Hey folks, lemme start by saying that the place I work at, starting wage is $13/hr and the tips we receive are NOT taxed- not sure if tips are supposed to be taxed, but ours aren't.
So, the other day, work was delayed because of weather. When this happens, we have to “check in” every hour. Sometimes they tell us to come right into work at a set time later in the day, sometimes they ask we check again later in the day. Continually checking in throughout the day can easily cause some confusion/lost track of time.
So a newer coworker and I both ended up being late- coming in after the time we were requested to come in once the weather cleared. Work got busy, the tip box was looking nice, and my coworker was getting all hyped up thinking he'd get a nice slice of the pie. Come end of the day, coworker looks visibly upset and mentions to me how his share of the tips is way smaller than expected. I got the same amount as he did, and I mentioned to him we're lucky we got anything at all since we were late.
The normal manager would have given us nothing, but they went home sick earlier in the day. The manager who stepped in was nice enough to give us something rather than nothing. I explained this all to my coworker, and he says he was never told any of this. Regardless, that's three individual's share of the tips that were then redistributed to a handful of other employees who were on time and didn't leave for being sick.
I understand it's important to be on time and all that, but I also feel like our tip system/tip dispersal system is in a grey area that can be manipulated however the manager's see fit. Luckily, i dont work here full time but the whole thing is hard to ignore- It works well when its in my favor, sucks when it isnt.