Francisca Guzmán
La mesera Francisca Guzmán con dos deliciosos platos de mariscos listos para ser servidos.
By Jorge Rennella
Restaurant servers may soon begin sharing their tips with other restaurant staff, based on proposed changes to the current regulations about that issue. The changes would allow restaurants to divide tips, which traditionally belong to the servers, among other staff.
Regulators say the current regulations increased the wage difference between waiters, dishwashers and cooks. Those regulations, implemented by the Obama Administration, have been criticized by industrial groups who say that the distribution of tips is necessary to address the difference in income between waiters, who have been earning more due to the increase in food prices, and the back-of-house staff, who do not receive tips.
Juan Alvarado, owner of the seafood restaurant La Antigua Hacienda in Chicago, said "I do not agree because the cooks have a salary, and the waitresses earn tips and if you take away the percentage of those tips who will get more benefit is the cook and the people in the kitchen. On the contrary, I think the most just thing is to raise the salary to the waitresses instead of looking to share the tips with the kitchen. I'm paying the waitresses at $6 per hour, when other people are giving $4.50, while a good cook is earning on average a salary of $1000 a week and others at least $600. If they change this regulation it would affect the operation of the restaurant To be fair we would have to raise the salary to the waitresses.”
According to political analysts, this would be another attempt by the current administration to reverse the laws implemented by President Obama's government.
The current Department of Labor took measures to repeal regulations from the Obama administration, such as paying the extension to mandatory overtime for approximately 4 million workers and requiring companies to submit salary information disaggregated by sex and race. .
Under the rules of the Obama administration, employers who pay the minimum wage to waitresses, which is lower than the standard minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, cannot demand to share tips with others workers. This rule was adopted in 2011.
"I like the waitress job, although it's not easy,” says Francisca Guzmán, waitress at the La Antigua Hacienda restaurant in Chicago. There are people who leave you a good tip, others little and others nothing. In the previous restaurant where I worked they made us share the tips between the waitresses and also with the kitchen food preparers, which did not seem fair to me because our work is different from theirs.
"It's not easy to serve customers; some come in a bad mood. In my current job it is different because tips are not shared and they stay with us. I think maybe we can share with the other waitresses, but not with the kitchen," says Guzmán.
In statements to the press, Saru Jayaraman, president of the union-backed Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, said, "the workers who receive tips are among the most vulnerable workers in the country. Repealing this regulation would leave them even in worse situation. By allowing employers to take control of their employees' tips by changing this regulation, we will be pushing a majority of the female workforce towards instability, poverty and vulnerability to harassment and violence."
On the other hand, the chef and co-owner Jose Luis Contreras, of the restaurant Fabulosos Mariscos a la Antigua, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, highlighted that in Mexico a large part of the restaurants in the most important cities do share tips.
"In Mexico the waitresses give a percentage less than 50 percent of their tips to the kitchen, because practically the kitchen is part of their work too: that the food comes out on time, that the kitchen works well and the food is of quality," Contreras says. “But the big difference between the United States and Mexico is that their salary in Mexico is higher - in relation to the peso and dollar - than the salary that is paid here, so I do not consider it fair that your tips are shared with the kitchen."
In turn, Angélica Canales, waitress of Fabuloso Mariscos a la Antigua, said that in Tulsa they usually pay between $2.50 and $3 dollars per hour.
"However, here in our restaurant, the waitresses are paid 50 cents more. But tips are the best; they are super good, especially on weekends. I love this job. One of the waitresses told me that she earned $300 on Sunday. However, tips vary from day to day.”
With respect to the proposal to change the regulation, Canales says," I think you should not share tips with the kitchen, because when a worker usually earns $10 an hour, servers only earn between $2.50 to $3.50; while cooks usually have a good weekly salary. If they change the regulation then they should match the salaries of the waitresses on par with the kitchen, to be fair."
The National Restaurant Association and other groups filed with the Supreme Court a request for examination of the regulation of tips, which is being studied by that court for consideration.
"We applaud the Department of Labor for the examination of tipping regulations. We hope that the restaurant industry will comment on the new regulations," said Angelo Amador, executive director of the Restaurant Law Center,” said in a press release.
The Department of Labor formally published this proposal on December 5, thus initiating a 30-day public comment period, which ends on January 4, 2018. If you wish to make a direct comment to the government on this regulation, please contact this internet address: www.regulations.gov
Jorge Rennella is part of the team of el Restaurante Magazine. Contact him at jorge@restmex.com