Waitress Didn't Accept Tip At Resteraunt?

[Tocsin_786]

I went to a new restaurant (it was quite awesome) and i found out that my friend worked there as well. We waited a while to the point where I just asked one of the workers passing to the kitchen if we can be served. So she apologized that no one came up to our table after waiting for so long, so she just took our order instead. I had forgotten my cash in the car and it was valet parking, so I asked my friend who was working there if they accept tip through credit card. She said "yes" so i was relieved that I dont have to go outside. When the check came in, it did not have a place to put how much to tip, but it did have the usual chart on tipping at certain % points. so I just wrote in Tip: $20. When I got my receipt I asked the server if she took out the tip, explaining to her that I did not have cash and I wanted to make sure. She said that they don't accept tips at that restaurant. A little confused, I asked her if she is certain about this, and she said yes. I just feel morally bad about this situation because I'm still not sure if its because she was sad that we waited so long, or if she felt bad that we didn't have cash on me. Did I do the right thing, and is this even a thing where some restaurants dont allow tipping? 

 

I'm in the US if anyone is wondering. 

[terrytek]

some restaurants don't allow tipping? boy, i'm pretty sure that's how majority of restaurant workers make money aside from their wages. the tips they earn are like bonuses. i have yet to see a restaurant that doesn't allow tipping.

[Tocsin_786]

Just now, terrytek said:

some restaurants don't allow tipping? boy, i'm pretty sure that's how majority of restaurant workers make money aside from their wages. the tips they earn are like bonuses. i have yet to see a restaurant that doesn't allow tipping.

thats what im wondering. these people work really hard, and I wasn't even mad about the service. It was a really nice place.

[MeDownYou]

5 minutes ago, Tocsin_786 said:

I went to a new restaurant (it was quite awesome) and i found out that my friend worked there as well. We waited a while to the point where I just asked one of the workers passing to the kitchen if we can be served. So she apologized that no one came up to our table after waiting for so long, so she just took our order instead. I had forgotten my cash in the car and it was valet parking, so I asked my friend who was working there if they accept tip through credit card. She said "yes" so i was relieved that I dont have to go outside. When the check came in, it did not have a place to put how much to tip, so I just wrote in Tip: $20. When I got my receipt I asked the server if she took out the tip, explaining to her that I did not have cash and I wanted to make sure. She said that they don't accept tips at that restaurant. A little confused, I asked her if she is certain about this, and she said yes. I just feel morally bad about this situation because I'm still not sure if its because she was sad that we waited so long, or if she felt bad that we didn't have cash on me. Did I do the right thing, and is this even a thing where some restaurants dont allow tipping? 

I love this restaurant. I've worked 7 years at $2.38 an hour plus tips as background for this. If they don't accept tips that means the restaurant pays at least minimum wage to all employees.

 

History Lesson: Did you know tips were NOT common? In fact in many places they are still not common. For restaurants they started in the recession when owners could not afford to keep their doors open so they reduced their staff's wages and these are unlivable wages so tips were born.

 

With tips restaurants basically aren't directly paying their staff which is unique.

[Tocsin_786]

3 minutes ago, MeDownYou said:

I love this restaurant. I've worked 7 years at $2.38 an hour plus tips as background for this. If they don't accept tips that means the restaurant pays at least minimum wage to all employees.

 

History Lesson: Did you know tips were NOT common? In fact in many places they are still not common. They started in the recession when owners could not afford to keep their doors open so they reduced their staff's wages and these are unlivable wages so tips were born. 

The restaurant business is very lucrative. 

[MeDownYou]

5 minutes ago, Tocsin_786 said:

The restaurant business is very lucrative. 

Is this statement a generalization or a specific statement about the one you went to? Because if it's about the one you went to I expected that. If it is a generalization I can provide evidence otherwise - especially when people are trying to save money such as a recession. 

 

Like I say I really do like that tips aren't accepted at this restaurant because you can actually determine what you are getting paid, paying employee's, and actually giving for your meal much much easier. Plus, income is actually reported instead of relying on the employee to report their tip amounts to the government...which news flash i knew people who made 20k+ in tips and reported 1200 every year for the last 40 years.

[porina]

11 minutes ago, Tocsin_786 said:

Did I do the right thing, and is this even a thing where some restaurants dont allow tipping? 

 

I'm in the US if anyone is wondering. 

While I'm not the most familiar with US practices, you made the effort and it was declined. I'm not sure what more you could have reasonably done.

