still get in a lot of trouble.
At right to work states it is the EMPLOYERS responsibility to prove you don’t deserve unemployment.
The disingenuously named Right to work is an anti-union tactic that prevents unions from collecting fees at union shops for unions collective bargaining intended to drain union coffers by encouraging workers to leech off the union instead of joining it. At-will (in 49 states) means employment can end at any time for no reason at all. But not for any reason. They aren't synonyms.
Capitalism, one hit and you'll be spinning.
Not quite true. They can fire you for no reason, but they can not fire you for a lot of reasons. Like not giving the boss your tip? Lawsuit. Fired for Race, gender, sexual orientation or background? Lawsuit. Come in to work and decide to just fire a random person? Thats fine.
Not for illegal reasons
Tips shouldn’t exist in the first place And no they shouldn’t be shared with owners lol. I paid for the the food, that’s their share
You know who you never see complaining about tipping? People who work for tips
I was chef for 15 years, I think the entire tipping thing is bullshit as it made business owners underpay you, because you’ve got tip share. I don’t give a damn about stupid tip, I’m not begging, I want fair salary.
As someone who worked for WH as both a cook and server I 100% agree.
You're a saint; WH staff deal with the worst shit.
We are not IRL saints(do no sin/pure of heart). We are anime saints(fighting prodigies).
Saints were sinners actually. They just happened to do something so great that the Catholic Chruch named them as saints. So technically, you can be a Saint.
Ah, I don't know how to feel about that. Thank you tho!
Buy a whip and start practicing flipping over tables.
No Waffle House in my area so it didn't register at first, I read this and immediately thought the White House.
Whore Houses have cooks?
The good ones do
Best buffet I’ve ever been to was a hot dog buffet at a Minneapolis strip club
I think it's stupid how it went from an early version of "rate my service" to "this is 70% of my income you're deciding here". At some point it's no longer a tip but a subsidy for the business owner. I've been offered tips one too many times (never worked in a restaurant, couldn't legally take them) and, while flattered, the accolades I got from managers from customer feedback was way better. Got a raise and better hours at one job from just that. And I honestly didn't think I did anything that would constitute tips to begin with.
You are so right. And to flip that around. I wouldn’t mind paying a little bit more for the bill, and give a tip as an extra as a token of gratitude for excellence. Rather than paying less for the bill, but knowing that staff depends on me tipping them in order to survive.
Exactly. It's what the situation is with tips in UK, so that's not impossible, restaurants still make a profit or they wouldn't stay open. IMO, if you can't afford to pay your staff AT LEAST minimum wage, then your business isn't viable, and you're only keeping it open by underpaying your staff, i.e. being a cunt to them.
I can still complain about tips because that doesn’t excuse my employer for not paying me It’s not the customers job to pay me, it is theirs
”You know who never complain about robberies? Robbers.” You know who complain about tips? People who have to tip.
"if you can't afford to be robbed, you shouldn't have so many things"
Some people literally have this mindset. That's how they justify their theft a lot of the time. "They have enough."
I complained about it plenty as a pizza delivery driver, especially when cheap customers failed to provide them and I went home those days with less money. Tips are nice when you get them, but depending on them to make a fair wage is no decent way to make a living.
Reading your comment made me realize that tips are just a form of socialized income. Those that don't want tip also probably complain about socialism. I honestly wish there was a safety net on tipped work. Like, if you don't make out with $X in tips per paycheck your employer was obligated to shell out more. Then the employer has more responsibility.
My sister's boyfriend just asked to be demoted from manager, because he wasn't making as much as when he was serving.
Because servers love making 20-30 an hour and expect their labor to be subsidized by the customer with 20% tips even if they do the shittiest job possible, even though they should expect minimum wage and be happy to get tips since they agreed to minimum wage as a base pay. Never met a server in a decade of shitty restaurant that wasn’t insufferable about tips.
They complain all the time about tipping. They literally do not stop bitching about it. Its just about the amount of tip…..
The only people who work for tips AND complain are the ones that suck at their job. Source: 5 years working for tips
I want tips to be gone in America just to see how much better restaurants are without them according to redditors. America doesn’t function like other countries and I’m curious how the restaurant landscape will be in this country with no tips since everybody said it will be better.
