Do waiters/waitresses get their tips?

Foxhound5366

Foxhound5366

Honorary Master
Joined
Oct 23, 2014
Messages
11,241
Reaction score
4,966
Location
Big Smoke
My wife recently told me that she heard that waiters and waitresses don't actually get the tips that are given to them by clients, unless these are handed over as cash.

According to the rumour, if you give them a tip in addition to the cost of your meal and pay for it all by card, then in those cases the restaurant/cafe just puts the money into their bottom line.

Does anybody have any experience of that, or whether these tips actually do get registered and then paid over with salaries? I'm sure they must, because I don't see wait staff just calmly accepting having their tips stolen.
 
I've had waitrons ask me to please pay the tip cash if possible, as they don't always seem to get the tip when paid as part of a card transaction.
Not sure how true it is, suppose it depends entirely on the person managing their accounts.
 
saor said:
I've had waitrons ask me to please pay the tip cash if possible, as they don't always seem to get the tip when paid as part of a card transaction.
Not sure how true it is, suppose it depends entirely on the person managing their accounts.
Click to expand...

Funnily enough I said that to my wife, surely they'd ask if that was the case? I've never been asked, so it's interesting that you have! Maybe there's some truth to this after all.
 
A lot of restaurants pool the tips and then distribute it amongst the front of house and back of house staff in a ratio based on hours worked in the month etc.
 
MickeyD said:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/815826-Tipping-waitrons?highlight=waiters

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...ome-restaurants-forego-tips?highlight=waiters

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/229205-Waiters-Tips-Salary?highlight=waiters
Click to expand...

Are there any relevant posts in those threads Mickey, or are you just showing us you know how to use the search function? Threads about 'Do you tip?', 'Restaurants say tipping isn't necessary' and 'Can waiters only work for tips?' aren't immediately applicable here are they?
 
quovadis said:
A lot of restaurants pool the tips and then distribute it amongst the front of house and back of house staff in a ratio based on hours worked in the month etc.
Click to expand...

Do you know if that's applicable for cash tips also, or only card payments? It seems pretty rubbish to me, because if I am impressed by a waiter's service I want them to get the tip I leave, not *everybody*.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Do you know if that's applicable for cash tips also, or only card payments? It seems pretty rubbish to me, because if I am impressed by a waiter's service I want them to get the tip I leave, not *everybody*.
Click to expand...

I guess it depends restaurant to restaurant but it's a way of incentivising all staff from the dishwasher to the staff cleaning tables - to make it more of a team effort. Usually senior staff on salaries are excluded. You might find the wait staff get 60% share of the pot and the back house get less. Cash vs card depends on policy I guess and honesty I guess.
 
quovadis said:
A lot of restaurants pool the tips and then distribute it amongst the front of house and back of house staff in a ratio based on hours worked in the month etc.
Click to expand...

That's correct. When paying by credit card at Spur, have witnessed the cashier taken the money out cash register, unsure how wimpy works
 
RichardG said:
That's correct. When paying by credit card at Spur, have witnessed the cashier taken the money out cash register, unsure how wimpy works
Click to expand...

Um,Wimpy is the one where they've got the little cash boxes for each waiter, with their name written on it no less. If all the cash tips get pooled, is that just a lie to con the restaurant goers into giving 'their' waiter/waitress some money?
 
its different at different restaurants.

when they cash up, your waiter number has the total amount you owe, you hand in your cc slips as cash and keep the remaining hard cash that's left.

other places like to pool the tips, hate this. so slackers also get tips, they say "its to help the slow sections".

some restaurants tell you they keep the CC tips and pay you the end of the month, this is where it starts getting dodgy, had to make a note of every CC slip throughout the month just to make sure, then they also like to mix this with a CC slip tip pool, seen many many BS amounts come of this.

sometimes the waitron owes the restaurant money, and it gets easily deducted if its on a slip, so they ask for cash, or its the per month CC tip and they need cash sooner.

waitrons usually leave very quick if you start messing with their tip money.
 
RichardG said:
That's correct. When paying by credit card at Spur, have witnessed the cashier taken the money out cash register, unsure how wimpy works
Click to expand...

Wimpy does the same.

They've also done away with tip boxes.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Um,Wimpy is the one where they've got the little cash boxes for each waiter, with their name written on it no less. If all the cash tips get pooled, is that just a lie to con the restaurant goers into giving 'their' waiter/waitress some money?
Click to expand...

Plot twist - it's one cash box with multiple slots :p
 
access said:
its different at different restaurants.

when they cash up, your waiter number has the total amount you owe, you hand in your cc slips as cash and keep the remaining hard cash that's left.

other places like to pool the tips, hate this. so slackers also get tips, they say "its to help the slow sections".

some restaurants tell you they keep the CC tips and pay you the end of the month, this is where it starts getting dodgy, had to make a note of every CC slip throughout the month just to make sure, then they also like to mix this with a CC slip tip pool, seen many many BS amounts come of this.

sometimes the waitron owes the restaurant money, and it gets easily deducted if its on a slip, so they ask for cash, or its the per month CC tip and they need cash sooner.

waitrons usually leave very quick if you start messing with their tip money.
Click to expand...

Aah there you go, spoken by somebody with experience of it. I knew there'd be somebody here with the real info! That's kinda worrying though access, now it sounds like I've gotta start drawing cash to pay restaurant tips as well as car guards :/
 
Only thing I was told once was that sometimes the restaurant owner takes the transaction cost out of tip before paying to waitron. Ie the 2-4%.. So your tip of eg 15% is actually 11-13%

It's kinda wrong in that he is passing the cash holding onto staff.
 
krycor said:
Only thing I was told once was that sometimes the restaurant owner takes the transaction cost out of tip before paying to waitron. Ie the 2-4%.. So your tip of eg 15% is actually 11-13%

It's kinda wrong in that he is passing the cash holding onto staff.
Click to expand...

ah yeah forgot about that, that happens too.

so bad when the restaurant tries to make money off its staff.. never stayed at places like that for long.

the places that treated their staff like professionals is where I made the most tips, R1500 a night sometimes easy. cash money tips.
 
krycor said:
Only thing I was told once was that sometimes the restaurant owner takes the transaction cost out of tip before paying to waitron. Ie the 2-4%.. So your tip of eg 15% is actually 11-13%

It's kinda wrong in that he is passing the cash holding onto staff.
Click to expand...

I hate this method. Card machines should be a cost carried by the restaurant, not the waitrons. This is why I started tipping in cash.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
My wife recently told me that she heard that waiters and waitresses don't actually get the tips that are given to them by clients, unless these are handed over as cash.

According to the rumour, if you give them a tip in addition to the cost of your meal and pay for it all by card, then in those cases the restaurant/cafe just puts the money into their bottom line.

Does anybody have any experience of that, or whether these tips actually do get registered and then paid over with salaries? I'm sure they must, because I don't see wait staff just calmly accepting having their tips stolen.
Click to expand...

In all the years I waitered through school and varsity, this was not the case. All the places I worked the waiters didn't get a salary or any form of payment, you only got your tips. Effectively you carry all cash and card slips, at the end of the day the order system tracks your "sales for the day" which is the money you owe to the restaurant, and whatever is left you can keep. If all the payments were with cards, the restaurant pays you this portion with cash. So the waiter gets all the tips no matter the form of payment.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X