There is no tax exemption for waiters. S3 is a waiter and bartender. He had a huge tax bill one year when his employer did to take out enough and he did not do quarterlies. That is a myth.
Pretty sure it’s illegal for a restaurant not to make up the difference if your tips don’t bring you up to minimum wage.
Of course they don’t all obey the law. No surprise there.
No, it is not doable everywhere. Not everyone lives in a big city where high minimum wages and high cost of living are common. Minimum wage should be set on a locality basis, adjusting to the local cost of living.
Then set your minimum and get rid of tipping. My point is the waiters won’t be living on a tipping wage. If that’s $10 an hour in your area plus benefits because your cost of living is cheaper, than so be it. The point is tipping doesn’t have to be the model.
@Singersmom07 is correct. There is not a tax exemption for restaurant employees. My older D is an assistant manager at a chain restaurant, though she started as a server. This place, like many larger restaurants, chain or not, have formulas with which they calculate how much of the shared tips each level of employee should get, and issue those tips in paychecks accordingly. Everyone is taxed on the total paycheck, so no one is getting out of anything. The only time cash is allowed to be kept by the individual server is when they work delivering the take-out orders to cars. I’m not sure why this is other than perhaps they are losing out on making more tips by serving a larger customer base. She does not live or work in Seattle proper, so the $15 minimum wage does not apply.
I do think there are a lot of non-chain restaurants that do things differently. Plenty of cash tips are under the table. Nobody is declaring their tip jar $$.
I am curious though how your proposed system would incentivize servers to do a good job if they are all getting paid the same. You could suggest having restaurant management set minimum quality standards for service, but the problem I see with that is that it places the enforcement burden on the customer… Now the customer has to complain to management about bad service, whereas with a tipping model they can “complain” more discreetly. In some ways this might be better for the servers too since their bosses won’t need to hear about every dissatisfied customer.
Is it really difficult for restaurant managers to determine which servers are providing good service?
“I am curious though how your proposed system would incentivize servers to do a good job if they are all getting paid the same.”
How does management incentivize employees in other types of jobs/industries? How do they incentivize their cooks? Raises, bonuses, not getting fired. Why do we feel that waiters need tips to do a good job when others don’t? Many waiters in other countries don’t work for tips. Most dining establishments have “front of the house” managers. In good restaurants, a manager will often come around to ask how everything is. How about providing good service because it is the right thing to do? I sure did when I was an employee.
“In some ways this might be better for the servers too since their bosses won’t need to hear about every dissatisfied customer.”
If they have many dissatisfied customers, the management should know. BTW, at many better restaurants, tips are pooled anyway.
Why do some posters feel waiters need to be incentivized and paid in an arcane way different from the majority of workers and that they need to have an active role in that? Just because it has always been that way?
You couldn’t possibly keep track of all of the conversations that take place between your servers and the various customers, not to mention all of the other aspects of a server’s job (refilling drinks on time, checking in, etc.), so yes, it would be very difficult.
You need some sort of feedback, and under a tipping model that usually comes from customer complaints (if service is absolutely terrible), and/or tipping patterns.
An interesting read on the no-tipping thing…
How about surveying customers about their experience?
How do other businesses track all of the conversations/interactions their employees have with customers/clients in terms of knowing who is doing a good job and who isn’t where tipping isn’t involved?
^EXACTLY!
“You couldn’t possibly keep track of all of the conversations that take place between your servers and the various customers, not to mention all of the other aspects of a server’s job (refilling drinks on time, checking in, etc.), so yes, it would be very difficult.”
I’m repeating myself from before but do you tip your flight attendant, dental hygienist, nurse, car mechanic?
“How about surveying customers about their experience?”
That is already done many place and is an excellent idea. Last weekend we were in one of the more lauded restaurants in the country. Great service at all their establishments (not a chain) and this time wasn’t any different. Waitstaff work in teams. I’m sure their tips are pooled. There was a survey card as well.
Ok look, let’s just admit it… this is one of those politicized issues we will never agree on. In actuality, both systems work fine for restaurants, but the way in which each system incentivizes employees is different.
I will say that having been to restaurants in Europe where no-tipping was standard, service quality was generally worse than what I have received at tipping restaurants here in the states. We’re talking mid-to-upper tier restaurants in both cases.
Some restaurant chains in the US have tried going to a no-tipping model but ended up going back to a tipping model. Why would they do that if the tipping model didn’t work?
I don’t see it as a politicized issue at all.
I haven’t had poor service in my international experiences, including Europe. Often, it is much better than here although more leisurely and paced as is the expectation over there. Less emphasis on turning over tables to get more $$. I am also not a big fan of the often overly friendly, casual American service standard. I don’t need to be your buddy and I don’t want you sitting down next to me to tell me today’s specials.
Leisurely and paced is right… I couldn’t stand it when I had to wait 45 minutes after my meal for my check to arrive, only to have the server come back, not say a word or even glance at me, and just drop the check on the table. Gee, thanks buddy… This happened on more than one occasion. Servers seem to have more of an attitude over there, and seem less caring about customers. I mean why should they care? They’ll get paid the same every day regardless.
I do agree with you here. I can’t stand rehearsed welcome lines, fake smiles, and servers who check in too frequently, but that is mostly a company culture/management/training thing. I will say that those times when I have a truly great server, someone who really goes above and beyond to make our table happy, are times when I am glad I can tip him/her well.
Wow, I’ve only very rarely had bad service in European restaurants (or their more casual counterparts), and have uniformly had excellent service in fine dining restaurants in Europe.
And, in any event, most people don’t finely calibrate the amount of their tips to communicate a message regarding the quality of sevice. And a clueless waiter who gives bad service is very unlikely to get any productive message from your bad tip; he’ll likely just write you off as a bad tipper.
That’s how the Europeans dine out… The check arriving too quickly can be considered rude and bad service. 
Tom Douglas is trying the idea here in my neck of the woods:
What about servers who actually make good money in tips? Do we punish them for being good at what they do by taking away their tips, and reward those who are not as good at what they do?
How about as a compromise we boost the minimum wage for servers, AND allow tips on top of that? Best of both worlds. 
I doubt Danny Meyers is paying his servers $15 an hour at Eleven Madison Park, where the average bill is probably $400 a head. I’m sure they are getting a much higher salary.