Required Tip Out

[Clevon]

I work as a server, in a fine dining restaurant in FL.

We(servers) are required to share our tips as follows: 10% to food runner, 6% to bar and 17% to busboy. Not only are we required to tip out 33%(!) of our tips, but very often do not receive the "service", WE are "paying" for: we have to run food(even though we tip out 10% to runner/s), we have to clear/reset tables, even though we tip out 17%(!) to bus! We also are required to tip bar 6% on our total tips, not on percentage of alcohol served. Even if we do not receive ONE drink from bar(which can happen on nights we have banquets, which often have bottles of wine- bartender has to do NOTHING), we are still required to tip 6%.

As this restaurant is a fine dining chain, you would think the required tip out would be the same in all locations.....but not so: the GM determines what percentage the servers have to tip out. In our case, we have one of the highest tip outs, if not THE highest, in the nation.

My question: Is it legal in FL, that a restaurant can force a tipped employee, to share 33% of ENTIRE tips with hourly paid employees: runners, bartenders, busboys.

Is it legal, that even though we tip out 10% to runners- 17% to busboys, we are STILL required to do part of their work?

At times we are tipping out $100+ per night!

Thank you!

[Meinhard]

Maria - The law does not allow employers to require tipped employees to share their tips with hourly, non-tipped employees.  The reason employers are allowed to use the tip credit is that the tips are supplemental to the wage.  The arrangement has very specific conditions, one of which is that there is only one way tip sharing can occur: all tips are put into a pool and then divided among the tipped employees in equal shares.  No employee who is not regularly tipped can be included in the division of the pool, nor can employees who do not contribute to the pool be included in the division.  In short, your employer is violating the law.

This is not Florida law, it is federal law and is enforced by the Department of Labor.  You and your fellow wait staff should complain to the local Department of Labor office.  They will investigate and, if they conclude a law has been broken, order the employer to change its practices and pay the employees what they are owed times two.  Good luck.