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Tip Jar

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Tony_Maronni

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My employees say they would like a tip jar up by the counter. 50% take out 25% delivery and 25% dine in. What do you pizza owners do?.
 
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I started out not having a tip jar but customers would ask if we have one. My operation is strictly delivery and carry out. The delivery driver gets all the tips for deliveries unless it is a very large order with a very large tip. The in-store tips are divided based on a percentage of total hours (management are excluded).
 
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I decided against it, I put this up there with all the major stores asking would you like to donate a dollar to this or that? do they really get the dollar? who knows. Especially kmart. What they need to be doing is would you like to donate a dollar to help keep us afloat.
To tie this together the tip for carry out is for what? That is something I don’t get. As an owner I pay my guys well and I feel if I have a tip jar out for people who just cash someone out then it has the perception “TO ME” that I pay my people poorly and that they need to supplement that!.
 
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We have a tip jar. When we have more then two waitresses, only two are on the floor so the girl answering the phones and using the register get what in the jar.
 
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i have one…it goes to the phone girl who also works the counter. On weekends the phone girl splits with the counter person.

nice little bonus for their hard work especially when they are mostly HS students. Waitstaff get tips on tables. People sometimes add a tip on carryout credit card sales so these would also go to counter/phones. Some nights its only a couple bucks and other it could be over $20
 
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We are a delco. We have always had a tip jar. Most businesses in our town do. Tips are split at the end of the day shift and at the end of the night (or when the first person leaves and then again at the end) Phone/counter staff and cooks share the split. Managers do not. Generally they get $3-$5 each on a typical night. It amounts to another dollar or two per hour for most of them.

Our customers are used to it and not offended.

Why not?
 
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I have one and could not see not having one.
2 reasons- One it gives your employee an extra incentive to be nice to customers. Sure that is their job even without a tip, but the fact of working for a tip makes it that much easier to make sure for good customer service.
The second is you can get better employees. You can pay your workers well, but on some nights my girls and guys make 15 to 18 bucks an hour with tips. It makes you far more competitive in obtaining and retaining quality workers
 
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I am not a big fan of a tip jar. I reluctantly allowed my employees to put a cup on the front counter with a few pens in it for signing credit card slips. Quite a few people put a tip in it. Especially after one of the employees seeds it with a dollar or two. My main rule is it can’t say tip anywhere on the cup.
 
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perfect pizzas:
I am not a big fan of a tip jar. I reluctantly allowed my employees to put a cup on the front counter with a few pens in it for signing credit card slips. Quite a few people put a tip in it. Especially after one of the employees seeds it with a dollar or two. My main rule is it can’t say tip anywhere on the cup.
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I have a glass with my store name that a family member had made in Mexico. I put it on the counter filled with pens only to have customers deposit coins in it.
 
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My tip cup usually makes about 1% of total sales. It doesn’t say tips or anything. With no pressure to tip, people still put their change in regularly. I keep track of what comes out and every 6 months or so
I print everyone new shirts and depending on how the tip cup does everyone gets hoodies too. With the constant revolving door of employees in this business the amount of t shirts I give to employees adds up. This way everyone gets a tip from delivery guys to the dishwasher. Their tip just happens to be in 2 color 2 sided Hanes tag less tees and nice thermal zip ups.
 
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You take the employee tips and use them to buy uniforms? Maybe that is why you have the turnover problem you mention.
 
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bodegahwy:
You take the employee tips and use them to buy uniforms? Maybe that is why you have the turnover problem you mention.
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My turnover problem is not usually the employee’s choice. I am very selective as to who stays with me and who gets released back into the world. I don’t have a tolerance for people who don’t put effort into their work. we operate a pizza and deli where everything is prepared in house, We use deck ovens, and go as far as mill our own tomatoes everyday. We don’t have time for kids who can’t roll Our logo mats out facing the correct direction. It’s one thing if you can’t find your way around the pos but if you can’t figure out that our store name shouldn’t face us at the counter…?

