Minimum wage for waiters

[midnightcaller]

I notice that wimpy has several small boxes with the waiters names.
This is placed at the til. when you are paying your bill, you can put a tip in the box for the waiter that assisted you.


I assume wimpy pays minimum wage (or more)

How does the tips get handled?

 

[Kosmik]

FYI, when I used to work for Sun International, tips earned by the table staff were taken by the company and the argument was to subsidise salaries. They did pay well though.

 

[JStrike]

I'm not sure how people are not getting this. They are not going home with only R50 a day. The industry is structured around the tipping system and as such they go home with min 10-15k a month, absolutely provable.

The min wage is there to protect low level employees and abuse thereof, and totally agreed its currently way to low. What I have a problem with is taking money from any profits at he end of the day and giving them to waiters who are already the best paid by far instead of putting that towards the lower paid staff who have no access to tips generally.

How are you not getting this? It is none of your business how much they make in tips. That is between them and their customers.
It is your job to pay their wages. Which does not include tips and certainly needs to be at least minimum wage.

 

[SYNERGY]

Hehehe it's funny, I've seen that comment before but not in tipping threads....

The staff at Nandos don't ask for a tip, they aren't going out of business and the service isn't bad.

True, but Nando's isn't a table service restaurant. You place your order at the counter, not at the table.

 

[DA-LION-619]

True, but Nando's isn't a table service restaurant. You place your order at the counter, not at the table.

Essentially yes but if you were to ask for something you'd get it.

 

[Papsak]

I wonder how many of you helpful folk have ever been small businesses owners and experienced trying to get through to month end yourself. Not much useful insight but thanks to those who bothered to contribute anything decent.

Reading this thread, I think very few.

It is possible to get rid of a job and hand over the responsibilities to the watrons?
Otherwise, shaving some of the tips to spread between back of house - say 25%, then cut an hour here and there?

 

[JStrike]

I wonder how many of you helpful folk have ever been small businesses owners and experienced trying to get through to month end yourself. Not much useful insight but thanks to those who bothered to contribute anything decent.

If your business's viability is dependent on paying people below minimum wage, them you need to reexamine your business case.

 

[Pufferfish94]

I would just drop 3 shifts a week on your quietest days and work it on a rotational basis.

Depending on how many staff you have it could mean they each miss out on 1 shift every 2 weeks, but the increased wage should compensate quite easily.

Or...

As the owner I'm sure you know what times and days are your busiest, bring staff in at different times.

Waiter 1: starts at 08:00 ends at 13:00
Waiter 2: starts at 010:00 ends at 14:00
Waiter 3: starts at 14:00 ends at close

Not sure about times and days but this kind of system could mean that you end up paying a lot less wages while still having full staff during your peak times.

 

[konfab]

Is the complaint coming solely from the dept and your staff are happy about the way they are paid? Or do they want minimum wage.

If it is the former, and they are happy about the way they are paid(as you said they are making money) , then maybe it might just be an accounting problem.-
They hand in tips, you put it on record that they have been paid a certain amount. If it is above minimum wage then you pay them back their tips. If it is below the minimum wage you pay them the tips back plus the difference.

Of course this could encourage them to simply hide away their tips so they get paid the difference and keep the extra. But this simply boils down to the type of people you employ.

Or you can do a bit of maths and figure out what the average service fee that your staff get paid and make it mandatory on the bill for all customers. Doing it like this would make sure that everyone would be paid above minimum (as you have said it yourself, your staff end up taking home much more than minimum). Now you can be clever with this service charge and make it below the usual 10% (as long as it covers minimum wage). Then if customers want to pay an extra 2-3% they are welcome to.

 

[southafricanrob]

Reading this thread, I think very few.

It is possible to get rid of a job and hand over the responsibilities to the watrons?
Otherwise, shaving some of the tips to spread between back of house - say 25%, then cut an hour here and there?

Sure, and its looking like a likely scenario. Which in itself is crazy as it means someone now loses a job.

 

[southafricanrob]

How are you not getting this? It is none of your business how much they make in tips. That is between them and their customers.
It is your job to pay their wages. Which does not include tips and certainly needs to be at least minimum wage.

Not so, the industry (and our particular institution like many) is set up to provide a very cushy platform for casual waiters, all young students who can largely come and go as they please. I don't necessarily think its a healthy setup but it is the norm here. Minimum wage is there to protect someone form working their ass off and going home underpaid. This absolutely and categorically never happens with waiters (in our case at least).

To think that a waiter earning tips is an exclusive private matter between the customer an waiter us nonsense - the very platform is set up to enable them.They don't declare tips, don't pay tax or contribute to the system. For sure, if like the guy who posted earlier you don't earn enough tips that day then yes you should go home with a minimum wage and thensome....but to think that the R500 to R800 cash you have in your pocket is nothing to do with your job and you still deserve more shows a total lack of understanding of the point of the system. Or perhaps lumping my situation together with all hospitality places and assuming we are all loaded and greedy and cheap. My staff are well looked after, happy and the waiters are absolutely happy as is - haters will tell me otherwise of course.

End result here is employees lose out in one way or another unless I dig deeper into my pockets ,which frankly, as a small business owner I am not willing to do.

 

[JStrike]

Not so, the industry (and our particular institution like many) is set up to provide a very cushy platform for casual waiters, all young students who can largely come and go as they please. I don't necessarily think its a healthy setup but it is the norm here. Minimum wage is there to protect someone form working their ass off and going home underpaid. This absolutely and categorically never happens with waiters (in our case at least).