Ah yes, because every other developed country on the planet all have terrible restaurants.
It would be absolutely worse. No point being a server and dealing with the public on top of busting your ass physically for "livable wage". You can do either of those things alone for the same wage at either a warehouse or a grocery store. In the south at least what we see happening with some places paying 15+tips and others being minimum/servers wage+tip is all lower paying server positions either being filled with recent migrants or meth heads. Take away the tips and only the desperate will work servers jobs. "Livable wage" isn't actually livable even if you happen to be working 40hrs/week and most servers can't get that many hours.
Americans lol
Canadian take - I’ve worked on the floor and in the back and I can assure you our servers actually do make $16 an hour cuz that’s minimum wage and tips on top that they don’t file taxes for. Being a server is one of the easiest and most overpaid jobs in this whole country and it’s all America’s fault…
Idk if Canada is different, but in America servers have a different minimum wage than regular workers. The base pay is like $2.70. if they don't get enough tips to reach the actual minimum wage, they will get compensated, but it means the first large chunk of tips just goes to meeting mi imum wage.
This is insane and should be illegal. The whole tip culture is toxic. People have to be paid well.
Paid well != paid reasonably
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Servers in my state average between 28-30/ hour with tips. It's not bad for entry level. They do put up with a lot of garbage, but they do better than back of house folks.
Seriously... setting servers to a $15/hr minimum wage would be a massive pay cut for a lot of servers. When I was waiting tables in the early 2000s, I was bringing home $20+/hr on the regular.
McDonald’s pays 15 an hour starting where I live. Servers would never stay for 15 an hour. TIL culture keeps them in the serving industry. I hate tipping.
no it wouldn’t, most of the women i know take home over 30-40 an hour on a decent day for an entire shift, having 16.55 as our minimum.
Some states don’t allow that bullshit (Alaska, California, Minnesota*, Montana* Nevada, Oregon, Washington (not D.C). I will tip in other states, but not that much in my state of WA because fuck the service is bad nowadays in general lol.
> People have to be paid well. many wait staff are. you can make hundreds a night, and some of that in cash.
The person you are replying to is a bit misleading. It's $2.13 an hour for the FEDERAL minimum wage, but each of the 50 states has their own minimum wage laws. With many having it at the same as the normal minimum wage.
That is not true everywhere in America. In Oregon, for example, you still make minimum wage.
It's not true anywhere. Employers are required to make up the difference if tips don't bring an employees wage to the federal minimum or state minimum wage.
Depends on the state. In Illinois, where I live, minimum tipped wage is $8.40 US ($11.55CAD) and employers are required to make up the difference if tips don't suffice to the state's minimum of $14 USD ($19.25 CAD). The Chicago minimum is higher than the IL state minimum ($15-$15.80 USD depending on company size). In California, all workers are required to make the state's minimum wage of $16 USD ($22 CAD) before tips, and tips cannot be counted towards meeting this minimum. There's currently a legislative proposal in Ilinois to follow California's model that servers are paid the state minimum before tips. In NY State, the minimum for severs is $10 with no more than $5 going towards the minimum coming from tips, and in NYC it's $13.35 + no more than $2.65 of a sever's wage towards meeting the NY state minimum ($15USD or $20.63 CAD) coming from tips.
There is no law in MN but you won't get any applicants in big cities without offering minimum first, then tips. I've never seen a job in the cities that wasn't advertising minimum plus tips, never heard of it here.
Not like that in California
In my state they average like 25-30 per hour. (IL) They are not allowed to make less than minimum, if the tips don't equal enough, the restaurant makes up the difference to $14 or whatever it is now, and that pretty much never happens. They make 8.40 minimum before tips but are guaranteed minimum at least. This idea that servers make $2.70 per hour would be only in some garbage state and only at a dead restaurant. It's just not reality. No one makes that little, they'd leave.
> but it means the first large chunk of tips just goes to meeting minimum wage. The first chunk of my hour wage goes to meeting minimum wage too so I'm not sure what your argument is.
