While the federal minimum wage for hourly workers has increased from $4.25/hour in 1991 to the present level of $7.25, the minimum wage for workers earning tips has remained at $2.13, meaning tipped workers have had to increasingly rely on tips because their base wage has not kept up with the rest of the workforce. This morning, the White House made the case that it’s time for tipped workers to get a pay raise. [More]
tips
Starbucks Mobile Payment App Will Allow 2-Hour Tipping Window
By 3.12.14
Starbucks says that 1-in-10 customers now uses the company’s mobile payment app when buying their lattes and whatnot at the coffee colossus, but these customers must currently dig into their pockets if they want to show their appreciation with a tip for the barista. But starting next week, iPhone users will have the option of leaving digital tops at the ‘bucks. [More]
Pastor’s Website Lets Waiters Vent About Skimpy Tips On After-Church Meals
By 3.11.14
Following last year’s firing of an Applebee’s waitress who dared to post a receipt from a cheapskate customer claiming to be a pastor who gives “10% to God” and thus shouldn’t be required to pay the 18% tip mandated for large parties, a real pastor at a church in Tennessee decided to create a website to remind churchgoers that they shouldn’t stiff their restaurant servers. [More]
How Technology & The Power Of Suggestion Are Getting People To Leave Higher Tips
By 2.28.14
Most American restaurant-goers are used to writing a tip on the receipt after they enjoy a sit-down meal, but with a growing number of eateries — like food trucks and pop-up restaurants — that straddle the line between traditional dining and fast food, it’s unclear whether customers are expected to leave a tip or just be on their merry way. That’s why some new payment systems include an extra step to put the idea of tipping in the consumer’s mind. [More]
Famous Philly Eatery To Pay $8.5 Million For Short-Changing Servers’ Tips
By 2.21.14
More than 1,200 current and former employees of a well-known bar/restaurant chain in Philadelphia are going to share in an $8.5 million settlement over allegations that the eatery’s owner illegally demanded servers’ tips and also failed to pay minimum wage and overtime to tipped employees. [More]
9 Things We Learned From The Interview With Supposed “Tips For Jesus” Ringleader
By 2.20.14
Where there’s smoke, there just has to be fire. Which is why we’ve all been stymied by the mysterious rash of overly generous tips that have been popping up in restaurants, coffee shops and bars across the nation. On a lot of those receipts, there’s a unifying addition scrawled after tips of $1,000 or $3,000: “Tips for Jesus.” So who is this big tipper — or tippers — making the fires?
[More]
Restaurant Customer Tips Three Waitresses $5,000 Each
By 2.4.14
There’s one trend we have the distinct pleasure in seeing spread, and that is when customers settle big, fat tips on their servers just because. Because it’s fun to surprise people with an unexpected hefty tip, because some people have money to spread around — whatever the case, it’s fun. And it’s even more fun for three waitresses who received $5,000 tips over the weekend. [More]
Proposed Minimum Wage Increase Would Give Tipped Workers First Raise Since 1991
By 1.28.14
Minimum wage is a hot topic of discussion at the moment, with President Obama expected to address it in his State of the Union address this evening. Senate Democrats are pushing to raise the minimum wage, and the lawmakers are suggesting an increase in the minimum tip wage to go along with. [More]
More Strippers Sue Club Owners To Be Treated Like Employees
By 1.15.14
While much attention has been paid to the growing movement to improve the wages of fast food and retail workers in the U.S., there have been a number of of lawsuits in the last year involving long-held payment practices at the nation’s gentlemen’s clubs. Dancers at an Atlanta strip club are the latest to sue club owners, alleging that they are being forced to pay the owners for the right to work at the club. [More]
Bar Staff Allowed To Keep $10,000 Tip After It Proves To Be Genuine
By 1.13.14
The staff of a campus bar at Notre Dame is now $10,000 richer, after American Express approved a mystery tipper’s generous tip from back in November. Everyone nearby should probably hurry over there soon in case they’re handing out free rounds to celebrate. [via WNDU.com] [More]
It’s Customary To Leave The Meth In Your Pocket & The Cash On The Table When Tipping
By 1.8.14
Listen, people, if you can’t binge watch TV shows responsibly, someone should probably revoke your Netflix privileges. That’s the kind of joke we have to make when we hear that a couple in Oregon left their waitress methamphetamine as a tip. Even Jesse wouldn’t do that. Or he would. But whatever, real life is not Breaking Bad life. [More]
Waitress Who Claimed She Got Anti-Gay Receipt No Longer Employed At Restaurant
By 12.9.13
Yet another development in the tale of the New Jersey waitress who recently claimed that she was stiffed out of a tip by diners’ who disapproved of her being a lesbian. Over the weekend, the restaurant at the center of this story announced that the waitress is no longer an employee there. [More]
Solo Diner Leaves Restaurant Staff $835 Tip For Working On Thanksgiving
By 12.3.13
While it’s tough to go to work on holidays like Thanksgiving, it can also be a bummer if you don’t have family to celebrate with on the day. One Florida woman was facing a solo turkey day and didn’t feel like cooking just for herself so she decided to go out to eat at a restaurant alone. She left hours later with more than just a full stomach. [More]
Bar Staff Still Waiting For Money A Month After Mystery Tippers Leave $10,000
By 11.27.13
Staff at a Notre Dame campus bar in South Bend, Ind. got a pretty spectacular surprise last month when a group of three generous men left two tips totaling $10,000, despite the fact that they seemed to be rooting for the opposing team. But because it’s not every day that such a sum lands in your lap, the staff is still waiting to get that cash due to fraud concerns. [More]
Federal Appeals Court Says Yes, Starbucks Baristas Have To Share Tips With Supervisors
By 11.22.13
Starbucks baristas had kept fighting to keep customer tips out of the hands of shift supervisors after a court ruled in June that they’d have to share. Assistant managers are still out of the loop, but the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says that because shift supervisors do a lot of the same work as baristas, they deserve the extra cash. [More]
Waitress Says Customer Denied Her A Tip Because She Disagreed With Her Lifestyle
By 11.15.13
We don’t like how it’s apparently becoming a trend for customers to choose to not only stiff their servers on tips, but to then explain that it’s because of how they “live their lifestyle” which translates to, “because you’re gay and I disagree with that, you don’t get a tip.” A waitress in New Jersey says that’s what just happened to her on a $93.55 bill. [More]
People Have Been Ranting About Tipping In The NY Times Since 1899
By 9.9.13
While NY Times restaurant critic Pete Wells made headlines last week with his scathing takedown of restaurant tipping, he’s hardly the first person to speak negatively about tipping in the pages of the Gray Lady. In fact, the Times has been down on tips since at least the late 19th Century. [More]
Are These The Final Days Of Automatic 18% Tips At Restaurants?
By 9.5.13
Many restaurants have a policy of automatically adding a 15-20% tip for large groups of diners, but that practice may be going the way of the dinosaur as a new revision to IRS income tax rules will make such auto-gratuities less attractive to servers and management. [More]
