Something I never knew. The waitress has to split he tip with the person that seats you, bus boy, bartender and food deliverer. They actually have paid people who do nothing but bring the food to the table. All get some guaranteed wage above 10 dollars plus a cut of the waitresses sales. So, even if no tip is left, the waitress must pay out to these others.

At less fancy restaurants, the waitstaff may not tip out the other staff. At the higher end places, they absolutely will. Where the cut off is is not fixed.

In HS and college, I worked at an upscale Italian restaurant owned and managed by two brothers who were Culinary Institute of America grads. The actual rich people were nice (e.g. one owned an Indy race team), but the people who wanted others to think they were rich were generally pricks. The special occasion crowd (e.g. anniversary) were generally nice.

Darn good reason the wait staff tipped out the others:

busser - brought out the water, kept water topped off, brought out bread and butter after ordering, cleared the courses. At those prices, wait staff tips would go down if the busser wasn't timely.

bar tender - quick, accurate drinks. At those prices, wait staff tips would go down if the drinks took too long or they weren't made perfectly.

back waiter - way more than a food runner. As they're roaming the restaurant, they're actually telling the chefs when to "fire" the food. At those prices, wait staff tips would go down if the entree arrived before they were finished with the salad or if they finished the salad and waited for their entree.

hostess - They generally used owner or manager to seat people so no hostess to tip out. I imagine getting the nice people in your section vs the pricks would be worth a tip.

Everyone was financially incentivized to work together as a well-oiled machine to provide a dining experience with water glasses that don't go empty, perfect drinks, bread and butter within 2 minutes of placing order, salads cleared promptly, entrees arrive hot and promptly after the salad, entrees cleared off after guest finished, leftovers promptly packaged (e.g. tin foil goose shape), etc.

This was all back when minimum wage was about $4.35 and tipped people were about 75% of that. After tipping out, a good waiter was pulling down $600 in tips (i.e about 20x more than the hourly rate) on a weekend night and a mediocre was still pulling down $300.

It’s been 30 years since I was a waiter but it was a thing 30 years ago. It’s called tip share. It’s a pot of money you have to pour into. It’s to pay the bartender(s) and busboys, and yes it sucked. I’d bus my own tables and station before the lazy bus boys could get at it but I’d still have to pay them out. I started as a dishwasher at 13, lying on my resume stating I was 15. At 15 I was a bus boy, 16 I was a host, then 18 was a requirement here to serve alcohol and be a waiter. As a waiter, I made $2.35 an hour, so tips was my pay and I had to always pay a portion of that to tip share. Restaurants just whore their employees out. To this day I rarely go to a sit down restaurant where you are served. 1-2 times a year via work and a vendor is paying for the shindig. Even then I’d rather be at the gym lifting than wasting my time. I worked in that industry for 10 years, 13-23, and there is a reason why going out to eat has never been some big deal to me since.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

back waiter - way more than a food runner. As they're roaming the restaurant, they're actually telling the chefs when to "fire" the food. At those prices, wait staff tips would go down if the entree arrived before they were finished with the salad or if they finished the salad and waited for their entree.

Do you know how they do this? This sounds literally even more complicated than sending a man to the moon.

My ex wife was a bartender when we got married and she had to tip out pretty much everyone else in the place. On a slow night it could pretty much wipe out what she made.

I'm a fanatic about tipping to this day after watching just how much it sucked for her to deal with.

I am seeing where some of the smaller restaurants are charging a service charge (typically 15%) at the counter to "pay their hardworking waitstaff". Happened yesterday at brunch. If you order take out there is no charge.

In these parts you will only see that mandatory tip out in the higher end/ fine dining paces. But I do know that if a busser or hostess is working hard on a busy night helping a waiter, they will always take care of them at the end of the night.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

back waiter - way more than a food runner. As they're roaming the restaurant, they're actually telling the chefs when to "fire" the food. At those prices, wait staff tips would go down if the entree arrived before they were finished with the salad or if they finished the salad and waited for their entree.

Do you know how they do this? This sounds literally even more complicated than sending a man to the moon.

No idea how they do it now (i.e. is there technology involved?). 30+ years ago, it was a smart, organized person. They knew how long every dish took to cook, they could remember every order, and as they were delivering one table's entree they were looking at other tables to see how far they were along with their salad.

I remember 2 of the back waiters, both were a couple years older than me, and both were college students. Smart people who needed money but weren't lifers. One I played volleyball with, hung out socially, and he was a very smart guy. They promoted him to waiter and he didn't make much more money because he wasn't a schmoozer.

There was a high end restaurant here in Houston back in the 80s where the waiters had to “rent” the tables they waited on. They weren’t paid by the restaurant. They had to pay a fee for each table they waited on and pay the support staff out of their tips. The guy I talked said he cleared $500 - $1k a night (or maybe it was a weekend).

This was not fine dining. More like Texas Roadhouse.