 

In UK, tipping is a grey area at best, and as a country we're not known to be big tippers. There is an interesting tax rule though. Cash tips are allowed to go untaxed, but if do it as part of a card payment, they have to take income tax off that. I found it a relief when travelling in Korea and Japan, where there is no expectation of tipping. You pay the list price, everyone is happy. No fuss.

[Tocsin_786]

Just now, porina said:

While I'm not the most familiar with US practices, you made the effort and it was declined. I'm not sure what more you could have reasonably done.

 

In UK, tipping is a grey area at best, and as a country we're not known to be big tippers. There is an interesting tax rule though. Cash tips are allowed to go untaxed, but if do it as part of a card payment, they have to take income tax off that. I found it a relief when travelling in Korea and Japan, where there is no expectation of tipping. You pay the list price, everyone is happy. No fuss.

If every place was as easy as Japan and Korea. It really is an annoyance to people like us, but its down basically theft to the employees who work at the places. I'm not the boss, I should not be expected to pay them. 

[dizmo]

I don't think it's morally wrong not to tip. A tip isn't mandatory, a tip is something you give the server to show them that they've done a good job, and you're grateful. I won't eat at establishments that require tips, and give mandatory minimums. I find that rather shady business, and I find that places that operate that like often give worse service.

Now, seeing that she did deserve one (I think that's safe to say?) I do find it odd that they're not allowed to accept them. Perhaps if it was cash she'd just pocket it, and the credit card was the issue. Easier for management to track.

You said your friend works there? You could always ask them.

 

18 minutes ago, terrytek said:

some restaurants don't allow tipping? boy, i'm pretty sure that's how majority of restaurant workers make money aside from their wages. the tips they earn are like bonuses. i have yet to see a restaurant that doesn't allow tipping.

Clearly you've never eaten at a proper Asian restaurant

17 minutes ago, MeDownYou said:

I love this restaurant. I've worked 7 years at $2.38 an hour plus tips as background for this. If they don't accept tips that means the restaurant pays at least minimum wage to all employees.

 

History Lesson: Did you know tips were NOT common? In fact in many places they are still not common. For restaurants they started in the recession when owners could not afford to keep their doors open so they reduced their staff's wages and these are unlivable wages so tips were born.

 

With tips restaurants basically aren't directly paying their staff which is unique.

I'm always shocked that it's acceptable for people to make a wage that low. Yes, i get it, tips are supposed to make up for that. But tips are no guaranteed. For a country as "first world" as the US, that's insane to me. Minimum wage should be minimum wage, regardless if you're making tips or not.

8 minutes ago, MeDownYou said:

-snip-

 

Like I say I really do like that tips aren't accepted at this restaurant because you can actually determine what you are getting paid, paying employee's, and actually giving for your meal much much easier. Plus, income is actually reported instead of relying on the employee to report their tip amounts to the government...which news flash i knew people who made 20k+ in tips and reported 1200 every year for the last 40 years.

I think they should still be allowed to accept tips though. It has nothing to do with the employers bottom line, and if anything would attract even more, experienced staff which would help grow the business.

 

Haha, surprise surprise. There will always be tax evasion. I know a girl who's made enough in "tips" over the past 5 years to buy a $600k house.

[NumLock21]

Go back tomorrow and hand her a envelope with the $20 tip inside.

[MeDownYou]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

I don't think it's morally wrong not to tip. A tip isn't mandatory, a tip is something you give the server to show them that they've done a good job, and you're grateful. I won't eat at establishments that require tips, and give mandatory minimums. I find that rather shady business, and I find that places that operate that like often give worse service.

Now, seeing that she did deserve one (I think that's safe to say?) I do find it odd that they're not allowed to accept them. Perhaps if it was cash she'd just pocket it, and the credit card was the issue. Easier for management to track.

You said your friend works there? You could always ask them.

 

Clearly you've never eaten at a proper Asian restaurant

I'm always shocked that it's acceptable for people to make a wage that low. Yes, i get it, tips are supposed to make up for that. But tips are no guaranteed. For a country as "first world" as the US, that's insane to me. Minimum wage should be minimum wage, regardless if you're making tips or not.

I think they should still be allowed to accept tips though. It has nothing to do with the employers bottom line, and if anything would attract even more, experienced staff which would help grow the business.

