Opentable.com...more than meets the eye

emeraldkity4
Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:48:25 +0000

Do you pay for dinners with a credit card?



Tipped employees of restaurants operated by Creative Restaurant Management are awaiting an opinion from the U.S. Department of Labor before taking legal action against their employer because of a new policy that reduces their gratuities.

According to Van Dyk, at least three states – California, Kentucky and Massachusetts – have ruled that employers may not withhold portions of employees’ tips to pay credit-card fees. CRM is subtracting between 1 percent and 3 percent for tips on credit cards, she observed.



Regarding paying servers min wage.

Under the current payment scheme, servers have taxes deducted from their paycheck based on the tips that the restaurant expects them to receive.
Some of these workers end up with little or no money in their actual paycheck, and are only left with the tips, which they have to share with the busboys, bartenders, and other people that help them. If the server ends up with poor tippers or is having a bad day and doesn’t perform as well as they should, they could be left with little in the way of tips as well.

This is why I consider that if I can afford to eat out, and have people waiting on me, I can afford to tip at least 20%.