Waiters and other restaurant staff: spill the beans

A question about : Waiters and other restaurant staff: spill the beans

We want to tap the collective knowledge of past and present waiters and restaurant staff and get some inside info on service charges and how they are passed on to workers. Does/did your employer tack a service charge on to the bill and do/did you get a share/all of it? If not and customers gave cash or card tips, how were they split between you and the other staff?

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Best answers:

• Service charge added by the employer e.g Room service - we never saw a split Or receive these tips. Tips added to the bill and paid via CARD was split across ALL WAITING STAFF ON SHIFT OR NOT. So if given Ј10 tip - you'll be lucky to receive a few pence. The only tips we kept to ourselves was in cash, SOME days amongst us waitresses ans waiters well share the tips collected that shift and split equally..This was at the Hilton. I no longer work there
• Service charges added to bills go into owners pocket NOT staff in my experience. Tips given in cash either go direct to pocket or to head waiter who then shares between ALL staff. As an ex chef I no longer tip or pay service charge, if they insist its added to bill I eat elsewhere. My reason for not tipping is simple, everyone knows wages are rubbish so do as I did and get out of trade or accept it.
• I've worked in places where tips go in a pot never to be seen again. Places where they go in a pot to get shared at the end of the week- again didn't see it all. Last place the tips from the week were added up & divided by the number of staff hours. This worked out about Ј1ph in cash & about 50p per hour in our wages. I like this way best :-)
• The places I worked you got to keep your own tips which I thought was fair, but mainly as I was good at it and could easily double my wages in tips.
  The ones who weren't so good were always bleating about they should go in a shared pot and they finally implemented that after I landed a Ј200 tip. When they did I decided to leave as I didn't want to share my hard earned with those who didn't have the wit to understand how to get one.
• Cash tips never existed so what they did with them if any was up to them
  Tips left on a card were subject to the company taking 2.5% off to cover card charges and then all staff got an equal share depending on days worked.
  This was paid on the payroll and subject to deductions
• As a Restaurant Manager in a previous life I made sure that the waiting staff retained their own tips ... I believe people reward good service and so I never felt it was appropriate to pool the tips and then divide them out equally - that always felt very unfair as I definitely had some waiting staff who worked their socks off and others who were happy to "coast".
  On occasion the kitchen staff would ask whether the tips could be pooled and split to include them too. However, the kitchen staff were paid a slightly higher hourly rate in recognition of the fact that they were unable/unlikely to gain direct tips from the customer.
  Whilst it didn't happen in my restaurant I am led to believe that when a consumer pays a tip on a card, this becomes subject to tax implications for the waiting staff and hence, quite often, this type of tip gets "swallowed" up in the cost of processing it and the cut which the tax man wants to take.
• No service charge at my old place cash tips were split between all staff based on number of hours work so I use to get screwed as I brought a lot of tips in but got hardly anything back as i was pt.
  In the end I kept my tips to myself
• I worked at Pizza Hut as my first job in 2011 and we were able to keep all of our tips we made for ourselves. This was great for one of my colleagues who could make up Ј30 in tips a day!
• Whenever I visit a restaurant I always pay the bill using my credit card, but leave the tip in cash. If I only have a large denomination note, I'll get the waiter to give me change, so I can leave the tip.
  I think it is despicable of restaurateurs to take the tips which the customers clearly intend for the waiting staff. A "service charge" is intended for service received and that service is done by the staff waiting tables. Fair enough if the restaurant wants to have a system to collect tips and share amongst the back room staff too, but it certainly shouldn't be going to the restaurant. I always urge my friends/relatives not to add the tip to the credit card bill, but leave it in cash.
• Perhaps all tipping could be abolished by law, and a decent wage paid to all employees.
  Do we tip nurses? Shop assistants? Bus drivers?
  So why tip waiting staff, taxi drivers?
• My daughter worked Christmas Day 2013 in Wetherspoons. The staff got a lot of tips and it all went in a pot to provide a staff party after Christmas. This never happened and the manager put the money into the till to pay for wastage, keep stock levels right which then earned the management a very good bonus! I'm sure that is not what the customers paying the tips intended!
• I used to run a pub and resteraunt. Service was not added and tips were at the customer's discretion. All tips whether paid by cash or card went into a pool and then shared equally between the staff who had worked without deduction (I didn't take a share) at the end of each shift.
  Looking at some of the other comments where people have complained about the practice of pooling tips, I fail to understand their concerns as good food & service is a team effort starting with the guy or gal who does the slicing and dicing through to the chef - waiting staff - bar staff and pot washer; anyone of whom can destroy a good product. Yes the customer facing staff are the ones the customer sees but what sort of tip would be given if the food is rubbish or the plates not properly clean?
  As for the wages issue, I couldn't agree more - people deserve a living wage and everyone was paid a decent wage comfortably above the legal minimum
• I never worked in a restaurant but in a casino about ten years ago, we were informed that any tips received should be declared to Inland revenue, so that income tax could be taken from your wage, as tips are "un-earned income".
• I work in a hotel as a chef. The cash tips are collected by the manager and split evenly between all staff a few times a year. However, this only happens with cash tips. All tips paid by credit/debit card go into the company accounts and are never seen again.