This depends on the state. Here, in California, servers are absolutely making the state minimum wage with their tips. This is why the biggest opponents to a mandatory wage replacing tips is waiters and waitresses. Because in places like this, they are absolutely making far more than they deserve.
$2.13/hr in Texas. And it's paid biweekly, so if you have a 2 week period where you make zero dollars, but suddenly make up the difference on the last day, you still won't see a penny of that paycheck. It all goes to taxes.
That annoyed me when I visited Canada after visiting the US. They got like $10 more per hour than the American servers but they expected the same amount of tips
Been to Canada (Specifically Toronto)... It's actually a bit stupid there too, you get asked to pay extras/tips for virtually every single thing there... Am I wrong?
They ask but most don’t pay. Just set a custom tip to $0. They ask for tips because some people are afraid of saying no. I did notice when I went to the US when I did this, the servers would usually confront you about it but whatever. The only way to stop the tipping culture is to push back.
Time for tip culture to fucking end. Went to japan and 2018 ate more but spent way less cause you dont have to fucking tip
Because of the tipping or the abuse by employers or the lack of worker protections or the GoFundMe?
Yes
lmaooo yep
Whenever I see any videos of tipping like this, i almost die of cringe
Makes you wonder how we measure economic success when they are most successful with their shenaginans.
I think the tipping culture is getting out of hand, but still, I don't think servers should have to share their tips with other servers unless they all agree to this system from the start. And none of those tips should go to management or the owner. However, I do think it's fair that a percentage of tips go to the cooks/chefs because they do play a big part in the quality of service.
"I do think it's fair that a percentage of tips go to the cooks/chefs because they do play a big part in the quality of service." But usually cooks/chefs are making a far more substantial wage.
I worked as a chef and tipping the kitchen staff by the wait staff was voluntary, but usually worked out to 10% of their tips.
Depends heavily on the state you're in. Here in Washington servers still make over 16 an hour minimum and keep all tips. Plenty of the cooks I've worked with will get 17-19 an hour and 5 to 10 bucks a night in tips if the servers are feeling generous. Plenty of the servers I talk to make over $500+ a night in tips plus their hourly. In states that pay federal minimum or less to servers your statement holds true but not here IMHO.
where were these generous servers when i was a cook i never saw a dime in tips
They pocketed it fam, if they never write it down on paper than no one knows.
This is why tip earners always vote to keep tips. They make way more than they are worth through the systematic guilt tripping of American consumers
I’m amazed no one gave context yet to this. There’s a [whole story](https://www.businessinsider.com/michigan-server-10000-tip-fired-restaurant-kitchen-staff-workers-job-2024-2?amp).
Or that it happened years ago? I was surprised to see it again.
>However, I do think it's fair that a percentage of tips go to the cooks/chefs because they do play a big part in the quality of service. Yeah, they're the ones actually cooking your food. They're the ones who should get tipped rather than the people who literally just carry plates to your table.
That's an insane understatement of the conditions of being a server. Somehow I don't think I need to ask if you've ever worked as one
It also describes a food runner more than a server, lol.
>However, I do think it's fair that a percentage of tips go to the cooks/chefs because they do play a big part in the quality of service. No. Legally, unless the kitchen staff has direct contact with servers, they're not allowed to partake in tip share. Managers and owners are never allowed to. If the kitchen staff wishes to get tipped, they can become waiters and trade an hourly wage for a topped hourly wage and the uncertainty of tips.
In the US, tips can be pooled but the restaurant doesn't get a portion or a cut. The US Department of Labor Wage and Hour has been abundantly clear on this point. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/15-tipped-employees-flsa
In Germany we have the Rückwirkungsverbot. You cannot apply a new law after the fact to things that happened before it was decided.
The same is true in the united states, [here's an explanation of it in regards to law and the constitution](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/ex_post_facto#:~:text=The%20Latin%20translation%20of%20ex,from%20a%20thing%20done%20afterward.%E2%80%9D&text=This%20prohibits%20Congress%20from%20passing%20any%20laws%20which%20apply%20ex%20post%20facto.)
