Destination known: if passed, a new bill could ensure that tips go entirely to restaurant staffers (Image: Carissa Rogers)
The gravy train could be coming to an end at Toronto’s restaurants, as well as at city hall. Many restaurant owners are in the habit of pocketing a portion of their servers’ tips—a practice some call “tipping out” and others call “stealing.” A private member’s bill introduced by Toronto NDP MPP Michael Prue (Beaches–East York) might put an end to all of that. The proposed law would ensure that the money clients leave as a gratuity would go entirely to the people who served them. The bill is being greeted with enthusiasm by all parties at Queen’s Park.
The bill wouldn’t affect tip sharing between servers and those who actually help them—bussers or food runners, say—but it’s hard to say how the bill would be enforced if it were passed. Tip sharing is quite arbitrary, and the government doesn’t really monitor gratuities, anyway.
Prue’s proposal comes hot on the heels of another private member’s bill, this one from Liberal David Caplan, that would keep restaurants from automatically adding gratuities to the bills of large parties. The Elimination of Automatic Tips Act has just passed its first reading.
• For servers, not owners [Toronto Star]
It’s called house tipout and I wonder if they actually consulted any real restaurants to find out why restaurants take house tipout and where the house tips actually go (hint: they’re not pocketed). Also wonder who they consulted in the industry about adding gratuities to large parties. Have any of these people actually worked in a restaurant before?
November 1, 2010 at 3:31 pm | by LHARGH. That last mention of the Automatic Tips elimination is a great example of where government should butt out and leave industries to self-regulate. There is a REASON why restaurants do this with large groups. Thats because people always skip out without tipping, or leaving miniscule tips because 15% on a large total looks like a lot of money.
Large groups are usually more work for the servers. They deserve every penny of tip.
November 1, 2010 at 5:05 pm | by ArbySo if I’m part of a large party some people feel that I should be made to pay a fixed tip just because of the size of my party, I think NOT. I tip on the quality of the service, if my party had bad service the tip should reflect that. Also, I expect my tip to go to the server/wait staff and NOT the restaurant, they already get the 100%+ markup on the food and drinks. I hope this bill passes and I think most servers and the public will agree with me.
November 1, 2010 at 6:08 pm | by KenArby,
I can’t count how many times the tip I was going to leave for a large dinner party was more than the auto-grat that restaurants apply. It might ensure a 15% tip, but it loses anything above that.
Also how many times are you out with a bunch of friends and their individual amounts might be $18/19 or $37/39 and they leave $30 or $50? I see it all the time.
Robert.
November 1, 2010 at 7:36 pm | by Robso, exactly why do restaurants get away with paying their staff so little that the customer must ‘tip’ to make the wage worthwhile for the servers?…it sounds like the only ones really benefiting are the restaurant owners…the customers pay for food, overtaxed booze (not their fault mind you) AND service…what other industry works like this…makes no sense…
November 2, 2010 at 10:55 am | by mrblackI’m a former server who’s had the opportunity to tip out the house and tip out the support staff.
When the money is going towards support staff – then it goes directly in the hands of the bartenders and bussers who get paid the same wage as a server (currently 8.25), but don’t benefit from tips (something that realistically should be addressed by these bills as well.)
When the money goes to the house – the reasoning is often the money is going towards paying for lost food and broken dishes.
At my last job I was tipping out 5 per cent. Two to the support staff (sometimes that meant splitting 30 dollars four ways depending on how many people were on), and THREE to the manager. I never once broke a plate while I was there and paid for all the food I ended up screwing up.
Let me put this into perspective:
In one shift, say a five hour shift (at $8.25 an hour = $41.25 before taxes), if I sold $1,000 I would expect $150 back in tips (although I did tend to average a bit higher than 15 per cent). That’s $20 for the support staff (so average night was 2 people, so $10 a piece), and $30 for my manager – who already paid me less than the average worker.
If I work 5 days a week, that $150 for him based on tips people think they are leaving me. In a month, that’s $600 (one month’s rent for me).
Granted, this is just averages and some nights were better than others, but if you look at it like this – the manager is recovering an extra 30 dollars on every thousand he sells.
Even if I only sold $750 a night, every night, five nights a week, I’m pretty sure my broken dishes and food screw ups don’t come anywhere close to the $5,400 a year my manager was making (on one server.)
I support this bill because servers work hard and deserve to keep the money. Restaurants can be very profitable if run right, and managers don’t need to be taking more money from their already underpaid staff to line their pockets with.
November 2, 2010 at 2:06 pm | by MeganYeah that is a weird type of policy? I’ve heard of ‘sharing’ the tips between all the staff, but I don’t think the owners ever take any??
(glad you liked my photo!) That was a recent trip to Vancouver.. :)
November 2, 2010 at 3:37 pm | by CarissaSome of these comments are simply incorrect, particularly Megan’s. The minimum wage for alcohol servers is $8.90, not $8.25, Busboys and Barbacks earn more at $10.25, again not $8.25.
Even after tipping out management, Megan would make $28.90 per hour for serving tables. Would that be considered ‘above the average’? And how much income tax would she pay on this hourly wage?
Often house tip goes to kitchen staff, hosts, maintenance, security etc. Surely there are some poor operators who pocket the money, but this is simply not across the board.
November 2, 2010 at 6:33 pm | by NancyGiven Megan’s calculations…I am going to tip a lot less now. Because at $28.90 per hour (that is over $50 000 per year before taxes) that is making a heck of a lot more than many people, and now I demand much better service!
