Restaurant Tips

pilts15

Hi there hope someone can help
My wife works in a restaurant and told me that when a customer pays a tip with a debit card and not cash the tip money goes straight into the business and not shared out amongst the waiters/waitresses. Also to add insult to injury as the manager is also the chef on occations he will also take his share of the cash tips.
I ask as I feel this must be morally wrong as the customer believes they are tipping the service they recieve and im sure would not even tip if they believed it did not go to the staff.
regards
dan

Jarndyce

pilts15 wrote: »

Hi there hope someone can help
My wife works in a restaurant and told me that when a customer pays a tip with a debit card and not cash the tip money goes straight into the business and not shared out amongst the waiters/waitresses. Also to add insult to injury as the manager is also the chef on occations he will also take his share of the cash tips.
I ask as I feel this must be morally wrong as the customer believes they are tipping the service they recieve and im sure would not even tip if they believed it did not go to the staff.
regards
dan

Tips on card payments certainly make it easier for a business owner to retain the tip - I always tip in cash myself.

maninthestreet

Isn't this done for tav avoidance reasons???

SueC_2

pilts15 wrote: »

Also to add insult to injury as the manager is also the chef on occations he will also take his share of the cash tips.

Not sure why the manager/chef would be any less entitled to tips than anyone else - surely he is providing as much service (if not more because he is fulfilling two roles) as the other staff?

pilts15

SueC wrote: »

Not sure why the manager/chef would be any less entitled to tips than anyone else - surely he is providing as much service (if not more because he is fulfilling two roles) as the other staff?

I'm not saying he shouldnt get tipped for what he does,but when customers paid over £200 in card tips like last night and staff dont get a share of it is very unfair.
I know in the states there has been legal issues surrounding non payment of tips to staff , just want to know if there is any legal standpoint here.

Wyndham

It may not be 'right' but it's not 'wrong' either. It could be that the owner believes he has taken this into account with wages. It's also not a new thing, which is why I always pay on a card, but leave a cash tip.

claire16c

In my experience of friends working in restaurants, the deal tended to be that cash tips went straight to the staff - and often was cash in hand so no tax, whereas if you put the tip on a credit card, it was still shared out amonst them or went straight to them - depending in they operated on a basis where they shared all tips or kept the tips from their own tables, but it would go into their regular pay slips and therefore was taxed. Or sometimes, cash would be still put into their wages and taxed. But it never went straight to the business just because it was on a card.

what does it say in your wifes contract?

GothicStirling

When I worked in hotel restaurants, this was the norm.

I always said if they wanted to give me a tip, make it cash otherwise I wouldn't see it. Some companies have a no tip policy.

Claytone

Yikes, that's terrible. It's a real bummer to lose tips when you're a server. You spend the whole night obsessing on how well you've done tip-wise and then lose a chunk to management. When I was working in Toronto, they had a city by-law against managment taking tips.

LadyMissA

ok no law about tips here in uk - tips can be used to bump up wages too you know

credit card tips have to by law be paid via the payroll for tax reasons and not many co's admit to cash tips as that it far to hard to regulate.

I talk as I have over 15 yrs expereince in bars/restaurant background in accts and payroll

I could tell you how we used to work it out for ALL staff but that may all bore you to death

Idiophreak

I always ask if the waitress will get the money if I tip on card, if not I don't bother. Your best option, OP, is to gang up with all of the other staff and threaten some kinda official or unofficial industrial action - working to time, slowing down a little, not doing anything outside your contract...high risk strategy, though...