"Aye, Matey... " A four-letter word, if ever there was one.
Putting things succinctly, whatever dollar (Euro, Yen, Chickens, First-Born, whatever...) amount you tip a server is not entirely ours to keep, but has to be shared with some of the others whom we work with. We have to tip out our "support staff" - such as table bussers, bartenders, food-runners and hostesses. Every shift we have to - yes required - give back a portion of what our guests leave "us" as their tip.
Support staff (ideally) helps us servers serve you better. They are those whom we ask for help when we are busy, or overwhelmed. Additionally, they are staff members whom you (the patron) semi-regularly might come into contact with, and whom you may ask to get or to do something for you. Obviously, these staff members contribute to the overall experience you have at our restaurant, and probably our tips as well. Therefore, each shift, a portion of our income is shared with them.
Well ... it used to be like that anyways - that it was a portion of our income that we shared. Today however, it's more clinical than that. It's a to-the-decimal percentage of our "total sales" actually.
Let's say you come in, I wait on you, and you have a burger, fries, coke and a desert, and your tab comes to... say $25. Let's say I wait on nineteen other people just like you this same day. My "total sales" for the day would be $25 x 20 ppl = $500.
Well ... it used to be like that anyways - that it was a portion of our income that we shared. Today however, it's more clinical than that. It's a to-the-decimal percentage of our "total sales" actually.
Let's say you come in, I wait on you, and you have a burger, fries, coke and a desert, and your tab comes to... say $25. Let's say I wait on nineteen other people just like you this same day. My "total sales" for the day would be $25 x 20 ppl = $500.
Here's how tip-out works: whether you tipped me fantastically, so-so, or not at all, at the end of the day I have to turn in a set percentage of my total sales to management, which they then distribute set portions of that tip-out to all of that shift's support staff (usually a day or so later after the paper work has settled. Because of there's any error, the restaurant always gets paid first).
Where I used to work in New Mexico (shout out to CB-3!!) the "tip-out" was 2% of total sales. So if I averaged 15% tips all day, $500 in sales would give me $75 in tips - minus a required $10 tip out, so I'd "walk with" (as we say) $65. If I averaged 20% tips all day, I'd earn $100 in tips, but walk with $90 "after tip-out." The percentage remains fixed and generally non-negotiable, and not subject to how much I actually make. So if I averaged only 10% tips all day, I'd walk with only $40 - get it?
Now ... being totally unrealistic let's say I got stiffed all day long (time to get a new job!). Guess what I'd leave with? Yuppers - I'd leave with $10 less than I came in with.
While I remember a lot of complaining where I used to work about that 2% tip-out at times, turns out that figure may be behind the times. I did a brief stint at a place it turned out I really didn't like when I first arrived here in Florida, and was shocked to have to tip out 3% - and 4% on weekends when we had extra support staff. Can you imagine working hard and totaling $1000 in sales and earning $200 in tips, only to give away $40 of it at the end of the night?
Where I used to work in New Mexico (shout out to CB-3!!) the "tip-out" was 2% of total sales. So if I averaged 15% tips all day, $500 in sales would give me $75 in tips - minus a required $10 tip out, so I'd "walk with" (as we say) $65. If I averaged 20% tips all day, I'd earn $100 in tips, but walk with $90 "after tip-out." The percentage remains fixed and generally non-negotiable, and not subject to how much I actually make. So if I averaged only 10% tips all day, I'd walk with only $40 - get it?
Now ... being totally unrealistic let's say I got stiffed all day long (time to get a new job!). Guess what I'd leave with? Yuppers - I'd leave with $10 less than I came in with.
While I remember a lot of complaining where I used to work about that 2% tip-out at times, turns out that figure may be behind the times. I did a brief stint at a place it turned out I really didn't like when I first arrived here in Florida, and was shocked to have to tip out 3% - and 4% on weekends when we had extra support staff. Can you imagine working hard and totaling $1000 in sales and earning $200 in tips, only to give away $40 of it at the end of the night?
