Discussions

I know, I know..... Not another post about tipping. This is basically a survey highlighting opinions and thoughts regarding a customers thoughts on owners taking tips from their employees for my own purposes.  
Ask yourself how you feel about tipping, everyone has different beliefs and criteria for just giving another money and that is completely fine. It is always whatever you, as a customer, are comfortable with.  
Next, ask yourself what you think of tipping your waiter or waitress if you knew part of it was going towards the owner: As well as if the owner cooks your meal or doesn't.  
Do you agree with servers doing all the bartending, hostessing and take out orders then tipping out on that as well to the owner?  
Does it make a difference? Does it change your attitude? There are no right or wrong answers/opinions.

Im out of town right now and dont have the time to provide the proof, but ive looked this up before. According to mb govt all tips belong to the employer as income. I suggest researching this for yourself. I can see how it seems unfair.

If the establishment is taking tips that are meant for the waiter/ waitress(most people believe this is who the tip goes to) THEN QUIT! My daughter did this and now is at a place where she gets 100%. Eventually they will not be able to get employees and will close or sell their establish. This just happened at big restaurant in Brandon, maybe not for this exact reason, but maybe a contributing aspect as they always had ads for workers.

I know of a restaurant here in town who pockets the tips for a whole month,,, & then hands out maybe 5 or 10 % of the total take per month... I believe if the faithful customers who gave of these tips with a kind heart to a good waiter or waitress ever found out what that employer was doing,,, They may think twice before dining there again. I know I would never go back. That is so low & so mean....Just my opinion...

If this is happening i would like to know the places to avoid if someone could send me a private message. When i tip it is for great service or great food.

I've worked at places where waitresses and waiters have to tip out a small portion of their tips to the kitchen staff. To me that always seemed fair since the kitchen staff also is working hard to prepare and make the food for the customer, and the servers are the ones presenting the food and making the experience enjoyable to the customer. I've never heard of an employer or boss taking tips from the staff though! I don't think that is fair at all. I would also like to know which places in Brandon do this.

We tip to servant beacuse the food is excellent and better than expectation which means excellent cook and excellent ingredients, we tip to servant beacuse servant is friendly, fast in our request, serves nicely, and might go beyound of what we asked. We tip servant if whole experience is pleasant, the environment is clean and nice, our seat is comfortable and we get more bread, or cheese or so on on request in cost of owner. Even if the servant pay more attention to you and does your request fast instead of taking care of an extra table, it cost more to owner. If reception is friendly we still tip servant. Most of these people work behind the scene to make your experience an excellent one, but only we tip servant. I think if we tip, it should go to everbody unless you can specify reason of tipping everytime you tip which is not possible. Now, Probably most owners do not take their part of the tip and that is nice of them.  
In general, I think this tip thing should be removed. Some servant do less than a normal service unless you are a regular good tipping customer. This will cost owner, as you might not go back beacuse of poor service of one tip expecting servant, and that is unfair to customer and owner.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edited by Deb1, 2015-10-24 09:09:54

I work at a place where we have to tip a percentage to the kitchen, and then the owner takes a percentage. So we as waitresses leave with maybe 50% . Sometimes less..

I would never eat at a place if I knew the owner was getting a percentage. The tip is to make up for low wages.  
 
I can see the owner taking it, then giving it all back minus the income tax obligations.  
 
The kitchen staff should get part of the tip. Unless it's a chain restaurant that simply re-heats frozen dinners.

imo i dont believe in tips, i think our min wage is enough for the job but i do believe that the tip should go to the whole team, so yes tip out the cook and bartender ect on any tips you do get, however even tho technically the owner does own the tips as well most customers are tipping on the person who served them so unless they also get a higher wage i think the owner shouldn't take the tips or a portion of

Never heard of an owner taking a cut that is low and I also wouldn't go back. I always tip unless the service and food is really really terrible.  
 
I have also worked in the industry, where I was the kitchen and bartenders got tipped out (not a lot but they get it from all servers so it adds up).  
 
I thought it was a very fair way, if your employer takes your tips, start telling the customers, bet it stops quick.

If you disagree with the concept of tip sharing, not tipping your server is NOT the answer.  
Tip sharing is rarely based on the amount of tips your server brings in - it's a percentage of the bill YOU ring up. Your Server is forced to tip out usually 2-3% of what they sell.  
Therefore - if you stiff your server, they have to pay that money out of their own pocket.  
That 2-3% is not intended to line the owners pocket - it's divided up amongst kitchen staff, bartenders, and hostesses who don't get tipped.  
Keep in mind, when your server appears in a few short minutes with a tray of cocktails - the bartender made them, when you got to a clean set table- the hostess did that, and when your steak is cooked perfectly the cook did that.  
If everything sucked and you had a great server, well, she still has to pay out on your bill.  

I suppose along with the bartender, hostess, cook, kitchen staff, the owner also contributed to the service by having the establishment there in the first place.  
 
I don't like this almost "mandatory" idea of tipping. What if I don't care about service? what if I just want to be left alone to eat my food?  
 
I think tipping should be done in advance, so as to specify the level of service you wish to receive, or no tip if you just want plain service.