If I’m answering the phones and dealing with all the customers for the day, is it wrong to take “my” tips and buy shirts and hoodies? We run a different shop. My office is at the front counter if you know what I mean…
 
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“If I’m answering the phones and dealing with all the customers for the day, is it wrong to take “my” tips and buy shirts and hoodies? We run a different shop. My office is at the front counter if you know what I mean…”

As an owner, I have never taken any tip money from the tip jar. Ever. It has been a few years since I delivered but I do keep any tips from deliveries I have taken. As one of the “crew” I could see taking a share of the tips… but all of them? No. In our store managers also take nothing from the tip jar unless they are the only kitchen staff on. (Sometimes happens on slow days)

Aside from that, why would you buy business expense items from presumably undeclared cash and miss the deduction? Even if I were taking tips, I would still buy the shirts with my check book and get the deduction!
 
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I’m really not “That guy”, but since no one else has mentioned the legal aspect of this, I will: If you take tips that customers leave for employees, you can be sued. By either the customers OR the employees. And if you control the disposition of tips in ANY way (who gets what, etc) then you really have no excuse for not declaring those tips to the IRS.
 
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Part of the reason why I don’t come here often anymore is because anything you say can and will be turned around on you based on other people’s opinions.

I work the front of my store. My tip cup is next to the register. If someone leaves a tip, it belongs to me right? If I had someone working in my position the tips would belong to them right? There is no reason why it’s wrong or illegal to take money my customers left for me and buy my employees their t shirts and hoodies. There I was thinking I could give my guys something extra and boom…I’m evading taxes and stealing tips. I suppose I should just give 13$ a week to 7 employees, 4 of which are delivery guys and spend a total of 1 hour a day in the building.
 
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Sorry Pakula. You are right. I miss-understood your post. We do see a lot of posts from people with unusual ideas about things and there have been several discussions over the years about owners controlling tips in ways that violate the law so the responses are not entirely unreasonable. There is no reason at all that you can not earn or share in tips when working in a tipped position as an owner. Also no reason you can not choose to spend that money on employee uniforms.

I understood from your original post that you were taking the entire tip jar regardless of who was working in the tipped position(s) and using the money to buy uniforms and thinking that providing uniforms would be seen by employees as a benefit.
 
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Pakula,
I think your original statement was a little confusing, so please don’t take offense at the responses. It seemed to me, also, that you were taking all the tips (their tip is a nice shirt or hoodie, according to your comment.) That does sound like you’re taking all of it, not just the portion you earned.

It seems obvious that confusion was causing concern for you, over distribution of the tips. Don’t let that be a reason to stop being involved here, please. It takes a whole variety of people to make a forum like this a good resource, and while some can take self-importance to an extreme at times, this group has been amazing over the years.

I hadn’t thought about a tip jar yet…I almost always leave a tip when I carry out, without thinking about who gets it. I guess I’ve assumed it goes to the host person, or split among the non-tipped workers.

Taking this to another level, does anyone have tipped employees tip out for kitchen/dish workers? I’m working on a plan similar to one that’s been mentioned, to split among all the non-tipped workers on a percentage basis. I’m curious as to how anyone does this.

thanks!
 
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On big nights some of our drivers will tip the kitchen but it is a voluntary thing. They might put $10 or even $20 in the tip jar. This does not happen often.

Our tip jar is split among the “inside” crew which includes cooks and front counter/phone people. The split is done when the first people leave after the rush and again at closing. Managers do not take any (they get bonuses).
 
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These days it takes “thick skin” to survive on most forums…This forum is no exception as this goes on all over the place…

Most of us are guilty at times of saying thing we might later regret or at least change or need to apologize for…If one can ignore all the “crap” they do not want to hear, they can still pick up lots of useful tips…If they simply leave a forum, while they may feel better they end up losing more than they gain IMO…
 
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