Editor's note: In conjunction with a story about wage theft that ran in our 2015 Food Issue, intern Jasmine Wildflower Osmond asked a couple of local restaurants how they deal with making sure wait staff, who often rely on tips for survival, get their fair share in a world where extensive credit card tipping could, in some places, result in servers getting shortchanged.
You’re out to lunch with friends at a bar. The service is great, so is the food and drink, and just enough has been consumed that you’re inclined to tip the server generously.
But once the bill and tip are paid, how much of that money actually goes to the server?
The national minimum wage for tipped workers is $5.12, which means restaurant and bar workers rely on tips to make up the rest of their wages.
Skimming — or even completely withholding — tips is a form of wage theft, something unscrupulous employers are known to pull on occasion.
Many establishments, though, have their own way of making sure servers and other staff get the amount they’re owed, whether customers paid via cash or credit card.
Most restaurants take taxes directly out of credit card tips, and pay the wait staff out of cash tips. The money made from credit cards is compiled, and put on paychecks. Servers who work at restaurants, like Casa Tina’s in Dunedin, usually pay out 10 percent of all tips to either taxes or support staff, said manager Daniel Prather.
Occasionally restaurants pay some wait staff at a higher wage, so they don’t have to tip them out. The Living Room, also in Dunedin, pays its hosts a starting wage of $9 and its bussers and bartenders an increased 3 percent of all server sales. That money is taken out of servers’ tips before they leave for the night.
Places like Kahwa Coffee pool all tips whether credit and cash, and evenly distribute the money among all workers. Five locations across Tampa Bay deviate from this method to include a smaller portion of tips paid out to kitchen staff as well, said regional manager Jess Gadreau. Only locations that focus more on food than coffee include their kitchen staff in tips, as they start at a higher starting wage than other workers.