 

Haha, surprise surprise. There will always be tax evasion. I know a girl who's made enough in "tips" over the past 5 years to buy a $600k house.

The only real way to change the way it works is for people either not to tip, or for companies to do what I'm assuming the place he ate at does. That being said Tipping appropriately would be a great start as I've seen people take home 400 dollars from 4 hours of work, and people taking home pennies (females seem to get better tips from patrons, they also tend to give more reasonable tip to servers)

 

Just so we are all clear an average server serves somewhere between 4-8 tables typically so figure you turn those tables 1 times in the 4 hours you end up with 8-16 tables served, to make 11 bucks an hour (which honestly is a reasonable wage for this type of work in the US) you need to make in 4 hours 36 dollars in tips assuming your getting paid around 2 bucks, well if you serve 10 tables in 4 hours for example  each table only needs to tip $3.60 to bring you up to this bar. When i go out to eat i recognize this and always leave 3 bucks on the table.

[Thunderpup]

38 minutes ago, MeDownYou said:

I love this restaurant. I've worked 7 years at $2.38 an hour plus tips as background for this. If they don't accept tips that means the restaurant pays at least minimum wage to all employees.

Under  US federal labor laws the owners are required to guarantee the federal minimum wage anyway.

If at any point the worker doesn't make enough in tips to equate what they would have made under minimum wage; the employer is required to provide the difference. 

[Tocsin_786]

4 hours ago, dizmo said:

You said your friend works there? You could always ask them.

I should have clarified that part, I did ask my friend. She said Yes, that they did accept CC tips. So she gave me a pen when I asked for one to fill in the tip section of the receipt. 

[KuJoe]

 

[dizmo]

2 minutes ago, MeDownYou said:

The only real way to change the way it works is for people either not to tip, or for companies to do what I'm assuming the place he ate at does. That being said Tipping appropriately would be a great start as I've seen people take home 400 dollars from 4 hours of work, and people taking home pennies (females seem to get better tips from patrons, they also tend to give more reasonable tip to servers)

-snip-

Not really, all it takes is for restaurant owners to be decent human beings. The only real reason to pay staff so little is greed.

Really, it falls upon the government to look after the people. Which they're clearly failing at.

1 hour ago, Tocsin_786 said:

I should have clarified that part, I did ask my friend. She said Yes, that they did accept CC tips. So she gave me a pen when I asked for one to fill in the tip section of the receipt. 

Then I'd say she was just pitying you

1 hour ago, KuJoe said:

-snip-

Tipping isn't the problem. The problem is the government allowing restaurateurs to pay their employees less than minimum wage.

[MeDownYou]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

The problem is the government allowing restaurateurs to pay their employees less than minimum wage.

Bingo.

[yathis]

13 hours ago, Tocsin_786 said:

She said "yes" so i was relieved that I dont have to go outside. When the check came in, it did not have a place to put how much to tip, but it did have the usual chart on tipping at certain % points. so I just wrote in Tip: $20. When I got my receipt I asked the server if she took out the tip, explaining to her that I did not have cash and I wanted to make sure. She said that they don't accept tips at that restaurant. A little confused, I asked her if she is certain about this, and she said yes. I just feel morally bad about this situation because I'm still not sure if its because she was sad that we waited so long, or if she felt bad that we didn't have cash on me. Did I do the right thing, and is this even a thing where some restaurants dont allow tipping? 

 

I'm in the US if anyone is wondering. 

Tips are always accepted in every method of payment.

I tipped at Boston Pizza, no option for 10%, only 15% which is a bummer. Another place added $1.50 for a refill pop, wont go there again.

How do you write in a tip, its all electronic now.

How does one take out a the tip from the bill?

 

Your story doesnt make much sense.

[TetraSky]

5 hours ago, yathis said:

How do you write in a tip, its all electronic now.

How does one take out a the tip from the bill?

Usually on the payment terminal, you have a few options like the type of bank account  (saving or cheque). On this terminal you sometimes have the "tipping" option that appears where you can either enter it in percents or a straight number, like $2.(or a straight 0/"YES/NO" option)
This tip should be going to however served you that day on their next paycheck, as their name should also be on your invoice that they hand you.

But, I've seen a few places where the tip doesn't go to the server, but to the restaurant itself and at the next paycheck they equally divide the entire tipped amount between every serving employees. 

