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The truth about tipping
December 6, 2005 | George

Posted on 12/06/2005 12:33:26 PM PST by George14

It has recently been publicized that a 20 percent tip is now appropriate because servers are usually only guaranteed $2.13 an hour and the tips have to be split. Let me explain something. It is the customer's sole right to determine whether a tip is given, the amount and who will be the recipient of his tip. Such rights are not only guaranteed by our constitution they are clearly explained in the Code of Federal Regulations. Customers may tip any amount they choose. Instead of a higher tip being appropriate, what is now actually appropriate is for the public to start questioning why they are being expected to tip more.

While it has been widely publicized that tip splitting and lowered wages are both creating a need for higher tip percentages, what is not being publicized is an explanation of what these business practices actually are and why they create a need for the public to tip more. You see in both cases, such practices equate to employers being allowed to take part the tips away from the employee to whom the customer has presented a tip. You see, tip splitting is the business practice whereby employers take part of the tipped employee's tips and give them to workers whom the customer had every right and ability to tip but didn't. The $2.13 an hour business practice which has been publicized is actually called a tip credit. The tip credit also allows businesses to take or credit part of their employee's tips for themselves. In both cases the public's tips are being taken by businesses owners. The problem is not that customers should be tipping more the problem is that business owners should not be utilizing their employee's tips for the business's interests.

The truth is, business owners are using the customer's tips which undeniably and indisputably are not intended for the business owner for the business's own interests. Such business practices are being allowed by our government even though such business practices are an illegal dominion over the customer's property. To put it simply, businesses are being allowed to steal the money customers present as tips. Now, the public is being expected to tip more because the workers are not receiving the financial benefits of the tips they have been presented.

What is needed is not a higher tip percentage but some educating of the public of what is actually happening to their tip. Businesses have lobbied our federal government and I believe have probably even paid off many of our judges so they can steal the financial benefits of the tips our public is tipping workers in the service industry. The stories you read on how the public is being expected to tip more are actually stories about how our country is allowing businesses owners an ability to blatantly steal from their workers. If the real issue was resolved there would be no issue.

Employers should be prohibited from using their employee's tips to establish a lower minimum wage for their tipped workers. Customers are not tipping so the business can lower it's payroll expenses and thus benefit itself to the customer's tip. Customers are not tipping so the business owner can decide who should share in their tip. Both these business practices are fraud on the public for they are clearly the misappropriations of the public's property. Because our public has sat back and done nothing as business owners misappropriate the public's tips to their own interests, there now exists an undue pressure on the public to tip more to make up for such criminal acts.

The reason I believe our public has sat back and done nothing as business owners reap the financial benefits of the tips presented to their workers is because the media has also been paid off to avoid informing the public of what is actually happening to their tip when the courts ignore the constitutional rights of the customer and when our federal government so blatantly misappropriates the public's tips. The courts have ruled that employers may share the customer's tip among employees whom the customer had every right to tip but didn't. The federal government has allowed businesses to benefit themselves to the customer's tip through the tip credit without the consent of the customer. Such acts by our federal government and courts are not only unconstitutional but criminal. The media is covering up such crimes by intentionally avoiding the issue and keeping the truth from the public.

The tipped employees of this nation need some help from the public on these issues. The truth of what is happening to the customer's tip is being withheld from the public so that employers can continue to steal our tips while the public is left to foot the bill.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: angrywaitersyndrome; bibletracts; conspiracy; crackpot; deeduhdee; looneytoon; mdm; mrpink; reservoirdogs; tipcredit; tipouts; tipping; tippooling; tips; tipsplitting
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To: mosquitobite
When a practice such as the one George14 described is in place in a restaurant (socialism) what is the incentive to work hard?

I suppose you're right, but I have to tell you that the service in my area has gotten so bad that we simply don't eat out very often.

A good waitstaff can make a meal with mediocre food a pleasant experience, and bad waitstaff can ruin a delicious meal. Maybe our local problem is that so many of the staff are high school students or recent grads. Probably still living with the folks, and not too worried about paying bills.

My experience has been that mature staff, the ones who count on tip income to pay the rent, bust their tails to make a meal enjoyable. Those people always get excellent tips from me.

It's the ones who don't care to acknowledge your existence that start off on a bad foot. If they're busy, I can understand that. How 'bout dropping by the table and saying, "We are so busy tonight and a little shorthanded, but I'm glad you're here. I promise to come by as quick as I can." So much better than someone pretending not to see you while you're trying to catch their eye.

121 posted on 12/06/2005 1:33:16 PM PST by TontoKowalski
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To: mosquitobite; Coffee_drinker
Wow! That is crazy. It's changed a lot since I was a waiter.
122 posted on 12/06/2005 1:33:55 PM PST by loreldan (Lincoln, Reagan, & G. W. Bush - the cure for Democrat lunacy.)
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To: Liberate California
In California, The waiters and waitresses still get minimum wage. Don't overtip them.

Washington State has the highest minimum wage in the country (currently $7.35, going to $7.63 in January; it goes up every year) and employers are forbidden to pay less than that, even if the employee makes $20-30/hour additional in tips.

123 posted on 12/06/2005 1:34:15 PM PST by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: George14
Like Vinnie Antonlini I believe in over-tipping. When service is really bad I don't go back and I don't tip. If service is mediocre I moderately tip 10%-15%.

If service is good I tip like crazy, 30%, 40%, 50% and up and I'm definitely not rich. Especially if it's a place I frequent.

I leave big tips all the time.

