For the rest of us, who don’t want to give up 6% of the tip, these fees should be negotiated with both companies. This can only happen if large groups of restaurant workers and tipped employees ban together and demand that these fees are lowered.    If the fees could come down, then this would be a great tool against corrupt business practices.

When tippees sign up, they receive a medallion. These medallions are like business cards with the server’s own personal coded symbologies. No personal info is exchanged, just the code.  The server can carry multiple copies of this medallion and just hand them out to customers, so that the customer can tip them at any time.  Or the server could just swipe the medallion on the tippers smart phone.   For more info go to ziptip.net

Recent forum discussion on indeed.com

wiserwaitress in Albuquerque, New Mexico said: 6% is simply to high a fee. Lower your fees. Food servers can make as little as $2.13 an hr. We simply can not afford to give Paypall and Zip tip 6%. I would rather see energy put towards enforcing current laws so that employers comply having to slice off more of my tip just to get what is legally mine already.

I appreciate your input.  Ziptip has lowered its fees and now tippees pay only 1% of the tip amount.  thank you.
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LH in Wakefield, Rhode Islans

I decided to stand up to a popular Downtown eatery that had grown accustomed to illegally deducting a portion of the wait staff’s tips.    I did this because I was frustrated with the number of  restaurant owners who blatantly ignored the law and thought they were entitled to cut corners.  I also did this   to test the system and see if these agencies were doing their job of enforcing the laws.  I wish I could spin a tale of workers rushing to my side or government agencies truly enforcing these rules. The truth was while I did gather support from workers from all over the city many of them were these single parents trying to support their families with the tips they earned,who simply  couldn’t afford the risk of losing their jobs, or becoming blacklisted. Santa Fe is a small city and many feared they would not find work again if they spoke out. And some state workers I spoke with never heard of the tip credit before or what FLSA had to do with tipped workers.

And while I  have written op-eds for the paper and created posts in my blog, I suddenly found myself in a job where the employer openly stole tips.  My first instinct was just to quit.  But it was the middle of winter and I found myself also just resigning to the conditions.   But my partner pointed out to me this would be a great opportunity to see if all these pretty little rules and regulations really do work.   Since I was only in school part time  I could afford to take on the task of challenging these illegal practices  and also meet my responsibility to act on all the information I urged my blog readers to act on.   I  knew I would feel like a hypocrite writing about these laws if I didn’t do anything about it myself.

So I stayed at the job for roughly another 3 weeks. It was a rough ride. A arduous process  I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.

This employer penalized the staff ahead of time for any mistakes that could occur in the future. They took  on average $10 to $15 per day from the pooled tips of the waiters and runners for what they called a “error account.” The mistake could be food that was sent back, a customer walking out, mistakes on bills or servers dropping plates.  They kept this fund locked away in a safe and if no mistakes were made, the money left over went towards buying new glassware or candles.  And of course, they did not claim the money they were deducting from the pooled house.  Instead they reported the wait staff received a higher amount of tips then they actually did receive. This meant I was paying income tax on tips I actually wasn’t receiving.

They also took the full tip credit, payed their tipped employees only $2.13 and still required that tips were to be shared with non-tipped workers in the kitchen such as the dishwasher.

Before I went to any outside agencies, I decided I would try to resolve the issue with the owners themselves.  Sometimes, restaurant operators are simple ignorant about local laws and If I could resolve it with them first, that would be the best option.  So I tried first with the managers. I was told this was simply how they do it and one longtime waitress and friend of the owners piped up that it was the owners way of teaching his wait staff a lesson.

So the following week, after my shift,I approached one of  the owners in the office.  I was promptly told that this was their restaurant, this is how they have always done things and if I didn’t like it too bad.  So I quit, handed her a letter of resignation and began my process with State Wage and Hour.

At my hearing, I won back my earnings for the error account, and time spent in training. When there are no opportunities to make tips such as during training or wine education events, employers are not allowed to take a tip credit.  The state forced them to pay the difference and applied the treble law, which meant I was able to recover three times the amount they took.  The state however, did not enforce the FLSA and the tips I shared with the dishwasher were not recovered.  The employer also tried to establish that the dishwasher was also a busser because he occasionally bused a table.  (Not once, while employed there did a dishwasher ever buss any of my tables). She also added that the error account balance was used to throw a big party at the end of the year. (NOT TRUE)

The next agency I went to was unemployment.  Initially, I lost my claim.  But then, three months passed and I won my appeal.  The judge agreed with me that these illegal deductions for the error account was “good cause” to quit. The judge states, “The determination of the claims examiner is reversed. The claimant was not subject to disqualification from benefits under Section 51-1-7a(1) of the act.

That meant I was paid for the 5 weeks I was unemployed while I looked for work.  It also meant the restaurant would be subject to potential benefit charges. Hopefully, a motive for them to stop stealing tips. Un happy with the judges decision, the owners decided to appeal again to the Secretary of Labor. Thier appeal was denied and the Secretary upheld the judges decision.

My final claim was with the Federal Wage & hour. My experience with them was not encouraging. They are understaffed, and difficult to work with.  They refused to take any evidence from me, conducted their own shoddy investigation and sided with the employer that  the dishwasher was entitled to a daily portion of my tips, since he occasionally bussed tables.  They informed me that my only recourse  was to hire a attorney to recover wages under the FLSA.

