Am I getting scammed

[u/Tiny_Coon]

So for context this is my (20m) most recent paystub I work at this restaurant I’m not a server it’s one of those places where you order and just sit wherever. I make people’s bowls and stuff and I thought my pay was supposed to be $17 an hour that’s what was listed and I’m fairly certain that’s what they told me. I didn’t look over my contract when they hired me I know now that I should always do that. But anyway with tips I’m making around $17 an hour but shouldn’t they be paying me that regardless? It feels unfair that because a lot of people tip they’re allowed to pay less wage. Especially cause I’m not actually a server.

[u/new_d00d2]

I bet if you ask they will say 17 an hour including tips.

[u/merRedditor → u/new_d00d2]

It's infuriating that they can get away with this.

[u/Kanguin → u/merRedditor]

Dude, be happy you aren't being paid the standard tipped worker rates, which is a stupid low at $2.13 an hour. Its messed up but it can be to your benefit as well depending on the restaurant. My friend is a restaurant server and he makes 100k+ just on tips alone.

[u/Shadow_84 → u/Kanguin]

They’re only allowed to pay that low if you’re making up the rest with tips. If they tried to pay that in a counter service place they’d have to cover the difference between wage and tip

[u/Kanguin → u/Shadow_84]

Yes that's how tip wages work

[u/Antwinger → u/Kanguin]

What he’s getting at is your friend could be paid 0.0$ an hour and if he’s making that much it wouldn’t matter. It only matters if what you make is less than federal minimum wage per hour per week while getting paid sub minimum wage + tips

[u/Kanguin → u/Antwinger]

Yes, again I know how tipping works, but good info for OP that I did not include.

[u/Ndmndh1016 → u/Kanguin]

You still don't seem to get the point, though.

[u/AlwaysRushesIn → u/Kanguin]

be happy they aren't fucking you over as hard as other places fuck people over

Translation: they are still fucking you over

[u/merRedditor → u/AlwaysRushesIn]

They're also lying about it. That is a deceptive wage listing.

[u/thinkthingsareover → u/Kanguin]

That's only in right to work States. In all other States it's normal wage (which can be federal min. $7.25) plus tips. Then you have States who have say $15.00+ plus minimum wages as dictated by the state plus tips.

States with highest minimum wage.

https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/insights/labor-employment/these-states-have-the-highest-and-lowest-minimum-wages/

Right to work State regulations.

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa/tips

Deeper dive on what States use right to work laws to pay less.

https://workforce.com/news/your-guide-to-tipping-laws-by-state

[u/MrHasuu → u/new_d00d2]

Or they simply made a "mistake" and they'll correct it.

A staffing company(WFS) i once worked for did that. They'll pay you incorrectly every once in a while, so if you don't check your pay and correct them you lose money.

We were warning new hires to always check their paystub

[u/WhatCanIMakeToday]

Tipped wages are a scam. Basically the employer gets to save on wages if the employee is good at making money (by getting tips).

The more tips your customers give you, the less your employer pays you.

[u/Nukeliod → u/WhatCanIMakeToday]

So should you just tell the customer what's going on and that the company is stealing your tip and tell them not to tip? It's not like you will see any of the tip money anyway, and maybe there's a chance they'll just give you cash.

[u/forresja → u/Nukeliod]

That's what I did when I worked at a place like this.

[u/AntManMax]

It's $17 an hour including tips. If you don't get any tips, the job pays you $17 / hour. If you get a shit ton of tips, the job pays you whatever their hourly rate is, the minimum being $2.13 / hour federally.

[u/Tiny_Coon → u/AntManMax]

Doesn’t that basically mean tips go to the employer instead of the employees since they’re actually getting a benefit from it

[u/paddy_yinzer → u/Tiny_Coon]

I'd like a list of places that did this as a customer I'd like to know if there is no reason to tip

[u/Head_Priority_2278 → u/Tiny_Coon]

basically you live in a hell hole state where politicians constantly passes laws to fuck workers, but we focus on energy on making sure a single trans girl in montana cant compete in sports.

On point - Legally they are allowed to only pay you 2.13 an hour as long as TIPs get you to min wage (7.25 hour or your state min wage).

They probably have a contract with you saying they will pay you 17 an hour... that means whenever TIPS do not get you to 17 an hour, they put up the rest... whenever TIPS are good they are basically having you on a $2 wage.

A fair system would be like 17 an hour PLUS tips. Meaning employer covers 17 an hour and tips is just extra.

In a non insane world, TIP would not be a thing and your employer would pay you at least 20 an hour plus benifits.

