Banker Leaves 1% Tip On $133 Lunch Bill In Defiance of 'The 99%'

[maianarisa]

A banker left a 1% tip in defiance of 'the 99%' at a Newport Beach restaurant the other week, according to his dining companion and underling who snapped a photo of the receipt and posted it to his blog, Future Ex Banker. (Update: the blog is now offline.)

In posting the photo, the employee gave some background on his boss and the receipt:

Mention

Comments

[tilmon]

Considering that the server will be forced to pay income taxes on what should have been the tip, that banker has actually committed theft. If he routinely does this, he could be responsible for taking thousands of dollars from people over time. He ought to be tracked down and arrested.

[maianarisa]

Is this legally possible? Because if so, yes please.

[tilmon]

Sad but true. It's been a long time since I waited tables, but stiffing waitstaff in the US actually takes money out of their pockets. I'm not sure what the percentage is now, but there was a fixed amount that we were assumed to get in tips, and that we were taxed on. It's worse if you have a big party or otherwise time-consuming table to tend to, and that party doesn't tip or undertips, because you have no other tables to make up for it.

[maianarisa]

Is there a way you can prove that you're not making enough to the amount the government assumes you're making? Or is it a case of "tough shit, we don't care, we're still taxing you."?

[mikya]

You're on the hook for the taxes but in the US in most (if not all) cases, when your wages + tips don't add up to minimum wage over a pay period the employer is legally obligated to make up the difference. However, many employers don't pay it and pressing the issue gets you branded as a troublemaker and can lead to the employer finding a reason to fire you or cut your hours to the point that you can't support yourself with that job and you quit.

So to answer your question it's "tough shit, we don't care, we're still taxing you" because in theory you're never supposed to make less money than they assume you're making.

[lil_insanity]

...when your wages + tips don't add up to minimum wage over a pay period the employer is legally obligated to make up the difference. However, many employers don't pay it and pressing the issue gets you branded as a troublemaker and can lead to the employer finding a reason to fire you...

Yep, exactly.

[coolster]

But they don't even have to pay to make up the full amount. In my state, the minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13/hr; if our tips don't equal the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr, then employers are required to contribute an extra *gasp!* $2.13/hr.

[tilmon]

It's pretty much the latter. The assumption is that you will make at least minimum wage. That might be true in some places, but I can guarantee that it is iffy in small towns.

[brookiki]

Yeah, but don't you know that all servers make hundreds of dollars in tips a night? It's true for everyone, because this one person knows at least one server who works at a certain restaurant that can make that much on a really good night. And if every server doesn't make that much, it's only because they're not good at their jobs/not trying hard enough/not friendly enough. /sarcasm

[dark_puck]

It depends on the state, I think.

Some states, such as California, pay Minimum Wage + Tips. Others, such as Virginia, pay Minimum Wage - Tips. If your tips don't get you to min wage, the restaurant makes up the difference. I worked as a waitress in VA for awhile and had to declare my tips for tax purposes, and for my paycheck.

[lil_insanity]

In theory the restaurant makes up the difference, but in every restaurant I've worked in, if you didn't pull in $3.35/hour in tips (which was the state minimum wage, $5.50/hour, minus the server minimum wage, $2.15/hour) they would fire you. Sad but true.

[elialshadowpine]

I was freaking astounded when I found out from a friend who works in food service here that Washington does Minimum Wage + Tip. When I worked in Texas, I was paid something like $2/hr and expected to make up the rest of my pay in tips (which almost never happened).

[liret]

Cab drivers don't rely entirely on tips the way waiters do. He was being a dickhead.

[seishin]

+1

Apparently (according to a friend of mine, anyway), cab drivers in NYC aren't supposed to harass their customers for tips either.

[roseofjuly]

They're definitely not.