My daughter, 22F, got a weekend job as a cocktail waitress and mentioned that her paychecks are “zero” every week. I took a look at the paystub and saw that the bar declares her tips at 20% of her sales (no matter how much she actually gets in tips). So, after federal and state taxes are subtracted, she makes nothing hourly from the bar. Nothing.
She says that she was told this is how it is always done. She brings home about $100-$120 in tips per shift and her sales are often more than $1,000. So the bar is saying she makes $200 in tips per $1,000 in sales –but she makes only about half that.
Many years ago, I was a bartender and I got to declare how much my tips were–not the bar management. Is that not how it works anymore?
Is this normal, is this legal?