What's the rules on tips where you work?

Australia
March 17, 2010 8:00pm CST
I have just started waitressing at 2 different Italian restaurants...the first one I started working at the end of November 2009 & their tip rule is we get to keep any tip up to $5 & anything over, we have to go halves with the boss. My second job where I just started at last week, any tip given to us personally we get to keep & any tips handed in when paying for the bill goes into the tip jar unless the customer says to give it to the waitress & the tip jar gets divided up between all workers & depending on the hours you worked, depends on what percentage you get. Here in Australia, it's not customary to tip but it's nice when you get one. What are the rules for tips where you work?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@CJscott (4187)
• Portage La Prairie, Manitoba
18 Mar 10
Well I work as a Cook, so the only rule I know for sure is that they all have to contribute 1% of their cash ring out into a pool to share with the kitchen. So if a Server "sells" 100$ of food in a night, 1 dollar is split between the kitchen staff. We get that once a month between 60 and 90 dollars, I think aside from that the rest is theirs. I appreciate you.
• Australia
18 Mar 10
This also seems fair as everyone is guarenteed to get a bonus each month as tips can be non-existant.
1 person likes this
• Australia
18 Mar 10
At least you still get something I suppose & I think the chefs are deserving because of the pressure to get the meals out on time on a busy night & the hours they do.
@CJscott (4187)
• Portage La Prairie, Manitoba
18 Mar 10
Not so much here, but I do know what you are saying. If the server doesn't make tips, we don't get this split. That is the price they are honored to pay, out of the tips they receive. It is actually quite low, the lowest of any place I have ever worked. At one place it 35% of the tips...another it was 5% of the tips, another was 2% of the ring out.. But it is quite fair, even though Chefs generally make more money then servers, on paper, it is quite typical that a server walks away at the end of some days with more money that a Chef makes in two. Happens frequently at my places of employment, very service based. Cheers, I appreciate you.
@nicolec (2671)
• United States
18 Mar 10
In the US every place is different. But in general, any tip a waitress gets, it goes straight to their pocket. However, you often have to tip out the bartender and bus boy at the end of the night. Usually that's about 1% of your total sales. In some places, you also have to tip out the hostess. I don't think it's fair to tip a bar tender on 1% of total sales. I think it should be based on alchohol sales. I mean if my table orders 5 steak and lobsters, what does that have to do with the bartender? But if my table orders 5 top shelf drinks, that's a different story. But like I said each place is different. I'm not sure I agree with the tipping out of the boss. I mean the guy owns the place and should be making money that way. Why should he dip into your pocket? That seems a little shady to me. But then again, that could just by the US way of seeing things and maybe in Austalia it's a bit different.
• Canada
18 Mar 10
I don't work in a place where they take tips, but I do spend a lot of time in a certain coffee shop with a tip jar. In that coffee shop the jar is emptied at the end of the shift, and divided among the folks who worked that shift. Then next shift, it starts all over again.
• Australia
18 Mar 10
That's a good idea - coz that means that the most deserving people (the people in the kitchen) get their share too...like I said in my discussion, my newest job does this but I think they empty the jar once a week or month & you get a percentage depending on the hours you've worked.