Tips

Procrastastudy

Up late and trawling after hours - yet another tip thread. Re minimum wage...

PART 1 — RECKONABLE COMPONENTS

1. Basic salary.

2. Shift premium.

3. Piece and incentive rates, commission and bonuses, which are productivity related.

4. The monetary value of board with lodgings or board only or lodgings only, not exceeding the amount, if any, prescribed for the purposes of this item.

5. The amount of any service charge distributed to the employee through the payroll.

...

So does that mean when I give a tip it could just be going to reduce the employers wage bill?

I see non-reckonable includes tips and gratuities - now I confused. What's the difference?

the_syco

Procrastastudy wrote: »

5. The amount of any service charge distributed to the employee through the payroll.

...

So does that mean when I give a tip it could just be going to reduce the employers wage bill?

I'm not a lawyer, but from my understanding it's

From a person (if you're a waiter); not through employer.
From a company (that you were outsourced to); through the employer

So you may not get the entire tip if it comes down through he company that you work for.

ResearchWill

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Up late and trawling after hours - yet another tip thread. Re minimum wage...

PART 1 — RECKONABLE COMPONENTS

1. Basic salary.

2. Shift premium.

3. Piece and incentive rates, commission and bonuses, which are productivity related.

4. The monetary value of board with lodgings or board only or lodgings only, not exceeding the amount, if any, prescribed for the purposes of this item.

5. The amount of any service charge distributed to the employee through the payroll.

...

So does that mean when I give a tip it could just be going to reduce the employers wage bill?

I see non-reckonable includes tips and gratuities - now I confused. What's the difference?

I do not believe service charge is a tip. Service charge is a set % added onto bill, it must be given to employees as far as I know. Tip on the other hand is discretionary from the customers point of view whil service charge is not.

Strawberry Fields

service charge is mandatory and maybe say 5% or whatever in which case it goes through the companies books first. ie tax.
A gratuitious tip at the discretion of the discerning customer will be distributed
among the staff. Sometimes they pool all the tips together and divide.

Marcusm

Service charge monies are the property of the restaurant/employer and thus any distribution of these to staff will necessarily form part of pay/emoluments/earnings.

Genuine gratuities/tips are not the employer's property per se (but caution re tips paid to the employer/restaurant via card) and would best be distributed via a tronc system (operated by a senior staff member without control by the employer) to the employees.

Tensions arise if restaurants want to incur lower than minimum wages and top up through tips/service charges whereas employees may have better tax/PRSI/NIC treatment if they arise outside the employer's control.

nuac

If a service charge is imposed, customers often unwilling to tip

Procrastastudy

Right so the 10% for parties of eight or more is kind of saying - you'll be using a lot of the waiters time so you have to pay part of their wages. (As an aside restaurants must be the only place that charge you more for coming in and spending more!)

Where as tips can't count towards minimum wage. Thanks guys.

Did it used to be the situation that people could be on less than minimum based on tips?

psalbmb

Im actually up in court soon for this. Im taking a claim against my employer under sc5(2) of the Payment of Wages Act 1991. The company in question, we had our gratuities put together but divided unfairly. As its consituted as payment, under the act, We should be entitled to see all deductions made, yes? the main problem for me, is that the onus is on me to prove they done this unfairly. Anyone have any suggestions on how i'd go about proving that they where in fact, in the wrong? when all gratuties were put together, the company deducted the tax etc, but also deducted if we had any walk-outs ie: a customer comes for lunch and walks out without paying. Now last time I checked this was illegal. its not stated in my contract of employment that this is allowed to happen, can anyone clarify this for me?

mikemac1

psalbmb wrote: »

also deducted if we had any walk-outs ie: a customer comes for lunch and walks out without paying. Now last time I checked this was illegal. its not stated in my contract of employment that this is allowed to happen, can anyone clarify this for me?

I remember looking at this before
Used to work in hotels and walkouts and you dropping a wine bottle or smashing a plate is going to happen sometime.

The Act also deals with the following situations:

Where the employer suffers loss through the fault of the employee, for example, breakages or till shortages
Where the employer supplies goods or services to the employee as part of the job, such as a transport service to and from work and uniforms.
In such cases, a deduction (or payment by the employee) is only allowed if the following conditions are met by the employer:

It is allowed by the employee's contract
It is fair and reasonable
The employee has written notice of the deduction.
The following conditions also apply:

If the deduction arose due to a mistake by the employee, the employee must have received at least one week's notice giving full details of the deduction
The amount of the deduction must not be greater than any loss suffered by the employer or the cost of any goods or services supplied
The deduction must take place within six months of coming to the employer's attention or within six months of the supply of the goods or services.

http://www.citizensinformationboard.ie/publications/providers/booklets/entitlements_employmentrights/publications_entitlements_employmentrights7.html

I love citizen information, everything laid out so clearly

If your customer walks out no way can the boss get you to pay for the meal unless you agree and even then they have to give written notice.
Or it's in your contract

Sure if the chef serves up slop and everyone walks out how is it fair for the minimum wage floor staff to pay

Procrastastudy

mikemac1 wrote: »

Sure if the chef serves up slop and everyone walks out how is it fair for the minimum wage floor staff to pay

That's actually dealt with by the SOGA. No one should be paying if the customer rejects the goods.