There’s a tired piece of corruption that unscrupulous restaurant owners and managers love foisting on hardworking waiters – tip stealing. Simply put, some managers insist on getting “tipped out” at the end of the night like a bus person or bartender. It’s almost always done in cash. Sometimes even the owners demand a percentage of the night’s gratuities. In many states, including New York, this is ILLEGAL.

A common tactic is screwing waiters out of the service charge on a large expensive party. For example, a party of 30 comes in and spends $5000. Four waiters are assigned to the party. There’s an 18% service charge of $900. The waiters end up getting $100 bucks a piece. Where did the other $500 go? Into the owner or manager’s pocket! A lot of waiters won’t fight it because they need their jobs or their bosses threatened to turn then into Immigration. Don’t think that shit happens? Trust me. It does.
(This scenario shouldn’t apply to banquet waiters. Correct me if I’m wrong.)

The Bistro where I work is fair and transparent concerning how we pay out tips. But I know plenty of places where management pulls crap like this all the time. Today they’re on notice! Why?

A restaurant in Massachusetts might have to pay 2.5 million dollars in assorted damages to wait staff whose tips were siphoned off by management. Four waitresses were fired after they had the audacity to complain to management about robbing them and breaking the law. Sad but typical.

Now they’re getting a boatload of money in compensation. Good for them!

Now will someone file a class action lawsuit against owners who make waiters pay some or all of the credit card transaction fees out of their tips? Please!

I hope this judgment puts greedy bastard restaurant owners on notice. Jerks.

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