Let me begin by saying most restaurants are honest, but its there are always a few who ruin it for everyone.

You sit down an enjoy an awesome meal, your service from the your server was outstanding an you want to make sure he or she is rewarded with a tip. The check arrives, and you whip out the plastic and pay for your meal and plop down a 20% tip on your card. You did good, right?

You did, but have you thought about how and when your server who provided you with that outstanding service would receive that tip money?

The truth is, not all servers will get that money, and that is a shame. This story truly upset me. A friend of mine works very hard to make ends meet had worked for several months at a local restaurant and found out that many credit card tips were not being given to him or his co-workers on payday. The restaurant was pocketing the money and he never saw the money. He voiced concerns to the owner of the restaurant who denied any wrongdoing. His word against theirs. Needless to say, he has left this restaurant and is looking into filing a complaint with the state of Illinois and has since found employment elsewhere.

REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD LEAVE A CASH TIP

1. Your server can take that money home that day. Often when tips are computed as part of a paycheck it's often  inaccurate usually because of bad bookkeeping.

2. Some owners outright steal tips. USA TODAY reported that waiter by the name of Steve said that.

"(This) Usually happens in a pool house (note: that's when servers pool their tips among themselves and probably busboys, and everyone shares.) Another ploy, he says: "using tips to illegally pay for non-table serving employees -- pastry chefs, banquet managers. Also, owners have been known to create no-show jobs and pay their daughters, drivers, siblings a full waiter cut out of the tip pool. Illegal."

3. Owners ofter force waiters to give the kitchen a portion of their tips.

Illegal. Instead of paying their hardest-working (kitchen) employees more, quite a few owners will steal it from the waiter. This is an old story.

4  Sadly, some restaurant force the waiter or waitress pay the credit-card fees (Usually 3%). So if your tip 10 dollars, your server will have 30 cents deducted. In some cases, some owners will make the server pay the entire credit card fee on whole check, which USA today says is illegal

My advice, always pay your tip with good ole cash... unless you had an awful restaurant experience like I had a couple months ago.

 

 

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