Tipping practices affect us all — whether you work in the restaurant industry or you just eat in restaurants. Everywhere you turn, people are giving their thoughts on how to tip, when to tip, how much to tip, etc…….
As a former waiter (and sometimes a current bartender), I know both sides of the tipping issue. I’m not here to bore you with yet another rendition of "Server vs. Customer". This is the place you come for news, and that’s what I have for you!
Yakup Ulutas, a restaurant manager in Atlanta, has founded a website (www.fairtip.org) to spearhead what he hopes will become a movement to tack on a mandatory 20% tip onto food service bills.
He believes this movement will be the cure-all for:
-servers being paid fairly
-the IRS being able to track tips earned for taxation
-the question of increasing servers’ minimum wage
Now, I understand the validity of the points Mr. Ulutas makes in his interview* with Nation’s Restaurant News. The idea of mandating a tip percentage doesn’t sit well with me, though. First off, I don’t believe that it would work as legislation — that would be like a tax to subsidize salaries for restaurant employees. Secondly, the variability of tips is what makes the job financially rewarding. It’s like any other sales-oriented job with commissions. Sometimes you have a $300 night and sometimes you have a $20 night. It just comes with the territory.
*in order to access the article, there is a short sign-in form — if you don’t want to fill it out, just take a look at www.fairtip.org
