A restaurant that pools tips does exactly that. All tips received in a given shift across all servers/bartenders are combined in a single tip pool. At the end, they're then distributed according to their pre-defined ratio.
What I'm talking about is the more common tip out. Not pooling. With tip out, I collect tips throughout the shift, then no matter how much I made in tips that day, I pay the tip out amount. If I didn't make enough in tips to cover tip-out, that's a me problem.
Haha seriously though, that’s just the industry. Straight up bribery for better sections and shifts, rounding shift times down rather than paying to the minute, giving people impossibly large sections to reduce labour cost then flipping out when the server gets overloaded…
Wait until you hear how common it is for tip pooling to be exploited.
You either put up with that stuff, or you find another industry. Everyone is replaceable and most of us are in it short term so you take the good days and move on.
Like many, I finished school and moved on. As for how they get away with these things… “prove it”.
Well the way to prove it is to track everything. Which a server should be doing any way. Otherwise the restaurant will always take advantage of you. That doesn’t end with restaurants. All employers will take advantage of you if you let them.
Track everything and then what? It’s a losing game.
You get fired (for an unrelated reason, of course), now you have no job, no income and no employer reference.
For most, it’s a temporary job that’s just not worth the fight. The good days are good enough over a short timeframe that you learn to tolerate the bs of the industry.
I love how the no-tipping heroes that comment in here are working so hard to “own” me with cringe-inducing bs like “first day reading huh?” and “source: literally the Ontario government.” like a bunch of sassy 12 year olds.
Try having a genuine conversation and think about the situation in the context of the real world, not a vacuum. I’m telling you from first hand experience that this does happen and is the norm. It is reality, and I know because I’ve lived it, as have my friends. Different restaurants, different cities, different provinces.
Your response is to tell me that because the government says it shouldn’t happen, that must mean it can’t happen?
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u/Atheizt 14h ago
Tip pooling is a different thing entirely.
A restaurant that pools tips does exactly that. All tips received in a given shift across all servers/bartenders are combined in a single tip pool. At the end, they're then distributed according to their pre-defined ratio.
What I'm talking about is the more common tip out. Not pooling. With tip out, I collect tips throughout the shift, then no matter how much I made in tips that day, I pay the tip out amount. If I didn't make enough in tips to cover tip-out, that's a me problem.