Government Screws Servers

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/23/14 at 6:07pm

You know when you and a bunch of friends go into a restaurant and there's an automatic gratuity for "parties of 6 or more"? The government will now treat that gratuity as regular wages. That means that servers won't take that money home the night they earn it. They will have to wait two weeks to see it in their paycheck.

Barack Obama heard saying: Screw the middle classes. I will never accept them.
Link

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/23/14 at 6:13pm

They ARE suppose to report all of their earnings....including taxes. Many restaraunts report all their credit card tips.

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 1/23/14 at 10:10pm

Goth has obviously never worked in a restaurant and doesn't have friends who work in restaurants either. You can't opt out of not reporting tips.

Having worked in a few local SF joints over the last few years, I do not that anything on the credit card slip is taxed and I get it on my check. You may think you're tipping me your 20% but I'm being taxed on it. The only cash I take home at the end of my shift is the cash tips, which I was supposed to report as CASH TIPS and then it would've been taken out of my paycheck anyway.

I do miss working brunch in the Castro. I'd come home with at least $800 cash on any given weekend. It was awesome.

Also, even if I didn't get tipped, I would still have to tip the bussers, the bartenders, and sometimes the host. The gratuity guaranteed that those guys got tipped. Updated On: 1/23/14 at 10:10 PM

[theatreguy]

Posted: 1/23/14 at 10:47pm

I have several friends who work in restaurants . All of their employers have eliminated the automatic gratuity starting this week in response to the new law.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 1/23/14 at 10:54pm

While I think the wages paid to servers is criminal, taxing their income isn't.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 1/23/14 at 11:05pm

You are supposed to include all money you earn for taxes. You even are supposed to include what you get on lottery tickets, whether is was a huge amount or not. So, this is not a problem to me at all.

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 1/23/14 at 11:43pm

I'd love to know the percentage of strippers who report 100% percent of their tips.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/24/14 at 10:38am

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this, but the tips are now reported as regular wages. Therefore it falsely inflates the hourly wage of a server. The key wording here is "regular wages."

For example, if a server works a one hour party and gets a $50 tip. That server is now considered to make $50 per hour.

[finebydesign]

Posted: 1/24/14 at 11:33am

Goth how is that different than before? You are supposed to report EVERYTHING. Lying on your taxes is your own business, but it's illegal.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 1/24/14 at 11:39am

Is it wrong.
That I find Goth's use of sentence fragments sexy?

[Marianne2]

Posted: 1/24/14 at 11:53am

To me it sounds like they are just waiting to take home what they made versus bringing it home the same night. The pay checks will vary depending on the tips, but they will still get it whether it was 50 cents or $1000.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 1/24/14 at 12:08pm

The federal minimum wage for waiters and waitresses hasn't increased in over twenty years. That's thanks to successful lobbying from the restaurant industry. It's restaurant owners that have screwed their workers, not the government.
If you really care about servers Goth perhaps you could advocate for an increase in the fed minimum wage for tipped workers.
Minimum Wage For Restaurant Servers Remains Stagnant For 20 Years Under Industry Lobbying

[finebydesign]

Posted: 1/24/14 at 12:33pm

Well at least these people are finally eligible for health insurance.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/24/14 at 12:53pm

ErikJ, I do care about servers because I have worked in a restaurant.

But you tell me that it's not the government but the restaurant lobby. It is the government who keeps servers wages low. A simple law could be passed that says servers pay should be set at minimum wage. Obama could do it by Executive Order. Heck, he's done several other illegal Executive Orders, why doesn't he just make it happen? It's the government's decision to write legislation protecting workers.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 1/24/14 at 12:57pm

And then you would say Obama was forcing restaurant owners to pay their employees a living wage.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 1/24/14 at 1:02pm

Minimum wage? And the restaurant just keeps the tips? Wasn't that on the cat lady's Kitchen Nightmares episode?

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 7:47am

Okay, I get that this is a big change. When you live as a server, you are used to daily cash. You plan bills and expenses around this. With this plan, if you have a shift where a huge party is your only table, you walk away that night with no cash. I get it. It's an adjustment, but it doesn't seem like anyone got screwed.

Credit card tips are usually reported automatically, anyway. This doesn't change the taxation at all.

[E.Davis]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 10:20am

As someone who works in a big NYC restaurant we are getting screwed by the auto gratuity going away because now we are loosing money. Foreign tables do not tip and even though it says it on the bill, we are not allowed to tell them unless they ask that service is not included. Imagine you had a 200 dollar bill and though you were going to get 40 tip and you only get 5 of it. Let that sink in and tell me I can still make a living.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 12:00pm

But why are the employers doing away with the auto-gratuity? That's on them. Is it more work to include it in paychecks? Surely. They are choosing to not have to think about it and thereby screwing the employees.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 2:30pm

"But why are the employers doing away with the auto-gratuity? That's on them. Is it more work to include it in paychecks?"

Yes, it's an extra record-keeping expense that restaurants just don't want to hassle with. It requires reprogramming all of their computers or in old-fashioned restaurants telling Ida the bookkeeper that she has extra work.

Whenever the government enacts a new law, you need to ask yourself two questions: Is this really necessary? And who does it affect?

I can almost bet you that most of Congress has a nanny or a gardener that they are paying under the table. Where's the oversight for them?

And E.Davis - what's the difference between a canoe and a European? A canoe tips.

Updated On: 1/25/14 at 02:30 PM

[Marianne2]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 2:46pm

And that nanny and and gardener are supposed to keep track of what they make for taxes. Again, it is illegal to not report that sort of income. I think my sister had a job once where she had to figure out the taxes for herself. And from what I understand, I do stuff online and get rewarded in gift cards. I asked my dad, who does taxes for low income people every year, and he said I have to report that as income, even though it isn't cash. I don't have an official form either, so I have to try to figure out how to bring a printout of everything I made.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/25/14 at 3:02pm

"And that nanny and and gardener are supposed to keep track of what they make for taxes."

Marianne2, why is that? How come their employer won't do it?

I'm not saying to anyone that you shouldn't be honest in reporting your taxes. My point here is that the government is making it extra difficult on businesses. The more a business has to comply with, the more time and money it costs and that discourages business growth and more employed people.

In addition, is there any law that says that service charge has to go to the server? I had always assumed that was at the discretion of the restaurant.

I worked at a restaurant in the early 80s that was connected to a hotel. Room service charges and dining room service charges were always paid in cash out of the cash register at the end of the server's shift. It was left to the server/delivery person to report how much they made in tips. They could either report the money or opt for a certain percentage to be reported as their tip income.