I work in a large chain restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky. I know that servers are considered tipped employees and their minimum wage is different than that of a non-tipped employee. At the end of the business night, all servers are "encouraged" to tip out 3% of their total sales for that night to pool together and split among the bussers, hostesses, and bartenders. When I say "encouraged", I mean it is a silent deal that the managers are not allowed to require you to do so. There are, however, repercussions when a server does not tip out properly. The amount of tables they receive or amount of days they get on the schedule suffers. The bussers, hostesses, and bartenders are also made aware of who does not "tip out" properly which, in turn, gives them free rein to make that server's job harder, such as not cleaning their tables or not seating them properly or not fixing their drinks in a timely fashion. How legal is this?

Another part of my question goes to the minumum wage of these hostesses, bussers, and bartenders. They all receive the minimum wage for a tipped employee, which is $2.13 an hour. The bartenders, I might be able to understand making that amount, due to the fact that they are tipped employees behind the bar. The hostesses and bussers, on the other hand, do not receive any tips other than what is divided out from the tip pool. These tips are also taxed, leaving them with paychecks that are next to nothing. Shouldn't they be making $5.15 an hour?

See the following federal requirements/regulations regarding tips and tipped employees:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs15.htm
http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/docs/tipped.asp

And to clarify the info contained above, an employee who works in a position that is not "customarily and regularly" tipped by the customer CANNOT be paid the sub-minimum wage.

Any employee who is not being paid accordingly can file a claim for unpaid wages with the state Dept. of Labor.

Sorry, not to be snarky, but you seem to have a lot of issues with the restaurant industry. This may be telling you to find something else that you may enjoy more.

How are you going to prove that they are not seating your section or helping turn your tables? How do you know the customers aren't asking to not be seated at one of your tables? Yes, we both know what is really going on, the question is, how are you going to prove it? Where is there a law that says they HAVE to seat anybody in your section to begin with? I know that if I had a server that was lousy or slow, I would put him in a section that was four 2 tops and didn't turn well. I wasn't going to waste my good servers. That's what keeps the people coming back.

When I was serving, I never complained about tipping out mainly because I was getting alot of help clearing those tables. If you would like to stay in the industry, I would suggest that you find a restaurant that does not have bussers and a bar. You will be doing ALOT more sidework, but you will keep your money. :)

Thank you Pattymd, your information was as helpful as it always is.


Mommyof4, I never mentioned what I do in the service industry... Currently I am an hourly manager for the front of the house for half of the week and I pull kitchen shifts the other half. I haven't served in over a year and a half, not because I care about tipping out, but because I work in a part of town that attracts the more "rural" crowd and I got tired of getting 10% for doing a great job. I posted my question because I feel like some of my employees are getting stiffed and I wanted to help.

You're very welcome. :)

If your employer is making you tip out you have the right to keep count and turn it in on your taxes.
I am a bartender and my servers do not tip out. They think that since I make tips to why should they? But at the same time making drinks for them take time away from my customers which can hurt my tip.

pamover40, I'm not yelling at you, just explaining, so don't get upset. But this post has been dormant since April. I generally ask people not to respond to dormant thread as we've had problems with that in the past. So if there hasn't been any posts to the thread in, say, roughly a month, just leave it be unless you are either the OP coming back with an update, or have a question (not a comment) about the law being discussed. Okay? :)