Many restaurants ask their servers to give part of their tip — usually divvied up between the server, kitchen staff and the host — to the house. And that amount demanded may have risen along with the minimum wage.
A tip-out to the business wasn’t common until a year ago. But when the economy slowed down, some restaurants introduced the concept. When the minimum wage rose to $10.25 from $9.50 about two weeks ago, some more restaurants started the practice.
The minimum wage for servers, typically students or new immigrants, is only $8.90 per hour.
Employers can’t deduct wages to cover broken dishes or credit-card mistakes, but tips are not wages legally. Servers still have to give tips to the house even if they aren’t tipped by the customer.
