How do you tip?

Originally Posted by SILBER-4

Only one place I've worked at had a communal 'tip cup' that was divided among whoever was working. At the end of your shift, you'd take whatever was in your cup. I've worked two other jobs like that, and you kept whatever you were tipped. That said, I generally tip 20-25%, unless the service was crappy... But I still tip.

Also... I can't believe the 'minimum wage' for servers in the US. Here, minimum wage is $8.75/hr, and even servers make $7.60/hr plus tips. To see that most places in the US only make like, $3 is just crazy.

The loophole here is that for places where you make a lot of money on tips, they're allowed to pay you as little as $3/hour as long as you "on average" make enough money to be over minimum wage again. Same with retail store employees on commission. A friend of mine worked at an electronics store that runs on commission, and his hourly pay was something like $4.50/hour. He made a percentage commission on everything he sold, and there was on top of that a giant "pool" that everyone split in their paychecks. All told he would actually make something like $9-10/hour when he got his commission and pool added to his base rate.

While some states have different laws, this is the federal one:

Quote:

An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 an hour in direct wages if that amount plus the tips received equals at least the federal minimum wage, the employee retains all tips and the employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips. If an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference.

(from here.) This is why workers who get lousy amounts of tips lose their jobs: not only do they cost the business money in lost customers if they're bad enough, but they have to pay more per hour for an underperforming employee.

Jam it back in, in the dark.