Posted on 12/30/2005 10:50:38 AM PST by George14
The tip credit is the bill that has allowed business to pay their tipped employees $2.13 an hour. However, the tip credit can only be taken if an employee receives tips. Employees who do not receive tip income must be paid $5.15 or more depending on the state laws governing minimum wage. If an employer will take part of his tipped employee's tips and give them to other workers whom customers have not tipped, our government will reward them by allowing the employer to pay these other workers wages below the minimum wage requirements of this country.
For example, A business has 3 waiters, 3 busboys, 3 food runners and 2 hostesses. The three waiters each receive $120.00 a day in tips. Because the three waiters receive tips from our public our federal government has determined that the business onwer should be allowed to pay them less in hourly wages and finacially benefit himself from the fact that our public has given some of his employee's tips. This is bad enough considering that customers are not tipping so that business owners can finacially benefit themselves to the customer's tip. To make matters worse, our federal government went even farther than unjustly allowing businesses to benefit themselves to the tips presented certain workers in the service industry. This bill, the tip credit, also rewards businesses for stealing their employee's tips. In the above scenario where three waiters each receive $120 in tips during a days work, the business owner will be rewarded by our federal government if the business will simply steal part of those waiters tips and give them to their other workers such as the food runners, the busboys and the hostesses. You see, If the employer will take tips from the waiter and give them to these other workers, our federal government will then allow the business to pay these others workers $2.13 an hour. Instead of having to pay the busboys, the hostesses and the food runners $5.15, our government will allow the business owner to pay these employees as little as $2.13 an hour if and only if the employer steals the waiter's tips and gives them to these other workers. What this means to the employer is that his own income for the day can be increased if and only if he steals his waiter's tip and gives them to other workers whom the customer had every right and ability to tip but didn't.
Our federal government has passed a bill that rewards business owners for stealing the tips our public presents certain workers in the service industry. This criminal act by our federal government is now officially exposed and as such we the people will expect that this injustice cease. Our government is expected to uphold and protect our country, not blatantly reward people for stealing other people's property. Either the tip credit must be repealed or our current government must be repealed. The choice is their's.
Bussing tables will do that to you I guess.
Criminal? Funny... while you may feel its immorral, its not criminal... after all.. it is the law.
Now, my suggestion is, if you don't like the tip system where you currently work... change jobs.
Welcome to the real world kid.
See post 19.
Again... if you don't like the way your job pays you... find another one...
This is the real world... not romper room. Life's not fair... get used to it.
Move to Washington state. Our state pays servers minimum wage ($7 something an hour), and then their tips are in addition to that.
welcome to the real world and guess what? It sucks.
If you don't like it, go somewhere else.
The Law sucks, but it isn't a new or even novel concept.
Don't be a liberal. Think about this. And I'll explain it so that you understand. The owner was to pay us for our work and tax our tips. Instead, he deducted our tips from our paycheck. If we made a lot in tips, he paid us next to nothing. One week, I made $100 in tips. My paycheck was $23 because he DEDUCTED my tips. NOT tax them. Employers are misusing the tip tax and getting away with it. Tips were a gift for good service.
The law is being misused. See 19 and 27.
Hey here is another tip - "One thing Christmas has taught us - Chocolate is good for Breakfast"
Fairtax.org tips would be tips and wages would be wages - Imagine such a thing.
I am not a liberal, I am telling you simply, you don't like the pay at your job... get a new one... pure and simple, doesn't get much more self reliant than that.
If what he's doing is illegal, report him to the IRS, or other enforcement agencies they'll be happy to take him down.
Seems to me, you think your employer is robbing from you, even if it may be legal.. if you feel that way there is even more reason TO GET A NEW JOB!!
How tips are or are not treated, and allowed to be treated are part of the laws... if he's violating the law, get him arrested... if he's simply following the law in a way you don't like... you can either work to change the law... a long term and large effort, which may be successful in time, but not likely to remedy your issues on being paid... or you can go find an employer who pays differently and work for them.
I don't need it explained to me Gomer... Life isn't fair, its not right, and its not going to change just because you showed up.... You are much better off investing in finding a new job, or better yet, improving your skill set and abilities so you are worth even more to any employer.
