I opened a place in Olympia, WA where the servers had to tip 2% of their total
sales (food & drink).
Now, this was a new place where we all agreed on these #'s from the beginning.
The servers could either tip 10% of their alcohol sales or 2% of their food &
alcohol sales. As you can imagine, many "what if" senarios were brought up,
e.g. "What if the server has zero alcohol sales"? etc.
We decided that we would start with the 10% of alcohol sales, test it out for
one month and then come to a conclusion.
The end result was a unanimous 2% of F&B sales.
Reasons:
The servers had to do extra paper work at the end of the shift to add up the
wine, liquor, beer, soda, & juice totals stapled to an extra read-out. (They
had to get their sodas and juices from the bartender too.) They grew tired of
this.
The #'s proved to be a less tip out (slightly) by going the 2% route.
With a 2% tip all they had to do is look at their total, figure 2% then stick
a reading and money in an envelope.
Also, we did not have only one bartender receiving that money. That money was
split with the other bartenders just as the money made at the bar was split
with the service bartender. The service bar was rotated for fairness. It was
actually nice, because some days ya just don't feel like dealing with guests
so it was a nice balance.
This is just my experience.
Cheryl
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Cheryl Charming
http://www.misscharming.comcheryl[at]misscharming.com