general question on tipping

[stopdiggin]

Last edited Mon Jun 26, 2023, 09:08 PM - Edit history (1)

Been wondering this for some period of time now ..
When the server at the coffee house spins the little screen around to me - to either add a percentage tip to total, or conversely decline ... Is that 'tip' handled in the same way as the the dollar bill(s) I stuff in the jar on the counter?

Basic question/concern is obviously - is that money actually getting to the servers and wait staff? (when and how) And then, further, if someone has a real answer - are there other implications involved - taxes, withholding, reporting - fair splits and distribution? And - is anybody, beyond perhaps owner and site manager, in possession of those figures and (purported) distributions?

[Think. Again.]

1. I think it's always best to tip in cash.

[CrispyQ]

2. I hate tip culture.

Pay your damned employees! Why do I have to pay for goods/services & then pay your employees, too? Also, there are all the issues you mentioned. Who really gets the money?

This is a little dated, 2014, I think.

[NoRethugFriends]

5. Yes, pay the employees, but, they're maybe not paying them well, so

an extra buck in a jar for someone working possibly a minimum wage job doesn't hurt if you can afford it.

[stopdiggin]

16. agree. the 'pay the workers' line

(while fundamentally sound social economics) - - is pretty much hollering down the wind - when it comes to the person that is juggling 2 jobs, and praying that the sh*tty car doesn't give up on them this week. Kinda' comes down to who you're 'sticking it to' - and who you're trying to help.

[Niagara]

9. +1000

It doesn't help that Reagan and his administration slashed wait staff minimum wages in half, making those workers dependent on tips.


I waited tables at Ponderosa when I was a teen and a manager of mine let me know why I only made half of minimum wage, which was $4.25 at that time. That was the only time he ever told me anything political. I'm not positive, but I believe that he leaned left.

[doc03]

12. I think that predated RR. I had a summer job as a busboy back in 1964. At the time minmum wage

was $1.25 but minimum wage was only $.75 for servers and busboys. The servers shared $4 a day with us out of their tips giving
us $1.25 an hour, $10 a day was pretty good money back then and $4 was tax free.

[Niagara]

13. Thank you for sharing this, doc03.

I went searching the internet and I only found this article from February 5, 1983, basically a new rule to report tips to the IRS for tax purposes.


I can't find anything else about tipped workers during the Reagan Admin.



https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/02/05/New-Internal-Revenue-Service-rules-for-reporting-tips-have/9750413269200/

[sl8]

19. I found this:

The Tip Credit Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): In Brief - CRS Reports (pdf)

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R43445/5

[intrepidity]

3. Good questions, bookmarking

I still don't fully understand tipping in contexts besides wait staff at dine-in restaurants.

I tend to err on the side of over tipping and it often feels weird when I tip an owner of a business (or whom I suspect is owner but not sure).

So far I've not seen a tip jar at the grocery store checkers, but I bet it is coming. They already ask for various "donations" (where do those *really* go?) so just a matter of time til checkers jump on the bandwagon.

And meanwhile corporate profits are at obscene levels.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

4. It's handled the same way as it is if you wrote the amount on the bill

And it gets charged to your debit or credit card you used for payment.

IOW the act of the server spinning a screen around to you is no different from any other time you leave a tip in a way that varies from just handing someone some cash.

There's a lot of different laws in different places re: how your tip is handled, but one thing about this ... fairly or not, employees who seem to earn little in verifiable tips (i.e. one with a paper trail) are often looked down upon as 'not good employees'.

[stopdiggin]

17. thanks.

Yes - I know that 'gratuity' has long been added to tab when paying by credit card. Same thing. (and I often had similar questions there. suspect a lot of it kind of depends on the business you're dealing with .. )

[marble falls]

6. Always tip cash directly to your server. Owners in the last ten or so years have gotten very ...

... generous with their server's tips - giving portions to managers, maintenance, kitchen all illegal by Federal law.

All smart servers declare their tips honestly. It could make a difference with SSI and unemployment.

[EYESORE 9001]

7. I prefer to tip in cash

Getting spoiled by debit card payments, I often forget about ‘walking-around money.’ I will tip using the debit card in those instances, but I don’t like doing it.

[sanatanadharma]

8. Tip-culture is not world wide but is built into the culture of the USA

I think started in the hoary past of pre-2nd amendment carnage as either a bribe or a thank you for "please not killing me."

[we can do it]

10. They are definitely taxed on tips on CC. Each establishment chooses split.

[MichMan]

11. Cash tips are almost always pocketed without paying any taxes on it.

[stopdiggin]

18. suspect that is true

and I have to admit to being a little on the fence about that ...

(I'm otherwise a pretty much no nonsense, "Pay Your Damned Taxes" sort of hard ass. A little more sympathy for the person on the lower end of the economic ladder - but still not really down with wholesale, and universally acknowledged, cheating)

[beaglelover]

14. The cashier at Panera once told my husband that when he enters a tip the employees never

see it reflected in their paychecks. She basically told him not to enter a tip.

[wishstar]

15. I always prefer to use the tip jar and tell the clerk I've tipped into their jar instead

Good way to get rid of spare change