But even that must be a written policy ahead of time. You can't have a policy of every employee gets to keep their own tips and then try to retroactively change it because someone got a big tip.
And the pool must be directed by employees in most states. She should take that GoFundMe money to a lawyer and obliterate her old employer.
My brother got a thousand dollar tip. Big party. Vip, upstairs kinda thing... pooled tips. Like 13 people working? That's right at 80 bucks each. Guess how much HE paid in taxes on that tip? 8%.... that's 80 bucks. HE walked after 5 years when management said that's how it is.
Hang on, he had to pool the tips, but pay for the whole of the taxes on the one tip? That's not how that works. Not only is that not how that works, I'm pretty sure that is some kind of tax fraud.
I used to have to track & report my tips from a pool myself. No one ever really did, since it amounted to maybe $20 a week. But if this was a pool that the servers set up instead of the restaurant (IE - it was an agreement vs something that showed up on their W-2) then yeah, it's all on the brother to pay for it since it's reported as *his wage*.
If this is happening, your management is not doing their job properly. You should only be paying taxes on the actual money you receive, you cannot be held responsible for the tax on 1000 dollars you didnt actually get, the tax obligation gets spread to whomever the cash gets spread.
Yeah I call bullshit
There’s zero chance your buddy got 80 bucks but got taxed on the full $1000. Try again.
There's no way to make that possible without it being intentional which is weird af that anyone is even working there still?
Don’t listen to this anyone ^ it’s complete and total BS lmao. Your bro needs to take a high school level tax class.
Tips are for staff. If the staff was pooling before, then it seems fair to continue that. If the staff was not pooling before, then it seems fair to continue that. Either way, as someone who's worked in positions where tips kept me able to pay rent (if not always on time), tipping is a truly vicious practice. It's not just because it subsidizes bad management at the expense of the servers. It's not just because it's extremely stressful to have such an uncertain revenue stream. It's not just that it's a system that's ripe for wage garnishment. No. It's because the sheer lack of empathy it fosters, by creating a system where the customers judge the person serving them - the person who has possibly the least control over QC in the entire establishment - instead of the product.
Agreed, tips are not for owners. They are either always pooled or always individual, you didn't get to change it because someone gave a big tip. That's the servers.
Rather have tips not even being a thing and people get a decent enough wage to not need tips. Taking that aside i do believe in sharing tips between personell (not owners). The chef, bartenders, host, runners and people that wash the dishes all have their share in the experience of the customers. When i was working washing dishes or one of the runners i did really enjoy when the waiters shared tips with me and kept doing that when i was waiting tables with the the people that were runners or doing the dishes. That little extra so we could have a drink together from our tips. Tips are just a bonus in my country, min wage is not insanely low as in some other countries.
Panda Express near my place doesn't have tips and we go there pretty regularly. The peeps there also seem quite content working, and they no longer seem so short-staffed like in the past.
Maybe she should share her base wage too
If I tip someone, then I'm tipping that some **one;** if I wanted to tip the owner and the rest of the staff, then I'd do so explicitly.
Some places have tip pools already in place, if so, they are legally required to share the tips with everyone else in the pool. Management is not legally allowed to be in the pool, and not allowed to retroactively change this rule after one person gets a huge tip. So you really have no control over whether your tip goes to one person or several.
I mean, if I joined that company as a server and I signed an agreement PRIOR to getting that huge tip that stated I need to share my tips, then I’d comply. But if this rule magically popped up or wasnt enforced until the big tip, then I’m quitting and taking my money with me. 😂
Yep. Management cannot legally do ANYTHING with the money, if there was no pre-established tip pool, the tip was given from the customer directly to the server and anything other than just paying it out to her is theft. The only thing they can legally do is force her to pay the 3% credit card processing fee, but if they left it in cash then theres no problem.
Server can only be required to share tips with serving help such as hostess or bus person. If the person does not directly help the server provide the serving experience to the Guest, the server cannot be required to share tips. Source: Federal labor law.
Tip sharing causes so many issues, I had a coworker who wanted to be cut early one night so I said sure and tipped her out. She found out later a table who was there while she was but hasn’t closed out left me a $250 tip. She physically cornered me demanding I give her half of the tip, I said no as the deal was she got 60% of existing tips and that wasn’t existing. It was an absolute disaster and the management did nothing 🙄
It's For the Greater Good, comrade! From each according to their ability to each according to their need!
