I work as a server in the state of MT. I know something shady is going on with our tips and I want the owners of this restaurant to be held accountable. I want the Montana department of labor to investigate what’s happening, but I’m not sure if I have hard evidence to tip them off.
First off, 6% of every servers tips goes towards tipping out bussers, food runners, host, dish, and BOH. Some of this is normal restaurant stuff. Some of this is not. I was not aware of this when I first was hired, but just learned that our tips are supplementing the income for BOH. So they aren’t receiving our tip outs, but a portion of our tips goes to supplement their guaranteed base pay instead of the owners just paying BOH a fair wage. In addition, one of the owners of this restaurant is trying to lobby for this to be standard practice for restaurants in the state of MT. EDIT: a manger I’m close with who is quitting, told me this information during a one-on-one meeting.
Second, even when we don’t have a busser or enough hosts or food runners on, we are still tipping out an outrageous amount to an empty account. Us servers are suspecting that the owners are using this extra income for other purposes. Lots of rumors have been made on where this money is going. Either allocating it for business expenses or keeping it for themselves.
And third, managers, HR, and the owners themselves are so reluctant to show us where or how our tip out works. Anytime you ask you get the same vague response from management (bc they don’t even know) and HR gets hostile/defensive of the subject. No server or manager I know of has ever seen the breakdown of our tip outs.
I need help with this. I need the department of labor to instigate, but honestly I have no idea what I’m doing. Has anyone else dealt with something like this? Please reach out us servers are so angry and frustrated lots of us are quitting because of the lack of transparency here.