Worse, what if you had to do a lot of what you were tipping out for yourself, or just felt that the staff members in question didn't deserve near that amount, based on their (lack of) performance? You have to give it to them anyways, even if they're standing around talking while you're doing their job.
Yeh, sometimes we can get a wee bit bitter about tipping out when we don't feel it's deserved. Have you ever stood up and found your own tea pitcher, and still had a set tip added to your bill? Well believe me, we do feel your pain, several times per week sometimes.
(It's so bad in fact, that there's even legal services available for those who feel their employer is unfairly charging them for tip-outs, breaking dishes, or walked tabs (See http://877tippool.com/ if this is you.)
Well, kind of getting back to the recent "Europeans" story, turns out where I work now, the tip-out is the absolute highest I've EVER encountered in my life. No matter how much we earn in tips, we tip out 4% of our food sales to the busser/food-runners and hostesses, and (gulp!) 7% of our liquor, beer and wine sales to the bartenders. Like I said earlier, this is a world-class city and expectations are high. Most of the people gainfully employed here are worth getting paid well. But just think about the fact that I might occasionally sell someone a $10 drink, and if they tip me a dollar - 70 cents of it goes to the bartender, and I get 30 cents. Compared to most restaurants - paraphrasing the artist formerly known as sane - the tip out here "is on the verrrge of being obscene."
So to put the European story in perspective finally, their tab was roughly $100 in food (which I tipped out $4 on) and roughly $100 in liquor (which I tipped out $7 on). IF they'd tipped 15% for instance ($30) I'd've tipped $11 and walked with $19, you follow?
(It's so bad in fact, that there's even legal services available for those who feel their employer is unfairly charging them for tip-outs, breaking dishes, or walked tabs (See http://877tippool.com/ if this is you.)
Well, kind of getting back to the recent "Europeans" story, turns out where I work now, the tip-out is the absolute highest I've EVER encountered in my life. No matter how much we earn in tips, we tip out 4% of our food sales to the busser/food-runners and hostesses, and (gulp!) 7% of our liquor, beer and wine sales to the bartenders. Like I said earlier, this is a world-class city and expectations are high. Most of the people gainfully employed here are worth getting paid well. But just think about the fact that I might occasionally sell someone a $10 drink, and if they tip me a dollar - 70 cents of it goes to the bartender, and I get 30 cents. Compared to most restaurants - paraphrasing the artist formerly known as sane - the tip out here "is on the verrrge of being obscene."
So to put the European story in perspective finally, their tab was roughly $100 in food (which I tipped out $4 on) and roughly $100 in liquor (which I tipped out $7 on). IF they'd tipped 15% for instance ($30) I'd've tipped $11 and walked with $19, you follow?
If they'd tipped 20%, I'd've kept $29 of their $40. But as you recall, they stiffed me! So that's how once all my tables (that's what we call you people, lol) and sales-plus-tips card vouchers are settled against whatever amount of cash I actually leave with, it literally cost me $11 to wait on them.
Thankfully, this doesn't happen to me often.
Now I really don't mean to sound like I'm complaining. It happens, and in this business you do take the good with the bad. There's plenty of times people have tipped me 30% or more, when I didn't even feel like I deserved half of that. That happens too, just not every day either.
Normally, I let these things roll off of me like water off of a duck's back, these days anyways.
Thankfully, this doesn't happen to me often.
Now I really don't mean to sound like I'm complaining. It happens, and in this business you do take the good with the bad. There's plenty of times people have tipped me 30% or more, when I didn't even feel like I deserved half of that. That happens too, just not every day either.
Normally, I let these things roll off of me like water off of a duck's back, these days anyways.
Honestly, I normally would have entirely forgotten about it by the time I made it to the parking lot - except for thinking that a tidbit like this might be interesting for you, as a reader of a restaurant worker's blog. Just one of those behind-the-scenes things you might not otherwise ever know about but find interesting.