124 posted on 12/06/2005 1:34:45 PM PST by avg_freeper (Gunga galunga. Gunga, gunga galunga)
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To: wideminded

I knew one guy who immediately after being seated would put 20 one dollar bills on the table, and pointed out to the waitress that was her tip, but if she screwed up, one by one he would remove dollars from the table for each screw up. When being served a drink, he would tell her, "I don't want to see the bottom of this glass."


125 posted on 12/06/2005 1:35:13 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: mosquitobite
It is socialist to the core.

Ahh I see what you are saying now, thanks. Now the question would be are these bus boys getting taxed on a certain percentage of the house take.? if so then you have to have a system to offset this. So requiring the wait staff to share would be reasonable. My wife is a waitress and when she is very thankfull to her bussers then she'll tip them more than is requred, and this too helps her in the long run.

126 posted on 12/06/2005 1:35:33 PM PST by Coffee_drinker (Since Bush became president, the taliban are gone, saddam is gone, Khadaffi is neutered, arafat died)
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To: HEY4QDEMS
I think there are actually two different types of liberals in the world today: those who are @ssholes and those who are genuinely decent people despite their misguided political views.

I've heard from a number of people that Ron Kuby -- the radical Marxist lawyer who does a morning radio show with Curtis Sliwa on WABC in New York -- is regarded by many of the station employees at the station as the most decent human being they've ever met.

And this sounds even more bizarre, but it comes from a very reliable (Republican) source -- who swears that outside the public eye the most generous, compassionate person in Washington D.C. is none other than New York Senator Chuck Schumer.

Go figure, eh?

127 posted on 12/06/2005 1:35:55 PM PST by Alberta's Child (What it all boils down to is that no one's really got it figured out just yet.)
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To: saveliberty

I can just imagine the bar tabs Terayza must have run up.


128 posted on 12/06/2005 1:36:01 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: George14
I always tip 20% unless I'm aware the copmpany has a union
and in that case I don't tip at all. If I can leave cash I will but
I have added 20% to the CC slip many times. If the employees
are being ripped off by their company (or a union) they need
to change jobs.
129 posted on 12/06/2005 1:36:45 PM PST by higgmeister (In the shadow of the Big Chicken)
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To: George14

I think it's ridiculous that the employers are lowering the wages to steal part of the tip. I think it's scummy business practices. But I don't want the government doing anything about it. If people refused to eat at places that did that and servers refused to work for them, the practice would end really fast.


130 posted on 12/06/2005 1:37:24 PM PST by mysterio
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To: dfwgator

LOL! She still refers to John Heinz as her husband. And that works because in a way, he is paying for it.


131 posted on 12/06/2005 1:37:35 PM PST by saveliberty (The feed? Senator Ted thought it was part of the Big Dig. It's in the Esther Williams Tunnel now)
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To: George14
It has recently been publicized that a 20 percent tip is now appropriate

If you want to do the waitress a favor use cash for any tip over 15%.

132 posted on 12/06/2005 1:37:51 PM PST by MosesKnows
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To: nightdriver
Dole was just a facilitator for the democRATs in a lot of issues.

OldBobDole sucks. Always has, always will. He's horrid, but was the canary in the coal mine when he was nominated for that laughable, absurd campaign of his. That told me all I ever needed to know about the Republican Party of Big Stupid Government.

After OldBobDole, I can't imagine why anyone's surprised to see what Republicans actually do once they seize the reins of power. I had their number in '91 with "read my lips".

133 posted on 12/06/2005 1:38:16 PM PST by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: HairOfTheDog
didn't realize waitstaff were also pooling tips at some restaurants... I wonder how widespread that is. I have a feeling the neighborhood bar I go to, this is not the case. They certainly make a point to close out all open tabs before they go off shift, so a new tab is started under the new waitress. I'm a very good tipper at my regular hangouts where they know my name.

The practice is not that widespread at locally owned bars and restaurants, but is quite common at the chain places. At my two favorite locally owned pubs, all the bartenders and waitstaff "eat what they kill," although at one place, there are two bartenders per shift and they pool the tips for that particular shift only. From what I've been told, chains places like Outback, TGIF, Applebee's etc. pool the tips, which might explain why the service is mediocre on the best of days.

134 posted on 12/06/2005 1:38:39 PM PST by Labyrinthos
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To: dollar_dog
Tip pooling is despicable.

Actually I have seen it work quite well. The hot barmaid walks around keeping everybody's spirits up and the homely barmaid is busy serving drinks and picking up empties.

The hot barmaid gets all the tips but doesn't do any work. The homely barmaid does all the work but doesn't get any tips. They need each other to perform well to maximize their tips, so they split the take at the end of the night.

135 posted on 12/06/2005 1:39:07 PM PST by oldbrowser (The U.S. Senate is a quagmire.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Don't start with the "eh's", I used to live in Cape Breton. (yes, one of the creeps and bums from the east)


136 posted on 12/06/2005 1:39:07 PM PST by HEY4QDEMS (Iraqis thank our troops more often than Democrats.)
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To: George14

137 posted on 12/06/2005 1:40:39 PM PST by ChadGore (VISUALIZE 62,041,268 Bush fans.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Tipping seems so European.
tips are not the norm in Spain
138 posted on 12/06/2005 1:41:23 PM PST by freedom moose (has de cultivar el que sembres)
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To: freedom moose
Q. What's the difference between a European and a barge?

A. It's easier to make a barge tip.
139 posted on 12/06/2005 1:43:14 PM PST by HEY4QDEMS (Iraqis thank our troops more often than Democrats.)
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To: HEY4QDEMS

LOL. You know Colin White of the NJ Devils?


140 posted on 12/06/2005 1:43:22 PM PST by Alberta's Child (What it all boils down to is that no one's really got it figured out just yet.)
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