Imposed tip out in Arizona

[AnEnormousPanda]

I work in a large restaurant/resort in Arizona. We are currently having trouble drawing new back of house staff to work in the kitchen because our pay scale is not very competitive with other local restaurants in spite of being the top restaurant in our area offering a very unique fine dining experience in a location second to none. What I am pushing for as a cook is an imposed tip out of kitchen staff. I want to ask the resort to have the servers tip out the kitchen staff a meager 1% of their food sales each night to be doled out evenly among the cooks. Would it be legal for the resort to impose a tip out upon the servers? Would the resort have to draft new employment agreements for the servers and have them sign the new agreements highlighting the new imposed tip out? Would the cooks hourly wage be able to remain the same or with tip credits would the cooks hourly wage drop by $3/hour? The goal here is to bring the base pay for cooks up to be competitive in the local job market without affecting the restaurants bottom line not necessarily to save the restaurant money.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

"A valid tip pool may not include employees who do not customarily and regularly received tips, such as dishwashers, cooks, chefs, and janitors."

https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs15.htm

 

[xylene]

I work in a large restaurant/resort in Arizona. We are currently having trouble drawing new back of house staff to work in the kitchen because our pay scale is not very competitive with other local restaurants in spite of being the top restaurant in our area offering a very unique fine dining experience in a location second to none.

I would suggest that having a tip pool (even if you choose to do so in violation of the law) would not address the mangerial incompetence surrounding these compensation issues.

 

[Zigner]

I work in a large restaurant/resort in Arizona. We are currently having trouble drawing new back of house staff to work in the kitchen because our pay scale is not very competitive with other local restaurants in spite of being the top restaurant in our area offering a very unique fine dining experience in a location second to none. What I am pushing for as a cook is an imposed tip out of kitchen staff. I want to ask the resort to have the servers tip out the kitchen staff a meager 1% of their food sales each night to be doled out evenly among the cooks. Would it be legal for the resort to impose a tip out upon the servers? Would the resort have to draft new employment agreements for the servers and have them sign the new agreements highlighting the new imposed tip out? Would the cooks hourly wage be able to remain the same or with tip credits would the cooks hourly wage drop by $3/hour? The goal here is to bring the base pay for cooks up to be competitive in the local job market without affecting the restaurants bottom line not necessarily to save the restaurant money.

I have to wonder why you are so involved in what is, in essence, not your decision.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I have to wonder why you are so involved in what is, in essence, not your decision.

It could be that he cares about his place of work and is trying to help. Maybe they have a suggestion box on the wall.

 

[Zigner]

It could be that he cares about his place of work and is trying to help. Maybe they have a suggestion box on the wall.

I suppose that's a possibility, but do you really think they do based on the OP's description of how the place is managed?

 

[xylene]

I guess it sure seemed like the OP was highly involved in back-of-the-house operations since it was indirectly stated and strongly implied that he played a role in recruiting and hiring.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I doubt they have a suggestion box as well. What I don't doubt is that the OP actually gives a crap about his work place and wants it to be successful and as he is a cook he is probably getting tired of a revolving door in the kitchen.

 

[AnEnormousPanda]

Make no mistake I am a grunt. Here in Arizona we have a busy season essentially October through May of the following year. This is when people flock to our state when the heat dies down known as "snowbirds" these people often own a second home in Arizona that they travel to, to escape the snow where they are from. This busy season has a way of increasing our business in the restaurant/resort industry by as much as 110% and as such we need more staff looking forward. As a cook it's terrifying to think that to adequately serve our guests on a week night we will need 5 cooks working the various positions on the hotline as well as two pastry cooks and two garde mangier cooks for dinner service. We will need 6 hotline cooks and 3 garde mangier cooks for weekends. Right now we currently only have 5 hotline cooks and 2 garde mangier cooks in total the only department adequately staffed in our restaurant is the pastry department. That said we will all end up working 7 days a week for the foreseeable future or we will fall short of our service goals. We are also short on prep staff which means long days preparing product for dinner service and then working dinner service which is exhausting in and of itself. When I say the need for staff is dire be assured I am not exaggerating. We as cooks have pushed for some time to raise the base pay of our restaurant but to no avail. The idea of an imposed tip out came to me one night after dinner service when I was talking to one of our servers who as it turns out makes more money annually than our sous chefs factoring in tips.

 

[LdiJ]

Make no mistake I am a grunt. Here in Arizona we have a busy season essentially October through May of the following year. This is when people flock to our state when the heat dies down known as "snowbirds" these people often own a second home in Arizona that they travel to, to escape the snow where they are from. This busy season has a way of increasing our business in the restaurant/resort industry by as much as 110% and as such we need more staff looking forward. As a cook it's terrifying to think that to adequately serve our guests on a week night we will need 5 cooks working the various positions on the hotline as well as two pastry cooks and two garde mangier cooks for dinner service. We will need 6 hotline cooks and 3 garde mangier cooks for weekends. Right now we currently only have 5 hotline cooks and 2 garde mangier cooks in total the only department adequately staffed in our restaurant is the pastry department. That said we will all end up working 7 days a week for the foreseeable future or we will fall short of our service goals. We are also short on prep staff which means long days preparing product for dinner service and then working dinner service which is exhausting in and of itself. When I say the need for staff is dire be assured I am not exaggerating. We as cooks have pushed for some time to raise the base pay of our restaurant but to no avail. The idea of an imposed tip out came to me one night after dinner service when I was talking to one of our servers who as it turns out makes more money annually than our sous chefs factoring in tips.

Well, as you can see from the link provided, that idea will not fly.

 

[xylene]

You personally and as a group have asked for increased wages. They said no. You have really no choice but to go to another job.

Front of the house people often make more than back of the house people. That's how it goes and even outside of the restaurant business people in public facing positions often make more than 'behind the scenes' types who may be sweating more.