The provincial government fighting for restaurant servers to keep more of their money is like a cop introducing a bank robber to his accountant.
Premier Dalton McGuinty is supporting NDP MPP Michael Prue’s private member’s bill aimed at prohibiting restaurant managers and owners from taking a cut of servers’ tips.
Wanting employees to keep the money they’ve earned is as well-intentioned a goal as, say, banning plastic bags. But it stems from a Playskool perspective of how the restaurant kingdom works.
This is a cash economy. Most industry professionals that I’ve spoken with over the years say that the average amount servers declare on their taxes is 15 per cent of their actual income (until they want to buy a home). If that is true, it renders this kibitzing over one to four per cent as only enough hot air to steam Har gow.
According to the Employment Standards Act, tips are not wages. The government has no say in how they are divided, which restaurants do in many different ways — pooling; tip-outs to the front of the house with different rates for hosts, runners, bartenders or managers; tip-outs to back-of-house cooks or dishwashers; percentages to the house based on tips or gross sales. There is currently nothing governing any of this and it all gets cut up like so much loot.
Although tips would still be allowed to be shared among staff, managers and owners would be cut out of the equation.
The right intentions are there, but this isn’t really how the real world works.
At the mid-range restaurant Bestellen, for example, tips are first divided evenly between servers and bartenders, before a six per cent (of sales) tip-out to hosts, runners and kitchen staff. Managers are also tipped out, although the restaurant wouldn’t specify by how much.
“A manager runs his butt off, is a support staff, is a bartender in a good portion of his role, is a server when needed to be, sells wine. Their job is to do whatever it takes. They cross a lot of those roles,” says co-owner Ryan Sarfeld, who can’t see this law working.
The house does not take a slice of tips. “No. I’d love to,” adds Sarfeld.
At the more high-end Nota Bene, the managers, but not the owners, are also tipped out. Partner Yannick Bigourdan would rather not say how much, but said the staff is responsible for deciding how to divide tips, with little intervention from him.
“I personally don’t agree with (the proposed bill) because we are going to be losing a lot of good managers,” Bigourdan says. “Whatever we have to increase in salaries or whatever, it’s the end customer that always pays for it, the principle of economics where if everything is going up, eventually the prices are going up, too.”
Customers have the luxury of sticker shock. They can look at the menu prices without imagining that they’re paying for real estate, labour, gas, credit card fees or even water cleaned with an expensive filtration system. So from that point of view, it’s easy to be shocked over tip division.
“It’s never part of our understanding that’s going to the owner or the management,” says McGuinty.
The premier may also be shocked that sometimes a child will simply wet his toothbrush without brushing his teeth.
https://www.thestar.com/living/article/1211534#article
Premier Dalton McGuinty is supporting NDP MPP Michael Prue’s private member’s bill aimed at prohibiting restaurant managers and owners from taking a cut of servers’ tips.
Wanting employees to keep the money they’ve earned is as well-intentioned a goal as, say, banning plastic bags. But it stems from a Playskool perspective of how the restaurant kingdom works.
This is a cash economy. Most industry professionals that I’ve spoken with over the years say that the average amount servers declare on their taxes is 15 per cent of their actual income (until they want to buy a home). If that is true, it renders this kibitzing over one to four per cent as only enough hot air to steam Har gow.
According to the Employment Standards Act, tips are not wages. The government has no say in how they are divided, which restaurants do in many different ways — pooling; tip-outs to the front of the house with different rates for hosts, runners, bartenders or managers; tip-outs to back-of-house cooks or dishwashers; percentages to the house based on tips or gross sales. There is currently nothing governing any of this and it all gets cut up like so much loot.
Although tips would still be allowed to be shared among staff, managers and owners would be cut out of the equation.
The right intentions are there, but this isn’t really how the real world works.
At the mid-range restaurant Bestellen, for example, tips are first divided evenly between servers and bartenders, before a six per cent (of sales) tip-out to hosts, runners and kitchen staff. Managers are also tipped out, although the restaurant wouldn’t specify by how much.
“A manager runs his butt off, is a support staff, is a bartender in a good portion of his role, is a server when needed to be, sells wine. Their job is to do whatever it takes. They cross a lot of those roles,” says co-owner Ryan Sarfeld, who can’t see this law working.
The house does not take a slice of tips. “No. I’d love to,” adds Sarfeld.
At the more high-end Nota Bene, the managers, but not the owners, are also tipped out. Partner Yannick Bigourdan would rather not say how much, but said the staff is responsible for deciding how to divide tips, with little intervention from him.
“I personally don’t agree with (the proposed bill) because we are going to be losing a lot of good managers,” Bigourdan says. “Whatever we have to increase in salaries or whatever, it’s the end customer that always pays for it, the principle of economics where if everything is going up, eventually the prices are going up, too.”
Customers have the luxury of sticker shock. They can look at the menu prices without imagining that they’re paying for real estate, labour, gas, credit card fees or even water cleaned with an expensive filtration system. So from that point of view, it’s easy to be shocked over tip division.
“It’s never part of our understanding that’s going to the owner or the management,” says McGuinty.
The premier may also be shocked that sometimes a child will simply wet his toothbrush without brushing his teeth.
https://www.thestar.com/living/article/1211534#article
