Tipping point reached?

When you tip your server, how much of that actually goes in their pocket?

Not as much as you think, according to hospitality staff in Bermuda.

In many restaurants the gratuity on your bill is shared between the waiters, bartenders, chefs, managers, and in some cases, owners.

Cash tips are also subject to sharing, according to some staff.

One former nightclub and restaurant server said it was common practice for owners and managers to pocket their staff’s tips.

“Management takes what they want,” she said.

“There’s no system to confirm whether you are receiving your grats or not. They can rip off their staff left, right and centre. 

“Sometimes you can be twice as busy, but your grats will stay the same.”

The Bermudian woman, who did not wish to be named, said: “There’s no way to account for what exactly you make on a night, so Government should do something about it.

“There should be some type of regulation or accounting in place so you can confirm it’s all correct on your pay cheque.

“At the moment, what goes to the server is not necessarily what they earned.”

One expat server at a bar and restaurant in Hamilton said: “All our tips are split in the office. We just get told the total and have no clue how it is divided.

“I think paycheques should state hours, grats and tips separately. Cash tips should stay with the waiter, and not go in the till.”

Another server at a Front Street restaurant told the Sun that management collects 30 per cent of their waiting staff’s tips.

At a west end restaurant, one employee said management took 45 per cent.

At the Swizzle restaurants, a spokeswoman said “servers leave with their cash tips every day”.

Although bartenders, bus staff and managers are “tipped out” of gratuities, servers get “all of their cash”.

 “There is nothing taken away, as it’s self-cashiering,” she said.

Philip Barnett, president of the Island Restaurant Group, which owns the Pickled Onion, Hog Penny, Barracuda Grill, Victoria Grill and Rumbar, and The Frog & Onion, said: “In our group, any cash tips go 100 per cent to the person that earned them. 100 per cent of the gratuities go to the staff and managers working the floor on that particular day.”

“By law, any restaurant that puts a service charge (gratuities) onto a bill, this belongs to them. So we choose how to divvy it up.

“Our system at IRG is very transparent, and most restaurants as a whole are consistent in how they do it.

“There are a lot of honourable restaurant owners out there who never touch a penny of their staff’s tips, but I have heard there are some owners who will take a percentage of the service charge.”