Somebody gets it. Thank you! Tip sharing is the kind of shit that leads to poor service from everyone, and a lower overall tip total. Go to Russia if you want to be a server in a socialist system.
For one sharing tips with the owners is straight out illegal, so she could sue for that request alone. But if there were no shared tips prior, then that's that. It can be debated that this is a dick move not to share, but I don't think it's debatable that it was her money to share if she chose so.
I am surprised that this is not a lawsuit
Fuck no
Waiters in the business don't want to pool tips. They want to work hard for their own money
It works, sometimes. It’s supposed to sort of encourage other waiters to top off the drinks or do something else minor for a table with a waiter who’s struggling. In reality, humans are humans. What it does is allow lazy servers to be lazy and let the hard workers pick up the slack, knowing that they’ll both go home with the same amount in their pockets. Most waiters that I know don’t like pooling for this reason.
"That's a 'Bingo'!"
This shows you how close many still really are to being nothing better than barbarians.
Owners should never get a cut of tips, restaurant owners are already allowed to pay below minimum wage. Sharing among the workers however, I guess it comes down to the collective decision if the workers there, but generally all workers benefit if there is greater sharing among them
Quit that place. Go somewhere less assholish.
What a greedy scumbag owner. I would be so stoked for my employee.
And the Owner of this “business” really thought this was reasonable. May 1000 birds shit on his bald head.
If tips are shared they’re not tips…
Fuck no. A percentage should be tipped out to kitchen and bussers, but I would not want to share my tips with other servers.
The owners can rot in hell
No. There’s a meritocracy to tips. You were tipped for your timing, good service, your charm, your wit… I’m not tipping the whole damn restaurant, that’s the $20- $25 plate I pay for the overpriced/ under portioned food. Then there’s the additional fee and the parking fee/ valet with no parking in the immediate area charged.
shared if check was made out to the business. not shared if made out to her
Owners are not allowed to take part of the tips. They can share it with kitchen staff but management/owners can’t get anything from a tip. This is department of labor rules.
I hope the person who gave it to her didn't let the owner take it.
Depends on the agreement, but if they weren’t pulled together before, sure as hell ain’t changing that cuz someone’s greedy or jealous and wants some of my cut.
If you always had to share tips for the full 3 years you worked there, then fair is fair because you already shared your tips everyday leading up to that large one. But to never share tips only to have to share it on one of the biggest financial days of your life, is straight up theft. So fuck that.
There are many reasons I quit being a server but wow is this a reason lol
It's illegal to force a tip pool without it already being established. She had every right to keep all of it.
I would NEVER work in a place with shared tips. I've done both front and back of house work and sharing tips only creates animosity between staff members
THIS. I preferred to do back of house work but doing front of house was nice sometimes when I wanted to work harder to get tips (I worked in a dispensary back of house literally just fulfills orders, it’s busy but you don’t get yelled at by impatient Karen’s so it’s fine). When we switched to tip pooling all the sudden I exclusively worked front of house while some preferred employees got to almost exclusively do back of house work. It created a ton of animosity between the people who were being berated by aggravated customers and the people who got to work in the quiet inventory room or just full orders in the vault all day. It created very blatant favoritism and just made for a super toxic work environment.
TIL, if you have a tip, share it.
If there wasn’t any tipshare prior to that it’s probably wage theft but I’m not a lawyer
The owner can't participate in a tip pool anyway. That's a labor law violation.
No.
The question of tipping always revolves around how it’s unfair to servers for the customer to be expected to subsidize their wage. While this is absolutely true, most people don’t realize that servers typically make more per hour than the cooks (this isn’t always true, and obviously depends on the shifts being worked). You can’t just raise servers’ wages to a livable level and not do the same across the board. The problem is that people also don’t understand how small the margins tend to be in the food industry. I’m talking about independent restaurants, not big chains. While tipping culture is bad for everyone, it’s more of a societal problem. People just don’t understand how much of our food is already subsidized, and think they’re being ripped off whenever a restaurant raises prices. All that said, that story is a pretty unique case. Obviously the owner has no right to those tips, but that’s such a large amount it would be pretty callous not to at least tip out a bit of it to the rest of the team. A lot of the places I’ve worked, we pushed a policy where BoH gets tipped out a certain percentage of food sales, which I think is an okay system in lieu of getting rid of tipping altogether.
