[masraum]

Originally Posted by juanbenae

Not to get this all PARFie, but I wonder if it is a way to track tips of server income accurately for tax purposes? I know of a number of bar tenders and servers that at close would throw a few bucks at cooking and bussing/dish washing staff to keep them enthused.

Had not considered this previously when tips started getting taxed... If one is paying taxes on they tips they might not be so generous with other, lesser staff.

I doubt it. If that's what was going on it would be govt mandated and everyone would be doing it.

I do think there are 2 goals. I think it is a way for the restaurant to pay the servers/employees more without driving the customers away with much higher prices and also a way to somehow get out of other additional costs associated with being an employer. I don't know the employer side of things, but I suspect there's a difference in cost for an employer that pays an employee 50k vs paying an employee 35k + 15k of redistributed fees. Hell, the restaurant may even call it "tips" at the end of the year when they tell the IRS.