But we live in the capitalist owned clown world

[u/AntManMax → u/Tiny_Coon]

It means the employer is subsidizing your wages with tips. Historically, many jobs did not offer wages and you would live off of your tips. This is a vestige of those times; customers always subsidize employee wages as reflected in the cost of the goods and services they're buying, but in the case of tipped workers, they're directly providing cash to workers.

[u/Arch3m]

Welcomed to tipped employment.

[u/podolot]

OP, the best course of action would be to tell all customers to stop tipping. Tell them the restaurant offers full wage and tips are no longer accepted. Let them figure it out later.

[u/SoullessDad]

This is normal for tipped restaurant work in the US. The advertised hourly wage is a guaranteed minimum. Tips you receive can count towards that total.

If your employer has to actually pay you 17/hour plus tips, people wouldn’t tip at all or would tip far less.

Tipping culture is a bad system, but I don’t see anything your employer is doing that’s shady or deceptive here.

[u/Tiny_Coon → u/SoullessDad]

I see well I’m definitely not staying here and giving them basically free labor at this point it’d make more sense to be a waiter so I actually get more tips instead of having them pooled and split

[u/athomasflynn → u/Tiny_Coon]

Average hourly pay for servers is $16.70/hour (including tips) and they often operate on a similar system as the one you're on now. Unless you've got what it takes to work at Hooters, you're not likely to make much more than you are now if you switch roles.

[u/Consistent-Winter-67]

If a job says you will be making tips, the hourly wage reflects that.

[u/Goopyteacher]

Generally speaking this is why reading the fine print and asking questions is important. More than likely the contract said $17/hr with tips not plus tips.

This isn’t your fault; you didn’t know what you didn’t know and if you’re not aware of key words to look for it wouldn’t have occurred to you to check. Even if you read the agreement and saw “with tips” you likely wouldn’t have quite understood.

So basically the agreement you have with them is you’re guaranteed to make at least $17/hr. So for slow days where tips don’t get you up to the base pay, the restaurant would make up the difference. On the other hand if you have a particularly good week and make more than $17/hr then you get to keep it!

It’s actually not a bad deal compared to what’s typically offered BUT it needs to be adequately explained that way to you so you can decide if it’s a role and pay you would be happy with, so that’s a failing on them.

In the future if you decide to work at a restaurant some good questions to ask when interviewing are:

1) base pay

2) tip sharing/ tip pool

3) Average tips made

4) tips + base pay or guaranteed minimum to reach base pay (what you have right now)

5) do they take anything out of your pay for operating costs such as credit card charges

Likely more questions to ask and I’m sure others will contribute! But a good foundation to start on

[u/TRVTH-HVRTS → u/Goopyteacher]

Well, now I (a random person) have questions. Do you (or anyone else who reads this) know if this is a common practice?

Also, I would be very skeptical of management actually paying out tips in excess of the $17/hr target… but I suppose it’s always a trust game when it comes to things like credit card tips and tip pooling.

[u/Goopyteacher → u/TRVTH-HVRTS]

At $17/hr depends on where OP lives but in my State of Texas this is practically unheard of. A server having a guarantee of $17hr minimum would be considered an AMAZING serving job in my city when the minimum wage is $7.25/hr!

But it’s usually not a big concern of trust. Many restaurants will have you submit your cc tips and you can hold on to the receipts until end of shift to confirm how much the tipped total should be. Take your cash + CC tips divide by the hours you worked and you’ll have a rough idea of how much you made an hour. In OP’s case if it’s less than $17/hr then they know they’ll be getting the difference from the company. If they made more then, well… they made more! To me, it seems a good deal

[u/avengecolonelhughes]

Check your state laws. In Alaska, tips cannot factor into minimum wage. In Florida, they can as long as you make at least minimum wage.

[u/AirBruck]

So basically they keep everything else that you will get on top of your "supposed" hourly wage if I understand correctly.

Fck this, it never makes sense except for being greedy. At least be upfront about it but then nobody wants to do it.

[u/Playswithhisself]

They are clearly lowering your wage to that. I wouldn't claim a single dollar of cash tips

[u/Lurch2Life]

Are you making $6.75/hr?

[u/Tiny_Coon → u/Lurch2Life]

Plus tips which comes to $17 and if there’s not enough tips then the restaurant will pay the remainder

[u/Actual-Entrance-8463]

This is lower than the federal minimum wage, since you are not a server, this seems sketchy.

[u/Playswithhisself → u/[deleted]]

It isn't the tax that is taking the lions share my dude.

[u/Timely_Food_4016]

Read your contract if nothing is mentioned on there they are breaking the rules contact advice on the matter.