Manger taking tips. Waiter tip laws help?

[Jekyll]

It sounds like if you protest, you're screwed. Getting the government involved seems like more trouble than it's worth. Maybe you could talk to the other waiters and form some sort of unofficial union. Then you would have more power to bargain.

Originally Posted by indesertum

I actually do want to pay income tax. It's law and I'm sure the government uses it for good purposes.
I don't know what to say to this. It seems...un-American. I've never been a waiter, but I've delivered pizzas, and I've never known anyone who reported all their tips.

 

[Kyoung05]

Originally Posted by sho'nuff

this is sOoooo true. any japanese restaurant owned by what we believed to be korean owners were horrible.
+1. As a Korean guy whose parents have run/owned a Korean restaurant for over 30yrs, I always thought it was kind of a "cheap" move for other Korean restaurateurs (and I use this term loosely) to open up a Sushi joint just because sushi was a fad a few years back. Most of these restaurants don't know jack about sushi (or the restaurant business, for that matter), and I would wager that 90% of their business consists of selling generic rolls, i.e. California roll, lion king, dragon roll, etc., and "bento boxes" that are no different from any of the other crappy Korean-owned sushi joints. Just sayin'....

 

[impolyt_one]

it's a fucked up situation, and your heart is there in the right place, guy, but you can't depend on a governmental body or law enforcement to chase down loose cash for you if some guy is dipping their hand into the tip jar, unfortunately. The smart thing would be to cut your losses now and move on to a place where this is unlikely to happen, and call this a bad job that you once had.

Also, to get more real about this situation; you're gonna need to think about this from their standpoint. It sounds like they have a pretty tight ship, tbh, because they got everyone else in check and they know where to dip their hands into - it's liquid, it's anonymous, it's easy and free. Imagine someone comes along and protests their taking of money - I don't think they're gonna admit their wrongdoings and just forfeit the money to you casually, by the sounds of it. You're up against a lot here, and you probably should move on and take it as a lesson learned, a lot of people have to do this day in, day out.

Worst case scenario: they could get annoyed with your whistleblowing or catch wind of it before anything even happens, crunch the numbers on it and find out a lot of money is at stake if they have to pay you and everyone else back money, and figure out it could be cheaper to dispose of you in some form, I'm not kidding. It's a lot cheaper than non believers would like to think, that encompasses all kinds of things, so you better hope these people don't have connections like that. To not think of things like this would be naive. These are Korean people with a small business that sounds pretty lucrative though, and I wouldn't hedge on them being clean and straight. Protect your own ass and give up a few bucks.

 

[v0rtex]

Just leave, and chalk it up to experience. Become wiser and sadder, knowing that millions of people toil through ****** jobs like that every day for their entire lives because they do not have any other options.

Either that or form a union, approach the DOL, prepare a class action lawsuit and pursue those bastards through the legal system for months or years... for a few hundred bucks in back-tips (provided they don't just declare bankruptcy).

 

[Douglas]

Just quit. This place is totally fucked up, totally inappropriate, way over the line. A lot of small restaurants flout the law in some ways, but this place is really inappropriately and unethically run. It is a battle you simply will not win. The place is rotten to the core, and the boss is an asshole, a liar, and a thief. He is stealing from you, he is stealing from the government, and he is treating you all like crap. Advising him on how to run his business is not going to get you anywhere, and whistle-blowing is only going to create a colossal mess, and in the end he'll probably just move on and do the same thing at a new establishment.

You have another option. Exercise it. Now.

 

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by Douglas

Just quit. This place is totally fucked up, totally inappropriate, way over the line. A lot of small restaurants flout the law in some ways, but this place is really inappropriately and unethically run. It is a battle you simply will not win. The place is rotten to the core, and the boss is an asshole, a liar, and a thief. He is stealing from you, he is stealing from the government, and he is treating you all like crap. Advising him on how to run his business is not going to get you anywhere, and whistle-blowing is only going to create a colossal mess, and in the end he'll probably just move on and do the same thing at a new establishment.