You think Tips are a gift, Mr Tax man and the law views them as wages... you don't have to like it, but that's the way it is.
I understand that.
but something in me is telling me the poster doesn't want to try to find a new job and would instead stand for the status quo....
changing the use of the law would probably not be easier....
One time, our party of "X+1" saw a sign like that and we split-up three-to-a-table and kept table-hopping. One of us then picked-up the three bills at the end of the meal. The 'tresses were amused and they were individually tipped well - when we were seated - and nothing but the bill was paid when we left. The management believed we left no "tips".
Tips, properly, are given in anticipation of good service so that, therefore, the tippee is indebted to the tipper for the gift (bribe, if you will) and provides commensurate service - they are fulfilling YOUR expectations rather than hoping you'll fulfill THEIRS with a good gratuity afterward.
Gratuities are customarily given after the service is rendered and are, in reality, more "frustrating" for the serviceperson because they then have to work (provide 'worthy' service) toward an intangible/unquantifiable (sometimes nonexistent) goal (the amount of the tip).
You will find (if you seriously ask them) that most servicepeople (indeed ANYONE, if you think about it) will provide honest and generous service to someone who has already demonstrated their opinion that they value what is being done for them; compared to someone doing a good job and getting nothing in return.
We are always well-attended when we go out to eat. It does put the onus on the tipper the first time it is done (if you tip well can you then expect good service?) but, if you frequent the same establishment and get to know the personnel, it ends-up being a better relationship.
Guess what?
IF the employer does that, nobody is gonna work for him very long, and servers, food runners, busboys, etc., are going to be pretty unmotivated. His business won't last a very long. The market will decide the issue for him PDQ.
When my friends an I go out, adding gratuity to the check is cheating the servers. If the service is just acceptable we tip pretty well, usually more than the appended gratuity would be...
One thing our trip to Carrabel Island taught us - some folks think tequila is good for breakfast (My caffiene dependent wife and I were looking for coffee....)
I'm glad you think it's so cut and dried. In a rural area, jobs are hard to come by. This guy was a millionare and only hired divorced mothers. They're easier to cheat as they have to work. If there are no other jobs, you keep quiet in order to eat. I did walk off as I was married and not reliant on him. And tips are a gift for good service. I have no problem with taxing them for income but it hurts those who can least afford it and just what we need is more taxes. No one that worked at The George Inn was a kid nor a college student. These were Moms trying to feed their kids and 2 were widows. How many jobs do you think there are with only 3 restaurants in a rural area? And it's fairly easy to tell someone else to get a job elsewhere when there are none and it doesn't affect you personally. If these ladies could work somewhere else, they would have.
Well, that's one way to get back to market rates. The people who work under those conditions do it because they are earning more money than they could earn not working under those conditions. Raise the pay requirements and some or all of those jobs will disa[[ear.
So how do you figure the compensation package on something as nebulous as tips? There is no law (knock on wood) that mandates tipping.
Another unconstitutional law was passed in the '80s that taxed restaurants some additional 8% of their gross because it is ASSUMED that they take in tip income.
It's as bad as their ex-post-facto tax codes under William the Bent.
Look, I know what its like in rural areas... I have family in parts of Utah that most maps don't even have.... If he's violating the law, turn him in... Otherwise its time to figure out a different plan.
If he's screwing over his people, EVERYONE in the area already knows it, if it is as rural as you claim... so it seems that the opportunity to run him out of business is pretty darn good... However, it still doesn't change the fundamental realities.
My in law, who lives out in Utah, worked at a convience store/quick mart type of place for years, was paid dirt, and basically ran the whole thing day in and day out.. made all the food, home made soups etc etc... It took her years, but she finally did parlay that job into another one, and the place she worked for went under quickly after she left... I told her years before she left that she should open her own place... but she didn't have the confidence in herself to do it.
I understand out in the sticks its tough, trust me. And its ALWAYS tough when you are a single mother, or father... in the sticks or the city. However you, always control your destiny, not others... if things are that bad, its time to make a decision and do what needs to be done. If that means relocating closer to family... or even away from family and all you know to accomplish it, then sometimes its what needs to be done.
Kudos to the People's Republic of Washington!!!
Now, how much does a hamburger cost there?
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