I would like thoughts on tap room bar tenders splitting tips even if one of the tenders is an owner and one an employee.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Tips for owners bar tending
Collapse
X
-
Originally posted by ChesterBrew View PostKnowing what tap room people generally make, my personal opinion is the owner should forfeit their share of any tip jar unless the employees also have a stake in the company profits.
For example, if the tips are $300 for a night, if they were working with an owner, they would get the full $300, if it was another employee, they would only take home $150.
Half of me feels like you do and the other half wants to set a precedent that scheduled bartenders always split tips, owner or employee is irrelevant.
Comment
-
Taking a share of the tips doesn't communicate your ownership of the business or your authority to your employees.
I've never had an owner take tips. I don't think I'd want to work for one that does. I don't think it's unethical to take the tips, but I think it's really tacky and lacks class.
Unless you want to split the equity with your bartenders as well, I'd just let them enjoy their pittance.
Comment
-
Originally posted by nateo View PostUnless you want to split the equity with your bartenders as well, I'd just let them enjoy their pittance.Kevin Shertz
Chester River Brewing Company
Chestertown, MD
Comment
-
Chester - Yeah, I was agreeing with you, I just didn't bother to insert the quote.
I think it's really important to convey power and success to your employees. If they think you're grubbing for tips, they'll gossip about it. They'll tell people how bad your business must be doing, or how greedy you are. Whether that's true or not, that's what it will look like to some people.Last edited by nateo; 02-25-2013, 04:37 PM.
Comment
-
No worries. True or not (many times not) employees tend to equate "ownership" with raking in the dough far more than they are. I've owned a business for the past 8 years and bitterly laugh at this notion, but can't refute that it's out there.
How do you make a small fortune in brewing? Start with a large one...Kevin Shertz
Chester River Brewing Company
Chestertown, MD
Comment
-
In our Retail and Tasting Room we do this. If there is an owner and employee working, the employee gets all the tips. More than 1 employee working and they split the tips. If there is just owners, then whatever tips we do receive (try not to take them but people will leave them anyway) we take and put into jar for the Company Party. Not as much money as you are talking about in a Tap Room, but it works for us.
Cheers,
DaveDavid Schlosser
Brewmaster / Founder
Naked Dove Brewing Company
Canandaigua, NY
Comment
-
Originally posted by schlosser View PostIf there is just owners, then whatever tips we do receive (try not to take them but people will leave them anyway) we take and put into jar for the Company Party.
Another option: at one of the restaurants I worked the owner usually tended bar, and sometimes waited tables. She'd save all of her tips, then at the end of each week she'd divvy them up to the people who didn't typically get tips like the busboys, hostesses, and back-of-house staff.
Chester - I hear you about owners not raking in the dough. I'm a junior partner in a small business now. I'm still a long ways from "well-off," but I'm making a hell of a lot more than when I was working in the food industry. I'm amazed at how little I made back then.
Comment
-
I think it depends.
If you have a full on brewpub, lots of staff, and the owner is just there chatting and kinda overseeing things? Yeah, don't take tips. Total dick move and your employees will resent you.
If it's an owner and an employee running a busy small taproom? As an owner, when you look at it hourly I'm not exactly making bank, so I'd support splitting the tips for honest, hard bartending work. (If only so I could splurge and buy the fancy kind of cereal that has a label on it.) But if it was a slow night, it'd be proper to give what tips there are all to the employee. If I help out a bit during the night when it suddenly got busy but I am not fully 'on' (help move some kegs, pour a pint or two, fill a growler for someone) I wouldn't take any tips.
Also things get fun when an owner takes tips and you have an LLC. I believe that technically those tips go in as LLC income. So when you get your share of the profits divvied out to you you could technically get say, 1/3 of another owner's tips.
Love Dave's idea about the Company Party Jar! We fill growlers during the odd hours when the taproom isn't open and I'm thinking any tips I get there might just go in that jar now.Russell Everett
Co-Founder / Head Brewer
Bainbridge Island Brewing
Bainbridge Island, WA
Comment
-
Originally posted by mashpaddledDepending on the particulars of how tips are received from customers and how any tipping out or tip pooling is done in your business you may violate the FLSA and state wage law by taking any of the tips, even if you are bartending or serving along with the tipped employees. If you are the owner (or any non-tipped employee) and you tend the bar with other tipped employees and all the tips at the bar are pooled the Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits you from taking any of the tips.
If you followed the link from another website, the link they provided may be outdated. Please go to our homepage, check out our topics list or A-Z Index or try a search.
The big thing is to reinforce is that the tips cannot be taken out of the pool for any other purpose than paying the tipped bartender. So taking tips for a "party fund" is illegal, unless the bartender pitches in from their tips after you give them to him/her.
Comment
-
Originally posted by nateo View PostInteresting. I didn't know that, and had to look it up. Here's a fact sheet with more info, for those interested:
If you followed the link from another website, the link they provided may be outdated. Please go to our homepage, check out our topics list or A-Z Index or try a search.
The big thing is to reinforce is that the tips cannot be taken out of the pool for any other purpose than paying the tipped bartender. So taking tips for a "party fund" is illegal, unless the bartender pitches in from their tips after you give them to him/her.
As for the right or wrong of it. I know lots of bar owners who work behind the bar and for the most part they take tips or split tips when appropriate. That is taking a shift and working as a bartender. You don't just jump in on someones scheduled shift for a little bit and take tips for the drinks you sold, because that is the employees shift and thus their tips. You maybe jump behind the bar when a bus pulls up to make sure your customers are getting served quickly and keep your bartender out of the weeds, but that isn't taking a bartending shift. But when you are on the schedule for a bartending shift, there is no reason not to split tips. If you don't work as hard or harder than your employees, then you are going to have more problems than just tip issues!! Certainly when its a slow night and the tips are lean, it is good policy to give it all to the hourly employee. Likely you would leave that employee to bartend and go to the office to catch up on paper work!
In my neck of the woods there are many small corner bars and it is quite common for bar owners to bartend along with only a handful of employees because they can't afford to not be working. They count on those tips just like any other bartender does! If they didn't, I promise they wouldn't be working behind the bar. Don't ever skimp on a tip because the guy serving you is the owner! That is an insult to him and only says that you are cheap and lacking class, or that the service was so bad that you couldn't wait to leave. It is absolutely NOT appropriate to stiff anyone who gives good service. If someone turns down a tip then so be it, but if they need to be working behind the bar to make ends meet they want it. Certainly, it may be that the Owner just bops around and gets the occasional drink while the bartender stocks and cleans and serves most of the drinks. That is different and that isn't bartending, but if they take a shift like everyone else, they deserve the tips.
Ideas of using owner earned tips to fund an employee party are great ideas and would be very generous IMHO. There is nothing in that document that says that you can't. If you said "10% of each nights tips from all employees will go to the employee party" than that would be illegal. After earning and receiving your tips you can do with them as you will.
Matt
Comment
Comment