Quote:
Originally Posted by tuccillo
Do you know for a fact that restaurants automatically assume a certain amount of tip for the purposes of meeting the required $8.05/hour figure for salary plus tips? In other words, can they just say the gap between $5.03/hour and $8.05/hour was met without some documentation? If so, the law would essentially have no meaning.
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Sadly, I do know this for a fact. My daughter works for Olive Garden in Ocala, used to work here in TV but requested a transfer because of the poor tipping. Rarely does she truly make minimum wage since she has to tip out the busboy, bartender, bar back and hostess. This is figured at the eighteen percent of food and beverage totals regardless of the actual tip amount. The same is done for IRS purposes, which is where the calculations for minimum wage are done as well. The only time she has ever received minimum wage on her paycheck was one day when they were exceedingly slow. Her hourly salary, with tips and pay, comes to seven to ten dollars a day less tip out amounts, depending on how people are tipping. She is a good server, not great, but definitely tries hard to keep her customers happy. She would do much better in an Olive Garden out of Central Florida but really wants to remain in this area.
So, folks, please tip your servers well. If under eighteen percent, put it on your credit card. If over eighteen percent, leave it in cash if possible. Do NOT tip for poor service.