ok.. lets see if we can educate this author- at least as it applies in MI. for starters, minimum wage for servers is $2.65. servers are required to report 8% of their sales as tips.. most make more. now, as far as basing their hourly wage on what they make in tips.. its actually very nice the way they do it. if, between your hourly wage and your tips, you don't average $5.15 for the pay period, the employer is required to make it up to you.
in most cases, tip pooling is bad, but some makes sense. tipping bussers and bartenders is common practice, even required in most restaurants/ bars. the reason? the same as why you tip your server. its a gratuity to insure prompt, correct and pleasant service. because as a bartender, who do you think is gonna come first? the stupid waitress that doesn't tip me, or the paying customer at the end of the bar? similar for bussing. whose table is gonna get cleaned first? the waitress who tips the busser or the one who thinks he's lowlife scum that's beneath her?
Exactly the reason top pooling shouldn't be allowed. ALLOW failure. If the waitress doesn't tip, and doesn't get good "help" from the others, she's not going to make good money and thus how long do you think she'll be in the server business? Probably not long.
Now, on the other hand, I can see why a MANAGER of a restaurant would not want this to happen as it is the customer who suffers.
The solution is not tip pooling though, it's to fire or shift the bad servers. *shrug*
Let me first start off by saying there is nothing nice about stealing people's personal property. That's what tips are. Our federal laws state clearly that tips are the sole property of the tipped employee. You might ask, Who is the tipped employee? Isn't it the cooks, the hostesses, the dish washers and anyone else the business wants to give it to? No, a tip is not the property of whom ever the business owner wants to share it with, it's the property of the employee to whom it was presented. What is so nice about paying employees $2.65 an hour? The fact that employers in your state can pay their workers $5.15 an hour is an embaracement to start with. Now, about that $2.65 an hour wage your state has adopted for tipped employees. Why is your state allowing employers to pay tipped workers less in wages when it is a clear and undeniable fact that customers are tipping workers so that they will earn more money? Doesn't such tipping by the public clearly exhibit the public's will to see that certain workers earn more than simply minimum wage?
The reason it is a common practice in many restaurants to mandate that the waiters tips must be shared with other workers whom obviously did not receive tips is because businesses think that they are above the law. Can a waiter steal a tip from a customer? Then why should the business owner be able to steal a tip from the waiter? You see, I have no problem with waiters or any other employees giving fellow workers tips if it is actually in their best interest to give tips to fellow workers, however tips are defined by federal laws as a sum presented by a customer as a gift or gratuity in recognition of some service performed for him. Please note that tips are not defined as a sum given by a worker to other workers. Tips where defined by federal laws to protect both the workers and public.
You see, back in the early 1900's and even before that employers where stealing their employee's tips. Our federal government saw the need to protect tips as the property of the tipped employee and went about enacting laws to protect both the employee's and customer from the overreaching hands of employers. While waiters tipping out other employees may have become somewhat of a common practice the reason for it becoming a common practice is obvious to me. Businesses want their workers to share tips because they have figured out that if they can intimidate the workers into sharing tips they can offer part of the waiter's tips to job applicants applying for a non-tipped position while at the same time offering them less in wages.
The fact that you have stated that it'a a nice thing that in your state employers must make up the difference between $2.65 and $5.15 an hour if customers don't tip baffles me.
If customers tip in your state, the business saves money and subsequesntly increases their own profits. Why is your state alowing business owners to profit from the tips customer present their employees? What is nice about this fruad. That's what it is. Nothing more than FRAUD...
Customers are undeniably tipping to benefit the workers and yet your state is giving over the financial benefit's of the customer's tip to the business owners of your state.
Fraud is defined as:
Deception carried out for the purpose of achieving personal gain while causing injury to another party.
Empolyers are achieving personal gain from the tips given to their employees. As a result the employees whose wages are being reduced are being injured by the loss of income your state has approved. Your state has deceptively claimed the right to determine who should benefit from the customer's tips when it is clearly the customer's right to determine who should benefit from his tip. Your state has passed a law which gives over the financial benefits of the customer's tip to the business owners of your state illegally and in violation of our Constitution.
The 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.