In many situations, tips are given directly to the waitstaff at a bar or a restaurant. Customers may just leave tips on the table. If they pay with a credit card, they may leave a tip on the point-of-sale device. Either way, they know exactly who they’re giving that money to.
But in other situations, bars and restaurants will use tip pools. This just means that all of the tips for the entire evening are combined. Once the restaurant closes for the night, the staff splits the money up evenly. If there are $500 in tips and five employees who worked as waiters and waitresses on that shift, they all take $100 – regardless of who waited on which specific customers.
Who is involved in the pool?
Employees will sometimes complain that this is a form of wage theft. They may think they would earn more in tips if they didn’t have to share it with other members of the staff. But as long as the employees are told about the tip pool up front, combining those tips is entirely legal.
The problem comes when companies try to include people who should not be in the tip pool. As a general rule, the pool can never include employers, business owners, supervisors and managers.
What options do you have?
Has your boss been including themselves in the tip pool and taking money directly from the employees? If you’ve been experiencing this or any other type of wage theft, make sure you know exactly what legal steps you can take to seek the wages you are due.