How do coffee-shop tips get distributed?

March 3, 2004 5:21 PM

Coffee shop tip jars. Do employees actually see that money or is it just dumped in the till at the end of the night? (expecting a variety of answers)
posted by alana to Society & Culture (6 answers total)

When i was a barista i split tips 50/50 with whoever i was on shift with, even if it was my manager (and people were usually tipping with him in mind, not me). I was at a franchise shop. Not sure if the practice is different at independent shops where everyone is paid under the table, or where the owner works many of the shifts.
posted by krisis at 5:36 PM on March 3, 2004

The sandwich shop I worked at in college had a tip jar. Each shift, it got emptied and split among the departing staffers.

I've never heard of a place that kept the tips. That's just evil (unless, of course, the only employees are the owners, in which case I guess it's OK).
posted by me3dia at 6:06 PM on March 3, 2004

Barista's tips are very important. Last time I worked a coffeeshop, I added $3 - $4/hr to my wage with them, sometimes more. I actually cleared more than I make in an office now. Of course the work was:

table
------
job

...if you get me. And it irks me that Border's doesn't allow tips in their café. My local Border's barista's are the BEST. Good people, good friends.
posted by Shane at 6:34 PM on March 3, 2004

I have never heard of a coffeeshop that did such a thing as dump the tip jar into the till. For good cause -- they'd find themselves without any employees in no time.

When I worked at a coffee stand, I kept all of the money. When I worked at an indoor, restaurant-style coffee bar, I split the tips with everybody on shift, including the cook.
posted by waldo at 9:16 PM on March 3, 2004

yeah, we split it among the counter staff and bussers--although the morning shift divvied it up differently compared to the evening shift. It was everybody's gas money/pocket change.
posted by whatnot at 9:39 PM on March 3, 2004

For what it's worth, me too. I worked at a pizza joint before and during college, and the tips were split among the staff at the end of each shift. At least another hour or two's worth of loot. Another job in college was kind of similar (though harder to explain), and again, we all split the tips among the guys manning the jars.
posted by Sinner at 11:08 PM on March 3, 2004