Trump rolling back Obama rule on pooling restaurant tips

[turbinetree]

Source: The Hill

The Trump administration is rolling back an Obama-era rule that bans employers from pooling workers’ tips.

The Labor Department announced plans Monday to issue a proposed rule to change the Fair Labor Standards Act regulation and allow employers to pool the tips of workers who make full minimum wage and share them with non-tipped workers.

The National Restaurant Association has been fighting hard for the rule change to eliminate what it has said is a pay disparity between waitresses in the front of the house and cooks in the kitchen.
“These “back of the house’ employees contribute to the overall customer experience, but may receive less compensation than their traditionally tipped co-workers,” the Labor Department said in its news release.


http://thehill.com/regulation/labor/363091-trump-rolling-back-obama-rule-on-pooling-restaurant-tips




Read more: http://thehill.com/regulation/labor/363091-trump-rolling-back-obama-rule-on-pooling-restaurant-tips

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This is just fucked up--------------to make this really simple, the assholes over in the restaurant industries, could, mind you, pay everyone a hourly wages, they, the restaurant assholes, then could put on the menu list that tips will not be accepted, the restaurant industry in my opinion is a form of slave labor

[freddyvh]

1. ha

I have worked in restaurants for years off and on.
Most places I worked, they pooled tips.

This is just about sticking it to Obama.
No other reason


oh, and why screw with the way they are paid?
the place I am working at now, the wait staff makes much more than min wage.

[bluestarone]

13. exactly

another Obama rule bit the dust what a GIGANTIC TURD tRump is

[lunatica]

17. Then you didn't work in good restaurants

Pooling tips usually comes from the house adding tips to the cost of the meals. If you work for direct tips from your customers then what you do with those tips is up to you alone. I used to pay my busboy and the bartender, but no one else. I also got back very good service from them, which in turn made my tips go up.

The tips made up for the lousy pay. Tips also paid my rent, food, child's clothes, etc. The pay was nothing.

[freddyvh]

21. hmm

the place i'm at now, we are paid $5 an hour.
we all toss tips into a huge bowl and divide them up at the end of the night. this place is only open 5 hours for 3 days a week.
last saturday night I walked out of there with $189. that is 219 for 6 hours work.
My worst night there, I left with $98. that's still 21 an hour

I'm not gonna bitch about that .

[yuiyoshida]

2. Trump hates Obama so much he is willing to overturn

ever thing the previous President did, even it it means killing a few people in the process.

[Turbineguy]

3. This is not uncommon among

small-minded people.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

26. I wonder if the Hill does this on purpose

The Hill puts Obama in the title in order to get clicks on its link. What the mentioning of Obama's name does, though, is politicizes the issue. Because this, the issue becomes Trump vs Obama. Other than hurting his feelings, this isn't going to impact President Obama at all.

The servers who are going to have their money taken away by greedy owners are going to be hurt by this. Obama's name distracts us from focusing on this, though.

[yuiyoshida]

27. Its Trump's vendetta

His revenge for Obama making fun at him at that Dinner they both attended. He has always hated him, and hates being shown up by a person of color.

[PatSeg]

4. I've worked for tips

and hated pooled tips. It is just a way for restaurants to under pay their employees and gives unmotivated employees little incentive to do their share of the work. Meanwhile, I've known of some management that skimmed off of the tips and put it their own pockets.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

6. Doesn't that arrangement help bussers too tho?

[PatSeg]

8. When I waited tables

many years ago, the bussers were paid a real hourly wage and wait staff earned about $2.00 an hour. Wait staff would then tip the bussers from their own tips in accordance with how busy it was and how good they were. It encouraged teamwork.

[Hortensis]

12. Same here. Harrah's Casino in Reno, except I made $1.13 an hour,

and as a female could not legally be paid overtime but could "volunteer" to work overtime (this was to protect women from being exploited!). On the plus side, we were running all night and the tips were fantastic, the amount was considered our business alone, and of course the IRS's, but what we declared was a joke.