November 2, 2010 at 9:35 pm | by miffedMr. Caplan you sir are an @$$hole. I wish you could work one shift at a restaurant doing a large party. I can guarantee you would end your proposed bill.
For those who are dumping on servers for making too much, I suggest you too give the job a try before you judge. Long and late hours, zero job security, no benefits, poor working conditions, cutthroat competition, no holidays, crooked owners and managment, high stress atmosphere, getting treated like sh*t by jerks etc etc. High risk for alcohol and drug abuse. And if you do make a decent living at it everything can change in an instant. Most restaurants are not successful and those that are usually don’t stay that way more than 5 years. You can see why many people in the biz are desperate to get out. The job eats people alive. On the other hand if you work hard and play your cards right it can be very rewarding. But you have to make sacrifices that most people in most other jobs don’t have to do.
Anyway, if you’re on this website I would expect you to know this.
November 3, 2010 at 12:30 am | by GrahamGraham….quit your crying and get me my dinner. Boo…hoo…
November 3, 2010 at 10:38 am | by not a serverFor those thinking that the server above is making over $50 000, I will point out that she talks about 5 hour shifts, not 8 hours. That is typical, there isn’t 8 hours to work often, but, also, I found that I would be at the restaurant 8 hours but only get paid for 5. Your time on the clock doesn’t start until there are guests to serve so you might end up waiting a hour or so and you might be off, unpaid, 2 or 3 hours between meals but not allowed to leave the restaurant in case they need you.
It’s a very tough job, physically and mentally.
Auto gratuties on large tables ensure that someone doesn’t steal money from his/her co-diners by offering to pay on their credit card, pocketing the money and stiffing the waiter. Happens a lot and is especially scuzzy because that person has stolen from friends as well as the waiter.
November 3, 2010 at 3:05 pm | by SusanI apologize – I was mistaken. It’s been a few months since I was on the floor. The min wage for servers HAS gone up to $8.90 – still 1.30 less than the average minimum wage in Ontario for other workers.
And I don’t make any qualms about making $25-$30 an hour – it’s what I make in my current job – but I worked damn hard to get that kind of money! I was on my feet running around for hours on end. It’s hard labourous job.
Other workers – contruction, oil workers, garbage collectors – make just as much, if not more in labour intensive jobs. I find it’s always the upper class lawyer-types who seem to think it’s too much to pay a server their just-wages.
Some jobs – no matter the job type will always be underpaid. Tip your server what they deserve – whether it’s for good service or bad service. They work hard (or at least should,) and you should respect the system currently in place in Canada. And $50,000 is the average wage of Canadians.
However, don’t mistake properly tipping serving staff with managers stealing money from them.
I’ve worked in the industry for years now – and it’s not until I came to Toronto that tipping the house became a problem. I repeat I have NO problem tipping out to bussers, cooks or barkeeps. I was at one point a hostess who got tipped out – I appreciate that the money goes to the right people.
But that doesn’t take away from my earlier point that the managers shouldn’t be taking that sort of money from the pockets of their hard working servers. They already charge a ridiculous overhead on meals and drinks (on average 20 bucks a bottle at lower end restaurants upwards of 50 bucks a bottle at higher end places.)
They make their profit. If they do it right and are good there is no reason they should be taking the money out of the servers hands.
This is not always the case. I worked for an excellent manager who made sure the money we paid for tip-outs went into the right hands. But I’ve worked for others who were not so trustworthy. And I’ve yet to work somewhere that pays the bussers/cooks/hostess proper wages. Because of “Tip out” these folks are paid $8.90 an hour like the rest of the staff. It’s legal – it’s in the Ontario Employment Standards Act. In their cases, however tip out often only results to $40 a night.
The problem with the current serving/restaurant industry is that there is no proper regulations in place to make sure staff are treated properly or even that food/drink laws are properly adhered too. There are so many restaurants out there that skimp on booze in drinks (If you order a rum and coke – good tip is to ask for the shot of rum on the side of your coke glass – it insures you get your full ounce you pay for.) This means people (read: restaurant owners) take advantage of the system.
And for the record, I paid $9,500 in taxes last year – on top of what was deducted from my pay check each week.
November 3, 2010 at 9:39 pm | by MeganTo the a-hole who posted “quit crying and get me my dinner” – Screw you. You dont even have the balls to attach your name to your comment, coward! I know you’re an insecure coward because you’re probably the type of person who treats servers as servants to make yourself feel better than others, exemplified by your degrading comment. Thank you for making yourself look like the ignorant jerk you are.
November 3, 2010 at 10:58 pm | by MarilynOwners- don’t steal from your staff. You would
November 4, 2010 at 7:23 am | by Geehave NOTHING without them.
Managers get paid a very pathetic salary vs all
the bullshit they put up with on a day to day basis.
Customers (I prefer to use the term “guests”), deserve
are the reason why we have our jobs in the first place.
There will always be a rude, ignorant, whiny twit or two
but most of the time, guests are just fine.
In my many years of working at all levels in the
industry, the biggest whiners are the Servers themselves.
Don’t whine, it makes you look like a spoiled ass.
Auto grats are a necessary evil. Tipping out your
support staff is beyond important. Often it is the
support staff that saves the day, we have all seen
it time and time again.
Customers, praise your servers/bussers/ food runners/ Managers/Bartenders by tipping out well when you
receive good service. Your $20 tip gets divided at least
4-6 ways….
Owners, don’t steal from you staff. It’s a dochebag move
and guess what? I know of one HUGE Chef/Owner
in Toronto who is soon to be pillaged with a fine
tooth comb by Revenue Canada…(can anyone say Forensic Accounting?)
for being a lying douchebag for many years.