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Wait staff, tipping, and Minimum Wage

Should Tipping be figured into a wait staff wage?

  • Yes, it is perfectly fine for wait staff to have a lower wage, they are making that up in tips.

    Votes: 14 30.4%

  • No, It is the job of the management to pay their employees accordingly.

    Votes: 16 34.8%

  • A combo of both.

    Votes: 10 21.7%

  • I need a beer and I don't care...

    Votes: 6 13.0%
  • Total voters
    46
Phil_Osophy said:
Well then we should change the minimum wage laws for servers and make a law that specifically says that gratuities arent taxable.
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Any other earned income you want to see exempt as well? Christmas bonuses? Gains on sale? Capital gains? Rental income?

You start letting people pick and choose which kinds of income stay out of the tax man's reach, and you're opening a slippery slope to large scale fraud.

Accountants like me have done this since time immemorial. I set up my uncle's sole proprietorship as an S-corp with full pass-through where he basically claimed about 20,000 of normal salary on about 300,000 dollars of profit annually, using the rest as an AAA distribution (effectively dodging taxes in the process). The IRS got hip to guys like us doing that and fixed it, as well they should have.

Picking and choosing which income is taxable and which is not is bad news. Pretty much all earned income is taxable, and with good reason.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Not intended by whom? Being a waitress is a perfectly fine career. Not everyone is going to be a rocket surgeon.
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Society, for one. When one looks at certain job types, it becomes obvious by the pay, benefits, etc... that Society does not value that work sufficiently to make it a career track. Retail (non-management) and most Service Industry jobs fall into this category. These jobs have become the bastions of the young, the old, and those who are incapable of qualifying for any other job in the workforce (which should tell us something).
 
Tigger said:
Society, for one. When one looks at certain job types, it becomes obvious by the pay, benefits, etc... that Society does not value that work sufficiently to make it a career track. Retail (non-management) and most Service Industry jobs fall into this category. These jobs have become the bastions of the young, the old, and those who are incapable of qualifying for any other job in the workforce (which should tell us something).
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If society doesn't respect these jobs, should we have them? Isn't an honest day's work enough for respect?
 
Boo Radley said:
If society doesn't respect these jobs, should we have them? Isn't an honest day's work enough for respect?
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Society no longer respects them because they do not require any form of significant training, education, or skill set to do. To excell at, maybe, but not to do in a general sense. We have so over-educated ourselves these days that basic manual labor is no longer considered a job to respect or aspire to. Right or wrong, that's just the way it is. Additionally, the people generally filling these positions are.... the young, the old, and those who cannot qualify for anything else; which doesn't help their status any.
 
Tigger said:
Society no longer respects them because they do not require any form of significant training, education, or skill set to do. To excell at, maybe, but not to do in a general sense. We have so over-educated ourselves these days that basic manual labor is no longer considered a job to respect or aspire to. Right or wrong, that's just the way it is. Additionally, the people generally filling these positions are.... the young, the old, and those who cannot qualify for anything else; which doesn't help their status any.
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Seems rather elitist to me.
 
Boo Radley said:
Seems rather elitist to me.
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Yes it is. I'm not saying it's something I necessarily agree with, just that it seems to be the general manner in which society views these positions today. Unfortunately this has created something of an Infinity Loop.... People in these positions are looked down upon so they don't care about their jobs, and don't do them well, which creates a dissatisfactions amongst the customers which makes people look down upon them.
 
Tigger said:
Yes it is. I'm not saying it's something I necessarily agree with, just that it seems to be the general manner in which society views these positions today. Unfortunately this has created something of an Infinity Loop.... People in these positions are looked down upon so they don't care about their jobs, and don't do them well, which creates a dissatisfactions amongst the customers which makes people look down upon them.
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Maybe. But if we truly value work, we should not look down on anyone who works.
 
Tigger said:
Society no longer respects them because they do not require any form of significant training, education, or skill set to do. To excell at, maybe, but not to do in a general sense. We have so over-educated ourselves these days that basic manual labor is no longer considered a job to respect or aspire to. Right or wrong, that's just the way it is. Additionally, the people generally filling these positions are.... the young, the old, and those who cannot qualify for anything else; which doesn't help their status any.
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Respect doesn't put food on the table.
 
Chiefgator said:
So, the "living wage" thread and the "minimum wage" thread brought to mind an old annoyance...

I think it is absurd that Wait Staff has a different Minimum Wage.
I feel that tips should be extra, not expected.


If you have a great hostess, then the business owner should be the one paying her instead of me. We have become so accustomed to the Tip are Wages that we just go with it and pay the extra 20%. I am a heavy tipper as I know that is how they get paid. I have worked for "tips only", so I understand. BUT.... I feel it is the managers job to pay the staff accordingly, not the client.
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Tipping the waitstaff in Japan is considered rude. In Japan, the owners pay their own employees.
 
Gipper said:
Japan is back-asswards anyway. Burping is considered polite there.
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Other industries are expected to pay their employees. The task of waiting tables is one of the most noble profession of which I am aware. Why shouldn't their employer pay them? You have to admit, it's bizarre.

Burping etiquette isn't really relevant to this discussion.
 
vasuderatorrent said:
Other industries are expected to pay their employees. The task of waiting tables is one of the most noble profession of which I am aware. Why shouldn't their employer pay them? You have to admit, it's bizarre.

Burping etiquette isn't really relevant to this discussion.
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JAPAN

IS

BACK

ASSWARDS

That was the point. The burping thing was to reiterate.

Forget it, I'm done with you. Bye.
 
Employers should pay their employees and not expect the customers to subsidize part of the wage. Bottom line.
 
Any gratuity should just be extra money in addition to a paycheck
 
Gipper said:
Japan is back-asswards anyway. Burping is considered polite there.
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Yep. Not bad manners, just good beer. ;)

Better to burp, and taste it, than to fart, and waste it.
 
Gipper said:
He wants it to be tax exempt - as if tips aren't already a huge tax cheat as is. Like anyone claims all their tips.
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True. By the way, totally off subject, if you ever feel like explaining regular straight line deprecation on a rental house and how it effects me when I sell it--please feel free. My wife asked me what it was last time we did taxes and I just said, I am not exactly sure but we do it this way every year (as I am filling in info using H&R Block software). I can't wait to sell the house and not have to deal with the taxes and everything else that comes with being a landlord.

But back to the tips, do waiters and waitresses have a minimum percentage they are supposed to claim? Or has that already been discussed?
 
Porchev said:
True. By the way, totally off subject, if you ever feel like explaining regular straight line deprecation on a rental house and how it effects me when I sell it--please feel free. My wife asked me what it was last time we did taxes and I just said, I am not exactly sure but we do it this way every year (as I am filling in info using H&R Block software). I can't wait to sell the house and not have to deal with the taxes and everything else that comes with being a landlord.

But back to the tips, do waiters and waitresses have a minimum percentage they are supposed to claim? Or has that already been discussed?
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Straight line is just a form of depreciation where you deduct the same amount every year as a write-off (as opposed to, say, a declining balance which you can use to assist you early on if you need an immediate break, and then reduce the amount along the way when you have a better financial situation).

Selling your home, basically what you're concerned about is recognizing the gain on sale (or loss, if you took a hit selling it). You only pay taxes on the amount of profit (or deduct the amount you lost), unless it's your primary home (that has special rules that allow certain benefits). If it's a secondary income home, you'll just fill out a Schedule D and a Form 8949, recognizing a capital gain on the difference between your basis (or what you paid, either or) and what you sold it for.
 
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