Thoughts on working for tips

Before I lucked into a fulltime tenured faculty position at CR on a labor law technicality, I worked as a minimum wage tipped employee for twenty-two years. I was a waiter. On both the East and West Coast, hanging up my apron in 1999 at the age of 48.

Granted that was almost thirty years ago and things do change, but I take issue with Matthew Owen's assertion in this paper on 2/25/24 that “Anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant knows that the `front of the house' (waiters and bartenders)… are supposed to share a percentage of (their tips) with the `back of the house' (cooks, food prep, bus staff, dishwashers)…”

First, bussers are (or were) considered “front of the house.” They work in the dining room and they serve the guests. Thus, they've always been entitled to and should expect to receive a percentage of any gratuity a guest may choose to leave. How much should depend on how much they do beyond clearing and resetting tables. Some examples of the kinds of assistance I've received from bussers include serving and refilling water, coffee and other beverages (even alcohol in some establishments, fulfilling bread and butter requests if offered, relaying food and drink requests to me, helping to serve plates, replenish silver, napkins and anything else other than what came from the kitchen. As a rule, cooks did not interact with buzzers.

The first and only time I was asked to share tips with the back of the house was here in Humboldt where it was, and apparently still is, the custom. However, I have always held that this is just a way for the owners to suppress wages telling the kitchen, in effect, “Yeah, we're only going to pay you the minimum, but you'll get a percentage of tips.”

In San Francisco and Massachusetts, where I had previously worked, I always got the sense that the kitchen was well compensated and would, in fact, be offended if offered a percentage of my tips, which I never did and never saw anyone else do. Cooks viewed themselves as professionals, even artists, and expected to be treated as such.

Of course, things change. And business owners are rightly always keen to cut costs. But to assert that this tip-sharing business has always been this way is blatantly false.

I didn't mind doing it, however, when asked. But I noticed that the kitchen's share diminished the bartenders and bussers which led to less service to the customers. After all, if a good busser could once expect 20% of my tips, but now had to settle for 10%, how often do you think your water glass or coffee cup will be refilled?

Finally, I have no objection to the Sushi Spot's new mandatory service charge/no tipping policy. This is the standard in most of Europe. Real men, however, continue to work for tips. And we have always relied on the kindness of strangers.