Tipping; how are tips shared/split?

[Throck]

I need some help understanding how tips are split/shared in the food and hair cutting businesses.

I generally tip in cash. Separate it from the bill. When the waitress, waiter, haircutter gets that "bill" are the tips pooled and then re-split, does the individual get the lion's share, who makes the decisions on the splits.

As a side note, my son use to bus and clear tables. The faster he moved the more people could go through the restaurant and thus the waitresses could potentially make more tips. He hustled. Over the year a number of waitresses threw him a few bucks and he was thrilled. He never expected it since he got minimum wage and they didn't. He had good work ethic and liked to keep busy.

Back to my original question, who controls the tips?

FWIW, now that restaurants and haircutters are open I've been tipping 20%+ at my coffee, hamburger, haircutter places knowing that those businesses were hit hard during Covid. If I'm going to tip I want it to go to the people earning it and most economically hit. I'm a big fan of the mom and pop shops, avoiding the chain corporate places.

PS: I'd like feedback both positive and negative.

[fierywoman]

1. I waitressed in the late 60's, early 70's in 1. a kosher deli 2. an Italian restaurant

3.North Shore Country Club (LI -- where I watched Nixon resign on the lounge tv) 4. Cafe at Bethesda Fountain (Central park, NY -- run by Restaurant Associates) and a deli underground in Rockefeller Center.

The only place that asked us to give a percentage of our tips to the bus boys (ca. 10-15%) was the Cafe at Bethesda Fountain -- where EVERYONE "paid off" everyone, i.e., the guy in charge of alcoholic drinks gave drinks to the dishwasher (so he had enough glasses), the dishwasher I think also got to eat the expensive side of the menu (for the same reason for the cooks), and of course the restaurant fed the NYC cops on horses so they'd be nearby and people felt safe to come into the park. The system worked well.

[Throck]

2. Thanks

[SWBTATTReg]

3. My SO worked in the industry for quite a while...

Tips were handled in a variety of ways, and it does depend on the place you work at. Every place seems to have a different tipping policy in place.

- some lumped all tips together, and then all split and shared;
- some worked for individual tips (at their particular work stations, and then tipped each of the workers, e.g., bus persons, dishwashers, etc., all a certain amount/%s);
-some places took everyone's tips, and then 'rebated them back out';
-some places didn't take tips, insisted that workers had a higher hourly rate, thus didn't need tips;

As you can imagine, there are problems w/ each of the tipping processes above.

[Mr.Bill]

4. I bartended for a while at a Country Club.

The wait staff would tip me personally at the end of their shifts. There were no hard and fast rules about it. One waitress refused to do it and was fired. The ones who got more drinks from the bar tipped more. They also tipped the kitchen workers and bussers. In California the wait staff get full minimum wage.

[ruet]

5. Ask Your Servers If They Have to Pool Tip.

If they do, slip'em a little something on the side.

[Throck]

6. This is why I try to tip cash.

[MichMan]

7. If the agreement is that tips are pooled and shared evenly

Why would you encourage your server to screw fellow workers by keeping them all to themselves?