Loves Sunshine said "If you disagree with the concept of tip sharing, not tipping your server is NOT the answer.   Tip sharing is rarely based on the amount of tips your server brings in - it's a percentage of the bill YOU ring up. Your Server is forced to tip out usually 2-3% of what they sell.   Therefore - if you stiff your server, they have to pay that money out of their own pocket.   That 2-3% is not intended to line the owners pocket - it's divided up amongst kitchen staff, bartenders, and hostesses who don't get tipped.   Keep in mind, when your server appears in a few short minutes with a tray of cocktails - the bartender made them, when you got to a clean set table- the hostess did that, and when your steak is cooked perfectly the cook did that.   If everything sucked and you had a great server, well, she still has to pay out on your bill.   "

i have a really hard time believing that the waitress has to pay 2-3% of my bill if I don't tip

Kitty Price said "I know of a restaurant here in town who pockets the tips for a whole month,,, & then hands out maybe 5 or 10 % of the total take per month... I believe if the faithful customers who gave of these tips with a kind heart to a good waiter or waitress ever found out what that employer was doing,,, They may think twice before dining there again. I know I would never go back. That is so low & so mean....Just my opinion... "

A Private message.

Your server has to tip out 2-4% of sales. Sales, not tips earned. If sales are 1000 for the night, the tip out is 40 dollars. This goes to the kitchen, bartenders, food runners etc, and managers, who do help with all of the above things (maybe that is where someone is thinking owner). Yes, they deserve their share. They work hard too, to make your experience a pleasant one.  
 
As an example, you go for supper and your bill is 50.00. 4% would be 2.00. You tip 10% (5.00), the server keeps 3.00. If you tip nothing, the server is out that money. They actually paid 2 bucks to serve you.  
 
Yes, they get a wage at the end of the day, but if no one tipped, after a 6 hour shift at 11 bucks an hour, 66 (before taxes!) - 40 tip out, they made 26 bucks.  
 
Like it or not, tip out will never change. It is standard in nearly every restaurant big or small across Canada and the US.  
 
Please be kind to your server. Most of us are students or are working a second job to stay ahead. It would be a completely different story of tip out was a percentage of tips earned, but it's not.

In some places.. Not all are the same. In fact I know a girl that works as a server and off the top half her tips go to the owner then a share for kitchen/bartender. Etc.  
 
When I worked as a server we gave ten percent to the kitchen and if there was a hostess that day we would give them something out of our tips.  
 
There isn't a standard. And I think the owners taking tips is ridiculous. Have a strong feeling said owner probably doesn't declare it as income either. But who knows.

JelloFail said "    Loves Sunshine said "If you disagree with the concept of tip sharing, not tipping your server is NOT the answer.   Tip sharing is rarely based on the amount of tips your server brings in - it's a percentage of the bill YOU ring up. Your Server is forced to tip out usually 2-3% of what they sell.   Therefore - if you stiff your server, they have to pay that money out of their own pocket.   That 2-3% is not intended to line the owners pocket - it's divided up amongst kitchen staff, bartenders, and hostesses who don't get tipped.   Keep in mind, when your server appears in a few short minutes with a tray of cocktails - the bartender made them, when you got to a clean set table- the hostess did that, and when your steak is cooked perfectly the cook did that.   If everything sucked and you had a great server, well, she still has to pay out on your bill.   " i have a really hard time believing that the waitress has to pay 2-3% of my bill if I don't tip "

Believe it or not, the fact that a server has to tip out regardless of what they get left is 100% accurate. Most places around are 3-4%, even bigger in larger cities ( go to Calgary, Vancouver or Toronto and they are tipping out 6-8 percent. This tip out goes to to kitchen crew , bartender and hostesses generally. This is common practice in every single restaurant everywhere.

I can't quote a post on my phone but yes!

I hate having to tip. But it is customary, so I do. I've worked all my life in retail. No tips. I can work just as hard as someone working in a restaurant. Never should the owner receive tips. They make money from the sales. Wait staff are working the front line. They are the go-between for the customers and the restaurant. If a customer complains, Its to the server. I think tips belong to them. If tips are shared then customers should be able to complain to the cook when they have a complaint. If the service is poor then complain to the wait staff, if the restaurant is unclean or some other problem like that then complain to the hostess or manager. Can you imagine the chaos if the cook has to come out and deal with an unhappy customer directly every time their meal isn't right? Bet they'd give up their share of tips pretty quick.

Ive had working at mid and high end restaurants around Canada, ive never worked at one qhere the owners took the tips. Any place ive worked at 50 percent goes to kitchen and 50 percent goes to wait staff. If owners took tips i wouldnt work there again. Thinking the kitchen shouldnt get tips is ridiculous. 50 50 split between wait staff and kitchen is the fair and right way to do it

leapyear said "Your server has to tip out 2-4% of sales. Sales, not tips earned. If sales are 1000 for the night, the tip out is 40 dollars. This goes to the kitchen, bartenders, food runners etc, and managers, who do help with all of the above things (maybe that is where someone is thinking owner). Yes, they deserve their share. They work hard too, to make your experience a pleasant one.     As an example, you go for supper and your bill is 50.00. 4% would be 2.00. You tip 10% (5.00), the server keeps 3.00. If you tip nothing, the server is out that money. They actually paid 2 bucks to serve you.     Yes, they get a wage at the end of the day, but if no one tipped, after a 6 hour shift at 11 bucks an hour, 66 (before taxes!) - 40 tip out, they made 26 bucks.     Like it or not, tip out will never change. It is standard in nearly every restaurant big or small across Canada and the US.     Please be kind to your server. Most of us are students or are working a second job to stay ahead. It would be a completely different story of tip out was a percentage of tips earned, but it's not. "

it is actually illegal to make servers tip out if they didnt get a tip BUT the thing is you may not get one from one table but the rest more then make out your tip out so no one ever has had the right to say no tip out  
 
also, while you say this will never change, it might not look like it but it might, tipping out has changed from when i worked in restaurants, we used to tip out on the actual tips(the way it should be imo 50/50) but to many servers would lie and not tip out so now most go by sales, regardless if you actually had to pay to work it would be illegal and that is how restaurants get away with the practice