OMG! I have heard this posted many timeson many tipping threads.
do you realize the paper work that would be required for this law?
ok, all the hours I spend doing "side work" ie, rolling silver ware, polishing silver ware , rolling them into napkins, fillining up dressing cups, etc etc, ad infinitum...
and average it out over a year? and you want ALL that paper work done to ENSURE that we make.. what $8.50 and hour? WHO would do that job fo r $8,50an hour?
every tipping thread that comes up, some one comes up with that ridiculous law.. and we DON"T get "away with" not claiming cash tips , because it IS compared with the totals of the restaurant. (and most of our customers pay with a credit card, anyway.)
If you want to compare our total receipts for the year (yeah, good luck with that) with our total tips, if it turns out I earned less than 15%, no way amI continuing in this business! and if you think I deserve $8.00 anhour to be your waitress at a fine dining establishment, then, please, eat at steak and shake.
regardless, no one at ANY restaurant keeps these totals. this is just a ridiculous argument for someone who wants to eat out at a sit down restaurant and have an excuse to NOT TIP.
I've tried to be nice but, if you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to eat out. (and AGAIN, for the umpteenth time, I am NOT talking about BAD service, so please don't reiterate the time you ate at such and such restaurant and the gum-chewing(YUK) waitress was talking on her cell phone and her abusive boyfriend came in and she THREW your dinner on your table without so much of a howdy-do!
(or any other scenario, ie.once in a life-time situation of a horrible waitress, as in "when waitresses gonebad!"
I am ONLY talking about decent service here.
we have ALL (me included) have terrible waitress stories, where , I agree, a tip was uncalled for.
(just to stop the TONS of stories that will come in , now, from that ONE time, there was that ONE waitress who.....(you fill in the blank)
whenever I post about waitresses and tips I am referring to good service.
If you do not want to take the responsibility to be sure that you are being paid fairly than that is your loss. The law is the law however it is up to you to be sure that you are being compensated fairly by your employer.
It would not take that much work to figure out each pay period if you made enough in tips to equal min. wage. Someone has to be keeping track of the paperwork if you are truely claiming all of your tips on your irs form every year.
And yes more and more people are paying with credit these days however many are also leaving cash tips as well. Many times we pay for our meal with credit but leave a tip in cash. I have family members that waitressed for years and believe me they did not claim ALL of their tips.
If you are not happy with your job and or pay than you should try to do something about it when you can.
By stating the law I was not saying that it is ok NOT to tip I was just saying that waitress's/waiters do make at least min. wage if they do not they have no one to blame but themselves. Many stay in the business because they are making above min. wage and if they were to go to another similar job they would make less money.
Some people also actually enjoy waiting for a living as well despite what many on this board would have you think. An aunt of mine waitressed for years with bad artheritis and by the end of the night she could barely walk but she refused to give up her job because she truely loved it and said that the people she met every day kept her going. Also she brought home more in waitressing than she would have made on disability.