You have another option. Exercise it. Now.
+1. Quit.

 

[sho'nuff]

Originally Posted by Douglas

Just quit. This place is totally fucked up, totally inappropriate, way over the line. A lot of small restaurants flout the law in some ways, but this place is really inappropriately and unethically run. It is a battle you simply will not win. The place is rotten to the core, and the boss is an asshole, a liar, and a thief. He is stealing from you, he is stealing from the government, and he is treating you all like crap. Advising him on how to run his business is not going to get you anywhere, and whistle-blowing is only going to create a colossal mess, and in the end he'll probably just move on and do the same thing at a new establishment.

You have another option. Exercise it. Now.

+1

 

[indesertum]

i'm planning on quitting once the semester starts up, but i want my coworkers to have a better work situation. i'd like the boss to stop taking tip money and paying trainees solely from the tip pool at the very least. i'm not sure what the best way to do this is.

i can't in good conscious let this continue to happen and let him continue to abuse new hires.

 

[Hombre Secreto]

You sound like a punk for questioning the legality of the freaking dishwasher. Who cares???

 

[impolyt_one]

Originally Posted by indesertum

i'm planning on quitting once the semester starts up, but i want my coworkers to have a better work situation. i'd like the boss to stop taking tip money and paying trainees solely from the tip pool at the very least. i'm not sure what the best way to do this is.

i can't in good conscious let this continue to happen and let him continue to abuse new hires.

It's a noble aim, but I don't think it's within your power to be able to do that at the end of the day. Also, like I said, you could end up getting your ass kicked pretty badly if you piss someone off.

 

[nahneun]

Originally Posted by sho'nuff

this is sOoooo true. any japanese restaurant owned by what we believed to be korean owners were horrible.

well, 회 is fine at SOME korean-owned japanese restaurants, but koreans can't make sushi rice properly in the us.

 

[Hombre Secreto]

Originally Posted by nahneun

well, 회 is fine at SOME korean-owned japanese restaurants, but koreans can't make sushi rice properly in the us.
That's kind of odd actually. Koreans have been in Japan for some time now. The Koreans in Japan never leave to America?

 

[impolyt_one]

Originally Posted by Hombre Secreto

That's kind of odd actually. Koreans have been in Japan for some time now. The Koreans in Japan never leave to America?
A lot do, actually (read one of those stupid ass books on Japan by Edwin Reischauer, et al).... but they leave and go to (primarily) America expressly because they hate Japan, and making Japanese food would not be the best activity for them to do in their time of identity struggle. Delicious ironing does not exist in Asia, fake sushi making should be left to the exact kind of people ripping off OP. (0)

 

[dtmt]

Originally Posted by KitAkira

Korean-owned Japanese restaurants have terrible food, just thought I'd share that little gem
THIS

Although SE asians somehow manage to make "japanese" food that's even worse than the korean stuff

 

[indesertum]

So I had to close tonight with the son. On impulse I told him what was on the mind and he was surprisingly very receptive. During the course of conversation he said thanks multiple times for bringing the subject up.

He said a few things. First that he thought it was weird his dad took tip money too so he had asked him about it and from what i understand they talked to department of labor people a few years ago and they said since technically the restaurant is under the mother's name (she used to operate it herself until a few years ago) the dad can get tips and should get paid in case they get divorced and there's a huge mess with money and income issues. Second, they used to get W2 forms and get paid biweekly, but again from i understand they stopped that last year so that servers could get paid daily as the servers are mostly students. I think that's kind of a bad argument and I'm not sure what happened a year or so ago.

I told him from what I understand a manager's agent as legally defined (able to hire, fire, assign shifts) can't take tips.

The waiter trainees he said he didn't know about.

He said he'd look into it everything while the restaurant goes on break next week.

If things get fixed should I still leave? I still have a job at the other restaurant lined up. I've worked there a few times and I generally get paid more (more tips).


sorry impolyt_one. i just couldnt not talk about it. i'm pretty sure i can handle myself in a bad situation. i'm not like fuji skinny.