Does your employer keep your tips?

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[numberstation]

I always pay the bill by card but the tip by cash, straight to the person serving me. The only exception is if I’m buying the person behind the bar a drink.

[kevinsyd]

In the UK, tips are taxable as income (and potentially NI-able) regardless of whether they are paid directly to the employee or via the business. It seems that this more formal way of record keeping and sharing, whilst benefitting the employees who may not currently benefit from tips, will allow the tax authorities to take their slice of the extra income.

[artyjnrii]

Having worked in takeaways before, the bosses were very good at fairly distributing tips to themselves.

[gerrylangford]

One glaring omission might be that a tip should be paid over and above a workers normal pay or salary.

[MC-emmcee]

If I leave any tip it will go directly to the person serving me. I never, ever, tip via the bill and rarely do I leave on the table when leaving or into a tip jar. I know that if I tip directly it is then up to that person to do with as they please. They can put it in their pocket, which I hope they do, or they can place it in the tip jar (or wherever the tip-share point is).

[ForburyLion]

As a schoolboy, I did a paper round and around Christmas time you'd find envelopes with tips in left out by customers addressed to the paper boy/girl, often you would see similar envelops addressed to the postman, dustbin men etc. I wonder if the same rules apply here?
I remember being asked to cover someone elses paper round at Christmas, people would come out and give me tips - I thought they were just being generous, now I think about it they were probably thinking they were tipping the paperboy who had delivered their newspapers and magazines all year and not just me covering for a day or I may have inadvertedly committed fraud.

[liaminwales]

I still have mixed feelings on tip/service charge culture, always a worry that it's a way to under pay staff.

[Lee.Willcox]

At Christmas time many years ago, my parents would always give the Milkman, Postman and Refuse guy's a tip. They are not allowed to accept anything now. Bloody disgrace. All I have to offer now are polite words and verbal gratitude. Not fair.

[mrfoameruk]

I was giving a tip to the serving waiter and he told me not to as the owner use to take it all and the staff got nothing.

[Songforyall]

Sambuca the resturant chain takes all the tips I used to work at one...

[lewispowell]

Its been a while since i worked in the sector and i was always kitchen staff but the fairest policy for tips i ever saw was that waiters declared their tips and gave 10% to the kitchen and 10% to the bar and kept the rest. we in the kitchen were mostly on minimum wage and it was a nice boost especially as the speed the food came out made a big impact on how happy the customers were.

I did briefly work somewhere where the managers decided that the tips belonged to the business, it then became policy among the staff to let all the customers know not to tip as they wouldn't get any, they changed the policy after a spate of bad google reviews criticising them for it.

[debgalloway]

I'm in the US & this is something that has been a 'bone of contention' in restaurants around here for years. My late husband worked as a cook in the 80s & 90s and I knew how much waitresses counted on their tips. They were only paid around $3 an hour, expecting to make up the balance in tips. Most places allowed them to keep those given by the tables they worked. But there were some places that divided all tips equally between every person working which I have never agreed with. I have always tipped according to the service I received and do not think it's right for the employer to do any different!

[contessa.adella]

Tipping is not ‘extra pay’ and should not be regarded as such…it is a *GIFT for appreciation of good service* by one or more specific employee(s). A surly or unhelpful employee does not deserve a tip. I never tip automatically…I consider the quality of my experience and how the employee contributed to that experience. Tips should NEVER be expected or taken for granted and are not in any way intended in whole or part for the business entity or management staff - unless the customer specifically intends it so.

[freemanscott]

No tips until seasons and, no tips of terminated or walkout no tips as agency, managers and owners taking shares, added to wages to increase taxable amount, there are so many toxic ways employers remove that gratuity from staff ...my favourite way an employer did was to pay the lower earning staff a higher % and ultimately it evened out everyone's wages so that we ALL earned similar amounts...Bistro Frere...st Martin's in the. Channel islands ..it was a pleasure to work there and all staff were very happy and had the highest regard for the job and employers

[MorDreadful]

I see no reason to tip anyone who has NOT served me and not all service staff deserve tips, it depends on the quality of service for instance. IF I have ONE server serving me throughout my time at a restaurant then that ONE server should get 100% of my tips. This being if I am able to give tips only to that one waitress or waiter, not very common nowadays unfortunately, this would also mean the chance of better service from waitresses and waiters, they get to keep any tips given directly to them, they would want tips so perform to their best.

Gratuity should NEVER be imposed either, it should be earned. By imposing it you can still get bad service and is more an expectation rather than actual gratuity and thanks, much more like an added tax to be quite honest. Gratuity should ALWAYS be earned and then gratefully received with the utmost respect.

[nyctasiaselesq]

Why do people tip? Aren't those employees paid a salary? What if you have an unpleasant service? Would you get money off your bill? It is the job of the employer to pay a fair wage, not the job of the customer to top up your pay.

And no, I never tip because you did your job.

[threeshirescyclist]

Used to work in a place in London, took circa 120k a year in service charge, and kept 70% of it. Staff were threatened never to admit to customers that the service charge on cards did not come to them by the owners.

[joshuajohnson]

As a chef in the UK the amount of tips not shared is shocking. Seeing waitresses leave with more than my weeks wage is more common than you would think. I have also worked in places where the owner has hidden the amount of tips earnt to "pay bills". My advice to anyone wanting to tip for good service is, don't do it, you never know where that money ends up.

[anthonyfernwood]

TIPS, GRATUITIES, SERVICE CHARGE whilst in America not to long ago my wife and I went for a meal in a self service restaurant we were told to sit anywhere, we then helped ourselves to food we only had water which was already on the table, but when we got the bill we were charged a service charge and it also included a gratuity, needless to say when I went to pay I told the cashier to take these charges off as I had served myself, she looked at me in disbelief until I explained that I had never seen a waitress, she didn’t look too happy but she took them off.

[gazza]

At my last two hospitality jobs they tried to take all tips and distribute to the waiting staff and kitchen staff, the issue is (that we ended up refusing to and pocketed tips ourselves) is that half of the waiting staff had minimal to no customer service care and therefore would never get tipped by diners. The kitchen staff were on huge wages already. In the end we stated that tips that the waiting staff got were due to that waiting staffs services and care and attention to the service. And that if the service sucked, the customer would not tip.

In the end the owners decided to allow wait staff to pocket the tips and we had to declare what we had been given, they also had a tip jar, the latter was never used and ended up being removed, they then tried (this was under the table work, cash in hand, non-legit work) to remove tips from our wages, in which we all threatened to go and tell the local authority and police about their practises. That idea soon got canned.