Please help me
Establishment: restaurant on beacon hill
Location: beacon hill
i work for a restaurant on beacon hill. They have started to have a lot of private functions. Although we, the waitstaff serve food at these functios, we only get gratuity on the liquor. The owner says that we can’t receive grat. on the food because it is pre-ordered. I have seen him however ring in the food at the time of the host paying at the end of the function. Is this legal? Do we not have a legal right to be paid for food that we are serving? What if he (owner) is adding grat and pocketing it? What if he’s just not making the guest pay grat for food to get more business? Sometimes we will work a function for 100 politicians and only get 40-50 $$. I really like working at this restaurant but don’t want to stay there if this is a sketchy operation. Anyone have any ideas?
Comments
Agreed. The gratuity, also known as a *service* charge, is the customer’s payment for your service. Whether or not they’ve pre-ordered is inconsequential, you are still serving them.
However, whether or not a service charge is added to the check is entirely up to the owner, and I’m a bit unclear on that point. If you aren’t sure, the first thing you should do is find out if service is being added to the check. If it is, then he’s pocketing it, which is obviously illegal.
If it isn’t, then you should probably find a new job. The manager might not necessarily be doing anything illegal, but it’s rare that a place wouldn’t include service on a large party. I know personally, I would not work for a place where I could be treated as a catering waiter without the same pay (if you don’t know this, catering waiters rarely receive tips, but make a much higher wage, often $15-$25 per hour).
As I understand it, so long as the owner does not explicitly state that he’s added gratuity, the service charge does not have to go to service staff. Messed up I know, but the fact that he’s giving you $40-50 could qualify as ample gratuity so long as it brings your wage above the minimum wage. Kevin’s right about catering waiters, although in my experience, stellar service is often rewarded handsomely at many catering functions.
This is total bull and he is absolutely pocketing it. It is, in fact, illegal to add gratuity to a liquor only bill and totally acceptable to get gratuity on the total food cost of a function.