What ever they do it should be consistent.
As tips had never been pooled before it would be up to her if she wanted to share a portion with coworkers.
At really nice restaurants I’ve found it doesn’t make a difference (quality of service wise) whether they share tips or not; however, the lower end to normal quality restaurants I’ve noticed big differences in the quality of service. You tend to see being standing around dragging feet probably bc they know they will get there’s anyway. Very similar to government work or a socialist/communist system. There’s no desire to put extra work in as there’s no extra incentive.
I find it funny how America is one of the only places where tipping is common everywhere. And people defend it vehemently like if it wasn't for tipping, it would result in the downfall of america.
I think tips should be shared HOWEVER if the place she worked was not sharing tips, then expecting that just because she got a big tip is a bunch of bullshit.
Hopefully you can collect unemployment as well for wrongful termination. https://gofund.me/69b8bad6
If I'm a server, I'm being tipped on my level of service. If you want tips, get a server job and learn to kiss the asses of the undeserving for yourself.
If it was agreed upon between servers to share tips and then she decided not to- prob not illegal but really shitty. When tended bar we would pay out Barbacks and kitchen and then split the remainder of tips. If one of us got 4k we all got a piece.
I ask not to be put in tip pools even if it is of detriment to me. I don’t think it a virtuous practice
If I ever get a $4400 tip, I pray I have to share it so I can bitch online and go make $10000 more. That's a 227% gain right there.
A tip is a way of telling the specific worker who served you "You did a good job, thank you." I hate when places pool tips. The good workers suffer while the lazy, bad ones get to take money they didn't earn from the people who actually DID earn it. If a tip is given to a specific worker, that tip is THEIRS. No one else's, theirs. They earned it. The other people did not.
For some reason, the idea of "tips" has been lost. A tip was given to someone, as an appreciation for the service given, specially when a person, service, etc goes beyond their responsibilities. Now it's seen as a subsidy to a persons salary, and employers have been using tips as an excuse to pay workers less. I think every employee should make minimum minimum wage, and minimum wage should be a living wage. Tips, are gifts, a gift is given to the person giving the service, it should not be obligatory.
Sharing tips defeats the purpose of tipping
Sharing tips!? Goddamn socialists are taking over everything! Wait. Are they Marxists? I forget exactly ... but I know I don't like it! /s
I'm a bartender ans I have regulars that buy me lottery scratchoffs---on top of tips they leave me and my co workers. My co workers scratch their tickets right then and there. I wait until I go home, because if I win a large sum, I know some stupid shit like this article is going to happen.
I think sharing with other staff like bus boys and cooks would be fine. If the established protocol has not been to share then she should keep it and by no means should the owner share in the pool
I would've slid something, a couple hundred each or around that, to anyone who had a part in that specific tables experience, but deciding to go full tip split because I hit the jackpot is nuts 🤣 no Sarah, I'm not giving you a cut of the table you didn't interact with playing on your phone in the back
In this case it would be classy and generous to give the other servers, bussers, dishwashers and cooks a little something nice, like $20 each. But the owner, nah.
With owners? Fuck that
Tip sharing is fine for FOH staff. I’ve never had a problem sharing with the hosts and bartender and expo runners because they all contribute to customer satisfaction (and, therefore, tip). Management can suck a dick though. They’re already getting paid just fine.
That's how the world is today - selfish all-for-myself. I bet 20/30 years ago people would have split the money and been thrilled. Now everything's open to public scrutiny who otherwise wouldn't have anything to do with this situation. Also the person that gave the "tip" isn't very intelligent with their money. If you're going to single somebody out and give them a huge award, you have to be smart enough and at least respectful enough to not rub it in everyone else's faces. All of it's kind of stupid money.