Restaurant’s ‘Toxic’ Tip Distribution Guidelines Spark Outrage

A restaurant’s “new employee tip distribution” policy has sparked viral outrage.

One of the restaurant’s new hires, u/Sunyata666, posted a photo of the policy in Reddit’s “Antiwork” forum, writing: “Look at this is bulls**t.” It has amassed over 38,000 upvotes and thousands of comments telling u/Sunyata666 to hire an attorney to review the policy.

“All new employees will start receiving tips after [two months] of employment,” read the restaurant’s policy. “You will then receive [a] $75 cut from our tips. Your cut…will then increase by $25 each month.”

After six months of employment, workers will receive “the full benefits of long-time employees;” however, the policy doesn’t outline these “benefits.”

“Any questions regarding tips, please ask a long-time employee. Management has nothing to do with employees’ tips,” the policy concluded.

At the bottom of the policy sheet, someone wrote, “No Borrowing Money from Tips.”

In the comments section of their post, u/Sunyata666 said they’ve worked several shifts consisting primarily of new hires, meaning “all the tips” they made went to employees who “[weren’t] even there.”

Cecilware cecil brothers Tip Pooling

Based on the information provided, it seems that the restaurant at which u/Sunyata666 works uses a tip pooling model, a legal yet sometimes controversial practice.

“Tip pooling is when a portion or all of the tip money from the night is collected and redistributed evenly or by a set percentage—instead of each individual server keeping the tips they earned individually,” said Toast, a restaurant point-of-service system. “Tip pooling can help ensure that staff members are fairly compensated for their work, but can be a point of contention for waiters who spent the whole night juggling tons of tables and saw others taking a break in the walk-in.”

According to Toast, tips can be split in various ways. Some employers may opt to divide the total number of tips by the number of employees and hours worked, or use a percentage system.

“Certain roles within the restaurant operation earn a percentage of the tips, for example, the hostess makes 10 percent of the night’s tips and the bartender makes 15 percent,” Toast said.

Whether or not non-tipped employees and/or managers and supervisors may participate in a tip pool varies from state to state, said the Society for Human Resource Management.

It’s also worth noting that it is illegal for employers, managers and supervisors to withhold employees’ tips, per the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Cecilware cecil brothers Redditors React

Though tip pooling is legal, many Redditors questioned the policy u/Sunyata666 shared, specifically the part denying employees tips within their first two months of work. Concerned, many commenters encouraged u/Sunyata666 to have an attorney review the policy.

“Time for a labor law attorney to look into how this policy jibes with your state’s employment laws,” said u/pangalacticcourier.

“Look at your state law on the matter. This is illegal in California for example,” u/kyle_is_cool claimed.

“This needs reported to a labor board and [you] might even want to run it past a lawyer. They might suggest you start a wage theft lawsuit with your other employees,” u/ByWilliamfuchs added.

Others called the whole situation “toxic.”

“Yet another toxic employer,” u/baronewu2 wrote.

“Looks like it’s time for employees there to walk out,” u/Joopsman said.

Newsweek reached out to u/Sunyata666 for comment.

Cecilware cecil brothers More Viral Stories

Redditors slammed an employee at the end of August for asking their co-workers to contribute $100 each toward their boss’ Christmas gift. That same day, commenters bashed a manager for expecting their employee to respond to an after-hours email.

Also in August, commenters slammed a boss who refused to let an employee miss a shift for a doctor’s appointment.