[dalekphalm]

2 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Usually on the payment terminal, you have a few options like the type of bank account  (saving or cheque). On this terminal you sometimes have the "tipping" option that appears where you can either enter it in percents or a straight number, like $2.(or a straight 0/"YES/NO" option)
This tip should be going to however served you that day on their next paycheck, as their name should also be on your invoice that they hand you.

But, I've seen a few places where the tip doesn't go to the server, but to the restaurant itself and at the next paycheck they equally divide the entire tipped amount between every serving employees. 

In many restaurants, the tip never goes straight to the waiter. The waiter generally has to split the tip with the kitchen staff. The reason is that the waiter is only one part of the customer experience.

 

That steak you just ate was cooked absolutely perfectly and was just kickass? Waiter had nothing to do with it.

 

Some restaurants do make the wait staff pool all the tips together to evenly distribute among all non-management staff.

 

We did that at Williams Cafe when I worked there (kind of like Starbucks) - all the tips were pooled together and split among the staff.

[Thunderpup]

27 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

In many restaurants, the tip never goes straight to the waiter. The waiter generally has to split the tip with the kitchen staff. The reason is that the waiter is only one part of the customer experience.

That steak you just ate was cooked absolutely perfectly and was just kickass? Waiter had nothing to do with it.

Some restaurants do make the wait staff pool all the tips together to evenly distribute among all non-management staff.

We did that at Williams Cafe when I worked there (kind of like Starbucks) - all the tips were pooled together and split among the staff.

That's pretty common here in the states too. 

 

Often the cooks aren't included as their pay will tend to be decent compared to the wait staff.  But the greeters and the bus boys are included. 

Personally i'm for ending tipping in favor of a steady wage, but i am sure most tipped employees probably wouldn't like that.  As mentioned earlier its a good way to earn a lot of tax free money.

[dalekphalm]

4 minutes ago, Thunderpup said:

That's pretty common here in the states too. 

 

Often the cooks aren't included as their pay will tend to be decent compared to the wait staff.  But the greeters and the bus boys are included. 

Personally i'm for ending tipping in favor of a steady wage, but i am sure most tipped employees probably wouldn't like that.  As mentioned earlier its a good way to earn a lot of tax free money.

It all depends on how good a waiter they are, and how lucrative the restaurant is, really.

 

If they're taking home $30,000+ in untaxed tips (or hell, even $20,000+), that's a hell of a lot of money. Especially combined with whatever they actually earn hourly (even if it's comparatively very little).

 

Personally, I'm in favour of government forcing minimum wage laws onto restaurant owners, and abolishing separate wait-staff minimum wages.

 

I would love to only tip when a server is "kickass", rather than tipping pretty much always, and simply tipping better if they're good.

 

Hell, I wouldn't even complain if prices went up a few percentage points to compensate for the increased wages being paid out. If balanced properly, you should be paying roughly the same amount in the end anyway, just without the tip.

 

It's funny because other industries don't expect tips. If your accountant does a kickass job on your taxes, you generally don't tip them (though some people will send gifts, which can be considered a similar action).

[Okjoek]

Why don't resturaunts just pay their staff properly.

[dalekphalm]

9 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

Why don't resturaunts just pay their staff properly.

There's historical precedence (Great Recession era, for example), but now-a-days? Because it's "the way things are".

[Okjoek]

Just now, dalekphalm said:

There's historical precedence (Great Recession era, for example), but now-a-days? Because it's "the way things are".

Yeah I remember hearing that from watching the Adam Ruins Everything episode, I just felt like reiterating the question to myself to express my belief that the people who still use such a system are idiots.

 

To me the idea that people need my incentive to do good at their job degrades a restaurant's reputation because to me it shows they aren't willing to hire dedicated staff so they need me to act as their service "quality assurance". I don't want to worry about that when I go out to eat. If the service is bad I'd rather be able to blame the brand rather than take it out of the workers.

 

It's partially for this reason I prefer to just prepare my own food rather than eat out with the exception of the Taco Salad at one of the restaurants at the local mall, that S#%^ is to die for.

[Thunderpup]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

I would love to only tip when a server is "kickass", rather than tipping pretty much always, and simply tipping better if they're good.

I only tip based on service and have no qualms with not tipping should the service royally suck.

 

US Labor laws require the employers to guarantee the federal minimum wage; so if they don't make enough in tips+their base pay then the employer has to kick in the difference. 

 

Quote

A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage. If the employees tips combined with the employers direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference. Many states, however, require higher direct wage amounts for tipped employees.

https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips