Tip envy

[Txacoli]

In California...your hands are tied. It is illegal to share tips with kitchen crew, management, owners, etc. If you charge a "service charge" on the menu...you can allocate it however you want.

We use a French system of points and pool tips. Add up the points, divide by the tip pool. Dish Dog gets one point, old-school maitress d' who runs the register and knows everyone gets 5 points. Bussers are 2-3 points, waitrons 4, maybe 5 if they are super, or 3 if they are new. Everyone knows the point scale, and they can bitch about it if they want. It is probably illegal, but it allows the super hot busser to make as much as the dumb waitress, and the entre-metier guy in the 110 degree kitchen who comes in at 10am and leaves at midnight to make as much or more than the single mom waitress who still doesn't understand the difference between guanciale and pancetta after two years.

[lala]

Come on. You're paying the guy minimum wage - less than minimum wage in some states. Of course he's upset. On your pay, he's living below the poverty line. Could you do that? Cough up some more money, or be prepared to have high turnover (and resultant customer dissatisfaction) in that position.