Workers' advocacy groups have continually warned that Trump-era regulations would make it easier for owners to use their employees and customers to cover payrolls.
Such regulations include “nontraditional” tipping pools that mean servers have to share their tips with employees who don’t normally receive them, like line cooks or dishwashers. But critics claim it’s setting a green line for stealing workers' wages.
This viral TikTok video from alexservestea has shed some light on what happens when this system is put into practice. The author shared a screenshot of an actual tip distribution breakdown sheet sent by an unnamed server at Chili’s. Turns out, a total of $1001.66 in sales generated $61.01 in credit card tips, but according to the screenshot, the server only got to keep a mere $0.91.
Let’s see this whole incident, which for too many workers is now sadly a grim reality, in full right below. And if you've experienced something like this at work, be sure to share it in the comments.
Recently, a TikToker named Alex shared a viral video where she exposed Chili's unfair tipping distribution policy
Image credits: alexservestea
Bored Panda reached out to Alex, the TikToker alexservestea who exposed the defective tipping policy at Chili’s restaurant. “Tipping out is common practice in all restaurants, but not all restaurants drop the cooks' wages from $20 an hour to minimum wage. In CA, Chili's dropped the cooks' wages to minimum wage, which at the time was $13 an hour, and started having servers tip them out. 3.4% of our sales were going to the cooks. Another 2.1% was going to the rest of the staff; bartender, expo and food runners,” Alex explained.
“It's broken down differently at every location but that's how it was at mine. I had moved from FL where tip-out was only 1% to the bar. Not too bad,” she said and added that it all changed when she transferred to CA. “I was shocked to learn it was 5.5% because the average check at Chili's is $12.”
Moreover, with all the promotions they have going on, no one’s making any money, said Alex. Turns out, “they have 3 for $10, 2 for $25, free chips and salsa, free dessert, free kids’ meal, free appetizer. I mean, honestly, they should just start giving the whole menu away for free. The way they see it is, it gets people in the door. They think we will come in and order more because of it.”
But that’s not the case since people are going in for the deal. “That’s all they care about. And they definitely don’t care about the server.” In reality, “you as a server are doing all this work for no tips and then, on top of that, you pay a portion of your tips to the rest of the staff, whether you get tipped or not. It’s mandatory and automatically gets pulled from your sales at the end of the day.”
Alex continued: “So if you have $1000 in sales, it will pull $55 for tip-out and it doesn’t matter what you actually made in tips. It’s a screwed-up system.” “The cooks were not happy when their pay dropped and the servers weren’t happy when they found out they had to supplement their pay, and with good reason! The CEO’s net worth is 38.6 MILLION dollars yet he has the staff working for pennies!”
“On top of that, they have ghost kitchens running out of Chili’s,” Alex continued: “Ghost kitchens were meant to be for small businesses to rent out a kitchen space and have cooks make the food and be sold through delivery apps or pickup only.”
She also shared screenshots from a chat with a Chili's server who shed light on how the restaurant's tipping policy drains the servers
Image credits: alexservestea
Image credits: alexservestea
Image credits: alexservestea
According to the TikToker, corporations have now caught wind and started abusing the system. “So they are running ghost kitchens or 'virtual restaurants' out of their already existing restaurant, using the staff from those restaurants to cook and package the food, without any extra pay.”
“These employees are essentially working for 3 restaurants at once now but only getting paid for one! It's exploitation and it's not okay,” she concluded.When asked what she thinks of restaurant owners crying over how "no one wants to work anymore," Alex tells them to “look in the mirror.”
“You don't pay your staff, you exploit them, and you overwork them. Every Chili's employee I know is overworked because every location is understaffed,” she said. The TikToker who also worked there said that she had to be a host, a server, a Togo specialist, a food runner, an expo and a busser all at once, “for a grand total of $5 an hour because I was doing it all on server pay.”
“They are never fully staffed and they run you ragged. And after you work yourself off for them, they discard you like you're nothing. I had managers who worked there over 20 years, about to get their pension, and they were fired over the dumbest reasons.”
Alex concluded that “Chili's is a horrible company that doesn't care about its employees and only cares about their pockets,” and added that sadly, “almost all restaurants are the same.”
Alex has also received messages from people who were in the negative at the end of the shift which meant they had to pay from their own pocket
Image credits: alexservestea
In a statement to the Daily Dot, Alex said: “It’s not ok for people to work their asses off just to have to PAY to work there! When servers are only walking home with half of their tips and Togo specialists are paying OUT OF POCKET to tip out the cooks, there is a problem!”