Pooling tips is just another form of exploitation and passing business costs on to employees. Of course the back staff should be paid a living wage. And I'm all for eliminating tipping altogether, degrading at best.

[PatSeg]

15. "Degrading at best"

This is true. It is a really difficult industry as it is and corporate restaurants tend to take advantage of labor pretty much anyway they can. In states where they can pay wait staff less than minimum wage, they often will just hire more servers and then have them perform duties usually done by regular waged employees. "Side work" could include intensive cleaning, cutting vegetables for salads, mopping, vacuuming, bussing, and even dish washing. I've even stood on the counter in a skirt, scrubbing a wall. All for $2 an hour!

[Hortensis]

16. Blatant institutionalized exploitation. It exists in many industries

in different ways too. So many people have lost their homes to falling incomes.

I confess I never was expected to wash walls (!!!), but that was a much nicer era. I once dismantled and fixed the orange juice machine on a quiet night, but that was my choice. I dropped out of high school with no skills beyond one typing class and part-time work in a library to make a living -- and did, working 40 sustainable hours a week. Since I wasn't legal age, I had to carry drinks before table height to make it less obvious. But even dropouts like me could live on what we earned, not like today.

[PatSeg]

19. In California,

they take this sort of thing very seriously and there have been lawsuits against restaurants for abusing employees and managers to save a buck. Chain stores would cut labor and use salaried managers to fill the gaps. Being salaried, they could be worked insane hours that way and the company didn't have to pay them extra. That brought about some really big class action suits.

Unfortunately, companies still find ways to get around the rules, but they are more careful in California than most places.

[lunatica]

18. I used to pay my busboy and the bartenders

It worked very well for all of us. They treated me and my tables very well.

[PatSeg]

20. Yes

That is how I remember it back in the day. For awhile I was a bartender and later I waited tables.

[Mr.Bill]

7. It's also a way to make sure taxes are being paid on all tips since it creates a paper trail

of what each worker received. And the skimming you speak of (which happens) means the management will be able to make tax-free money and not the workers.

[PatSeg]

9. Our taxes were figured

on a percentage of our sales and we often were taxed on more income than we really received. And when you pool tips, the only person who knows how much money there is would be management. It just invites corruption.

[getagrip_already]

5. what they vs what they mean.....

a pay disparity between waitresses in the front of the house and <delete cooks> <insert management> in the <delete kitchen> <insert back offices>.

This has always been about management grabbing a portion of tips, as well as using tips to lower the wages they pay everyone else.

[Tactical Peek]

10. "but may receive less compensation than their traditionally tipped co-workers"

So pay them a decent wage, you goddam greedheads.

[TexasBushwhacker]

29. Exactly n/t

[forgotmylogin]

11. This is easy to fix.

Pay your staff minimum wage or better so they don't have to live on tips.

[MichMan]

23. Most servers would quit if that was the case.

Very few (if any) servers would trade the current system for the one you propose. They would take a pretty substantial cut in wages if they were paid an hourly wage instead of tips.

Might want to ask them before you decide what is best for them

I worked as a busboy 40 years ago. Most of the servers/bartenders looked down on the busboys/dishwashers. We heard them bragging on how much they made in tips, which was generally 4x our wages for the night. Once I had one of them give me a dollar.

[forgotmylogin]

24. Of course...

I said minimum wage or better - but I completely understand that job is worth more than they are paid. I've done my share of waiting tables in the past and am used to tipping bussers/bartenders.

[Marthe48]

14. If there were an Obama regulation about wiping

front to back, trump would find it and reverse it.

[Calista241]

22. That's crazy talk. Front to back is the only way to wipe.

[Marthe48]

25. Its crazy to wipe out regulations

just because some power mad orange chuckles wants to. No pun intended :/

[Blue_Tires]

28. And the white working class in the rust belt will still applaud this, because reasons...

[left-of-center2012]

30. How long before Trump removes Obama's portrait from the W.H. ?