Getting By
Jul. 17th, 2008 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mhuzzellOne of these days I will get 'round to making real entries again, but for now you will just have to content yourselves with my commentaries on things what I have recently seen in the news these days of late. Today, it's The Independent's investigation and campaign on tipping, and the unfair practices and pun opportunities thereof.
The article describes how many restaurants are fleecing the customers and fucking the staff by keeping large percentages of tips for themselves, or else using tips to top up wages to comply with the legal minimum, when the poor dear customers thought the service charge was all going to that nice 'server' who'd waited on them.
Now, I currently work as a chef in a small café, where tips are collected in a dish on the counter and shared out between all staff at the end of the day. It's never much -- usually £2 or £3 each, seldom more than £4; certainly not enough for the manager to consider using it to top up wages -- but it is fair.
However, the last restaurant I worked in was much fancier. Food prices, and therefore tips, were much higher, and were not shared out by the waitstaff. I was making $7/hr. washing dishes, and the chefs made only two or three dollars per hour more than me. The pinches meseras* (technical term), meanwhile, made only $2.35/hr in wages, but still made far more than any of us in the kitchen. To have had them on minimum wage, as The Independent would call for, would be grossly unfair to the kitchen staff, unless they were to pool and share out their tips -- but then, this is another practice that The Independent's campaign seems rather critical of, since it is the primary means by which managers and owners are able to steal tips from staff.
The only really fair way to handle things, as far as I can tell, is the way I hear they do it in Australia: that is, not doing it. They don't have a tipping culture, staff are paid much higher basic wages, and any tips on top of that are simply incidental, or for particularly good service, and not to be expected or relied upon. Like the jar on our café's counter. Seriously, what kind of bullshit system is this?
* In a recent conversation on how we tend to get pigeonholed in summer jobs, based on whatever experience we happen to have, a friend told me he had only ever been barstaff. I replied that I had only ever worked in kitchens, to which he said "ah, then you are my natural enemy!" If you don't get it, then go get a real job, you hippie.
The article describes how many restaurants are fleecing the customers and fucking the staff by keeping large percentages of tips for themselves, or else using tips to top up wages to comply with the legal minimum, when the poor dear customers thought the service charge was all going to that nice 'server' who'd waited on them.
Now, I currently work as a chef in a small café, where tips are collected in a dish on the counter and shared out between all staff at the end of the day. It's never much -- usually £2 or £3 each, seldom more than £4; certainly not enough for the manager to consider using it to top up wages -- but it is fair.
However, the last restaurant I worked in was much fancier. Food prices, and therefore tips, were much higher, and were not shared out by the waitstaff. I was making $7/hr. washing dishes, and the chefs made only two or three dollars per hour more than me. The pinches meseras* (technical term), meanwhile, made only $2.35/hr in wages, but still made far more than any of us in the kitchen. To have had them on minimum wage, as The Independent would call for, would be grossly unfair to the kitchen staff, unless they were to pool and share out their tips -- but then, this is another practice that The Independent's campaign seems rather critical of, since it is the primary means by which managers and owners are able to steal tips from staff.
The only really fair way to handle things, as far as I can tell, is the way I hear they do it in Australia: that is, not doing it. They don't have a tipping culture, staff are paid much higher basic wages, and any tips on top of that are simply incidental, or for particularly good service, and not to be expected or relied upon. Like the jar on our café's counter. Seriously, what kind of bullshit system is this?
* In a recent conversation on how we tend to get pigeonholed in summer jobs, based on whatever experience we happen to have, a friend told me he had only ever been barstaff. I replied that I had only ever worked in kitchens, to which he said "ah, then you are my natural enemy!" If you don't get it, then go get a real job, you hippie.
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Date: 2008-07-31 02:33 pm (UTC)The entire cafe, despite getting hundreds of customers each day, would get about £0.08 per day in tips. Its a damn good thing we didnt have to depend on them.
D