To think that a waiter earning tips is an exclusive private matter between the customer an waiter us nonsense - the very platform is set up to enable them.They don't declare tips, don't pay tax or contribute to the system. For sure, if like the guy who posted earlier you don't earn enough tips that day then yes you should go home with a minimum wage and thensome....but to think that the R500 to R800 cash you have in your pocket is nothing to do with your job and you still deserve more shows a total lack of understanding of the point of the system. Or perhaps lumping my situation together with all hospitality places and assuming we are all loaded and greedy and cheap. My staff are well looked after, happy and the waiters are absolutely happy as is - haters will tell me otherwise of course.

End result here is employees lose out in one way or another unless I dig deeper into my pockets ,which frankly, as a small business owner I am not willing to do.

Argue all you want. In my opinion, you are morally wrong. But most importantly, the law says you are wrong.

If the only thing keeping your business alive is paying people below minimum wage, time to close up shop and let another restauranteur see if he can do a better job.

 

[konfab]

Not so, the industry (and our particular institution like many) is set up to provide a very cushy platform for casual waiters, all young students who can largely come and go as they please. I don't necessarily think its a healthy setup but it is the norm here. Minimum wage is there to protect someone form working their ass off and going home underpaid. This absolutely and categorically never happens with waiters (in our case at least).

To think that a waiter earning tips is an exclusive private matter between the customer an waiter us nonsense - the very platform is set up to enable them.They don't declare tips, don't pay tax or contribute to the system. For sure, if like the guy who posted earlier you don't earn enough tips that day then yes you should go home with a minimum wage and thensome....but to think that the R500 to R800 cash you have in your pocket is nothing to do with your job and you still deserve more shows a total lack of understanding of the point of the system. Or perhaps lumping my situation together with all hospitality places and assuming we are all loaded and greedy and cheap. My staff are well looked after, happy and the waiters are absolutely happy as is - haters will tell me otherwise of course.

End result here is employees lose out in one way or another unless I dig deeper into my pockets ,which frankly, as a small business owner I am not willing to do.

So from what I can see it is an accounting problem to make the dept happy.

 

[SYNERGY]

/snip

See konfab's post. Post 69.

 

[southafricanrob]

Is the complaint coming solely from the dept and your staff are happy about the way they are paid? Or do they want minimum wage.

If it is the former, and they are happy about the way they are paid(as you said they are making money) , then maybe it might just be an accounting problem.-

Yes in essence its just an accounting problem, everyone is happy as is.

They hand in tips, you put it on record that they have been paid a certain amount. If it is above minimum wage then you pay them back their tips. If it is below the minimum wage you pay them the tips back plus the difference.

As far as I understand I don't think I can collect tips and then use them to pay wages i.e. incorporate them into my sales, I can only collect and redistribute them to all staff.

Or you can do a bit of maths and figure out what the average service fee that your staff get paid and make it mandatory on the bill for all customers. Doing it like this would make sure that everyone would be paid above minimum (as you have said it yourself, your staff end up taking home much more than minimum). Now you can be clever with this service charge and make it below the usual 10% (as long as it covers minimum wage). Then if customers want to pay an extra 2-3% they are welcome to.

This is probably the most workable solution although I'd then have to pay over 14% of the tip in VAT as it would be part of turnover and to be honest I think both customers and waiters wouldn't be happy - customers want to feel they have the power and waiters thrive with the incentive. Good point on the smaller service charge percentage though although I can imagine many a customer will think its us being greedy and nicking from the waiters (as most commenters here do).

Thanks for being constructive

 

[Kosmik]

As far as I understand I don't think I can collect tips and then use them to pay wages i.e. incorporate them into my sales, I can only collect and redistribute them to all staff.

Pretty sure you can, see my previous post. Sun International does/did exactly this ( as of 2003 - 2006 ).

 

[southafricanrob]

Pretty sure you can, see my previous post. Sun International does/did exactly this ( as of 2003 - 2006 ).

Okay thanks will relook it, a new sectoral determination section for BCEA came into effect 2007 - will study it closer though.

 

[thehuman]

Okay thanks will relook it, a new sectoral determination section for BCEA came into effect 2007 - will study it closer though.

I also sugest you have a meeting with your employees. Explain the problem. If rhey happy you could cross subsise thier salary from thier tips via credit card machine. Is paying the extra vat realy that much? Most probably cheaper than paying the full amount from your profits.

 

[Nick333]

What bollocks. So for all the people out their earning considerably less than waiters this is how the Department of Labour chooses to spend it's time?

I'd say add a 5% surcharge to every bill, pay your staff their minimum wage out of that and ask your customers not to tip. Exchanging tips for services is a business transaction that you have every right not to allow on your premises. If government wants to bleat about minimum wage for people who are already earning considerably more than minimum wage and interfere in private financial agreements, let waiters earn only minimum wage and take it up with government if they don't like it.

 

[Busstart]

@southafricanrob

Someone earlier mentioned that what you really have here is an accounting problem. I suggest you carry on as normal, but allocate an extra 30min a day or week to admin to keep bureaucracy happy:

Everyone gets paid minimum wage (so DoL is happy) and you can do this because you say they already earn more in any case. They then get paid a bonus which is exactly equivalent to the amount by which their tips exceed the minimum wage. You could maybe withhold 10% to cover short recoveries if you ever have very quiet weeks/days.

End result: Staff continue to get paid whatever they have already been receiving, and payslips show minimum wage basic. Only loser is yourself who now has to do extra admin on each payroll working this all out.

Well staff may actually lose a bit too thanks to the DoL, as they will now pay income tax and uif on higher amounts, and calcs will have to be done on excl VAT amounts. Hopefully these will not be too noticeable.

Good luck and thanks for creating jobs.