Doesn't mean you have to tip excessively in the future to help us poor, pitiful waiters (Hey, we've chosen our lifestyle). But, it would be nice knowing that no matter what, you won't ever stiff a server in the future, knowing now that it costs them money out-of-pocket if you do.
I've been in this business long enough to not mind if I don't get tipped well at times ... but I probably won't be your server next time you go out to eat, either. There's a better-than-average chance in fact that the next time you do go out to eat, you'll be waited on by a single mom who's trying to make ends meet. So, even if she totally sucks as a waitress, I'd be happy knowing that as a result of reading my words today, that no matter what, you don't make her have to pay to wait on you, by stiffing her.
Honestly, this has been my hardest blog entry to write, to-date. Partly because it sounds whiny, but partly because I started off by giving you much more context about the history of tipping out since I've been a server, that I realized I was not getting to the point. If you just want to keep reading, you can see what I deleted, below, and maybe tell me whether you think it was right to skip the build-up below this time. Or not. Really, I want to know, 'cos I'm here to serve you! If these are too long, tell me. If you don't mind because you feel my content seems worthy of longer entries (and your time!), then I want to know this also.
But otherwise, I've got more fun stuff planned ahead in the future for ya! In my next blog entry, I think I'm going to tell you about my first day on the job at the restaurant I'm at now. After that, I'll be answering a reader's question about how - as a regular customer - should he deal with repeatedly bad service at a place he really likes to eat at.
My bad - a place he really likes to eat at, bitch.
Oh btw, my last three paychecks have all been goose-eggs also. But that's a good thing! I'll explain how that works some other time.
-g-
Oh btw, my last three paychecks have all been goose-eggs also. But that's a good thing! I'll explain how that works some other time.
-g-
Obviously, these staff members contribute to the overall experience you have at our restaurant. Therefore, each shift, a portion of our income is shared with them...
"Old-school style" exactly how much was tipped out to the bussers and bartenders was up to each individual server, and - a few guidelines and norms aside - was somewhat based on how much the support staff actually helped them. The amount could be "pro-rated" accordingly - meaning that those who worked hard, served the guests' needs, and that those who really, really helped the servers might get a chunk more from their wait staff. The lazy ones who really didn't do much of anything might of course get tipped out a lot less.
Plus back then, almost everybody paid their tabs with cash, so it was pretty hard to track a server's income exactly, or track how much money would be appropriate to tip out. WHO got tipped out HOW MUCH was entirely up to the server. A busser, bartender, or host/hostess who really worked hard and who bent over backwards to meet the guests' needs by helping a server do their job, was worth tipping out well at the end of the shift, as they probably helped you make more money than without their prompt assistance. Those who just coasted by, doing the minimum required to not get yelled at by the manager, typically were not tipped near as well. In short, good work-ethic was rewarded, and bad was not. If there was any norm or guidelines in place however, the expected amount to be tipped out was based largely on the server's TOTAL INCOME for that shift.
I'm betting that you can probably see the failings of human nature creeping into this system tho, can't you? A server could "screw over" even their hard-working teammates by simply claiming to have had a bad night, gotten stiffed, or just being greedy and not really tipping appropriately, ever.
Today however, the pendulum has truly swung in the other direction. Everything's automated, regulated, highly documentated, and today the tip-out is highly REGULATED. The rewards of a genuine work ethic come into the picture less and less anymore.
SO ANYWAYS ... Today, a server's tip-out is not based on their total income per shift, but rather, upon on their TOTAL SALES ...
(*) It may or may not interest you to know that as a result of writing this blog entry in my head for a couple of days - before having time to sit down and write it out for you - that I've had that Prince song "Little Red Corvette" stuck in my head incessantly for days now. I'm pretty sure my co-workers are sick of hearing me singing it in passing.
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