What I learned,  Do not bother going to Federal Wage & Hour.  Instead just hire a lawyer.  In my case, it wasn’t worth hiring a lawyer. I was satisfied just learning about the process of working with Federal wage and hour.

Here’s the deal.

The only way to make change is to support one another. Change does involve risk.   It requires courage  to be witnesses for one another.  Because I had no one willing to be a witness, ( they were afraid of being black listed)  I had no evidence to prove the dishwasher was not bussing tables. The employer probably prepped the dishwashers for the investigation and promptly started having the wait staff sign waivers for the error account.

I also understand why most people will not stand up. You have to pick your battle.  There are some infractions that are simply not worth the headache. But open blatant stealing is another matter. Sometimes, an employer may go to far and you may decide its  worth taking action. I found that it is a awkward, time consuming process to gather evidence, organize dates and times for a hearing.  One I will not repeat myself. But I don’t regret going through it as I learned quite a bit about the way the system works.  Again it is a process that requires support, but can be  ignited  with one person.

You can screen employers for these shady practices  and ask ahead of time now. What is your tip pool policy? If  it is shady,  simply discontinue with the application process.

And sometimes you may encounter shady practices after you are hired.  While its a personal decision to take action, if anyone wants conditions in the industry to change the most important thing is to band together. There are hardly any unions left and the government agencies in place are often understaffed and underfunded.     If people support and educated one another, then employers may start to listen and finally wise up.

For the full story visit Santafenewmexican. search for Il Piatto broke worker wage laws.

The new tip credit notification rule took effect on May 5th, 2011.  To see the rules, visit www.dol.gov. or google FLSA fact sheet #15.

The Dept of Labor allows employers to provide written or oral notice to tipped employers if they elect to take the tip credit.  If they elect to do so, then the employer must inform the tipped employee how much of a credit they will take.  This new rule will help prevent employers from abusing the tip credit and also keep tipped employees informed about the tip credit.  Many servers, restaurant operators and even state workers I’ve encountered do not  really understand how the tip credit works or what is means.  This new notification  rule will promotes awareness about the tip credit and may finally foster compliance with the rules that have historically been abused by many restaurant owners.  A recent study,”Broken laws, unprotected workers,” the most comprehensive examination of wage-law violations in a decade found that of workers who received tips, 12 percent of them reported that their employer had stolen some of their tips.

But NRA President and chief executive, Dawn Sweeny states” We believe the DOL new rules put in effect with just one months notice and with out properly considering their impact on the nations nearly 1 million restaurants are confusing and will expose our members to regulation violations and enforcement actions.”

Applebee’s Restaurant who were also unhappy filed suit against the DOL and lost.  On April, 21st, 2011 The court of Appeals for the Eight circuit affirmed the DOL’ had the right to impose the new tip credit notification.

The NRA also stated that restaurants now face unnecessary regulatory burden and expense in complying with the new tip credit notice requirements.   But  families also face  unnecessary economic burdens when employers don’t follow the laws.  Annette Bernhardt, an author of the study, said,”When unscrupulous employers break the law, they’re robbing families of money to put food on the table. they’re robbing communities of spending power and they’re robbing governments of vital tax revenues.”

Knowledge is power and perhaps if more tipped employees understand what the tip credit is and when its abused, more employers will be forced to comply.  While the NRA  website boasts that the restaurant industry generates $ 604 billion a year in sales,  they don’t seem interested in protecting those workers who help make those sales possible.  It’s really a shame that rather than  investing  in educating restaurant operators about these regulations and protecting restaurant workers, the NRA  prefers  suing the government.

Alaska, Nevada (Las Vegas only no state laws),& Utah

State that requires that you are at least 20

Kentucky

States that require that you are at least 19

Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota

State that requires that you are at least 17

Maine

*All other states not mentioned require that you must be at least 18 years of age to serve

Mike Mc Neil, vice president of Marketing for Hooters of America, commented ” I guess what the basis of the lawsuit is, what a Hooters girl looks like matters everywhere in the US except Michigan” .  But these women are not overweight or near being overweight.  Cassie Smith is 5″8 and weighs 132.  She is a  glowing, vibrant young women  who displays a healthy normal body. According To WebMD, she is well within the normal weight range for a woman of her height.  The weight loss that Hooters required of her would have potentially forced her to be underweight.  WebMD listed anything below 130 pounds would be considered underweight- potentially harming her health to meet the rail thin requirements to work at Hooters.  Mc Neil further commented that the state law is “one of the long list of things that make it harder for us to do business in Michigan than in our 45 other states.”  If promoting a unhealthy body image that can potentially harm the health of the workers is the only way a business can prosper perhaps we do not need these kinds of businesses.   Only 6 cities have adopted their own discrimination laws based on weight. They include: San Francisco, CA   Santa Cruz, CA, Birmigham, NY,  Madison Wi, Washington and Urbana, Ill. Everywhere else, anorexia may be required.

• Alaska
• California
• Colorado
• Montana
• Nevada
• Oregon
• Washington
• New Mexico  and Idaho * Employer may take the deduction only if the employee agrees to the deduction and signs a written waiver