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 Message 11452 of 22774 in Behind the Bar
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Subject: Re: Employers making employees pay for mistakes
From: Mister2
Posted: Sat Mar 4. 2006, 20:29 UTC
Followup to: "Employers making employees pay for mistakes"  by Cask  (Sat Mar 4. 2006, 19:27 UTC)
> Our employer is sick of employee mistakes in ringing in stuff.  They 
> say they are going to make us pay for any mistakes out of our tips.  
> I know it's against the law to garnish a paycheck for mistakes, but 
> what about tips?  Anyone know about this, or a website with info on 
> it?

Where are you?

Pretty much the way I've seen it work is, if your drawer is short at the end 
of the night, it comes out of tips.  If your drawer is heavy at the end of the 
night, it's just as bad as being short, as it represents either you making 
improper change for people, or, conversely, you not ringing stuff in and 
attempting to pocket the cash.

So, if my drawer at the end of the night is 75 cents short, I throw 3 quarters 
into the till.  On a couple thousand in sales most nights (albeit much of it 
on CCs), I'm rarely off by more than a dollar or two - which, honestly, if I'm 
short a dollar on $1,000 in cash sales, I'm fine with correcting it.

How many mistakes are we talking about here?  How much are your drawers off?  
Are you using a POS terminal or a traditional banger?  Some places will put a 
fixed percentage in to allow for mistakes - say, 2% of gross sales, .5% of 
gross sales, whatever.  Some places make you correct it out of tips.

Here's the DOL website on wage garnishment.  According to it, tips are 
generally not protected from garnishment, probably because they are income not 
regulated or overseen in any way by the employer.  Either way, this is the 
link you need to look at.

http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/guide/garnish.htm


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