[sharpplanar]

I used to do accounting for a restaurant and I would disagree with you and say with the move to modern Point Of Sale software restaurants not doing this would be the exception now. We checked this every pay period to make sure servers were at or over the proper hourly wage because it is illegal to pay them less.

Florida based for reference, tips are self reported here too but our POS system would automatically transfer tip amounts when a credit card was the payment method. So our payroll system already has that amount. Then we had an electronic time clock where servers scanned their hand to clock in\out, and it was set to prompt them for declared cash tips. It was a nicer restaurant (avg check a bit over 100$). Occasionally a server wouldn't declare enough tips to hit minimum wage for a pay period and the first thing HR would do is check to make sure they were declaring cash tips. In 5 years working there I can't remember a single time a server was actually under minimum wage for a pay period, they just weren't declaring cash tips because CC tips usually covered it.

I have been out of hospitality for a few years but I am seeing even smaller places with POS systems run on Ipads. I would assume since we live in the future these have similar features to the ancient 'micros' brand POS system we used and could integrate with quickbooks or better accounting software to run payroll and do these calculations.

P.S. for any server (or employee anywhere for that matter) who thinks their company is doing something illegal you don't have to even talk to your manager/boss/owner, just call the Department of Labor they pay people to fix these problems for you.

[Jemmeh]

That's at a nice restaurant though. It's more common than you think that there are restaurants just using paper tickets. I think Waffle House still does paper checks only and that's a huge chain. And most mom and pop restaurants too.

I've waitressed before and when I was a little short of minimum wage several times due to us being a slow/cheap restaurant the management just said "Some weeks you make more some you make less" and didn't try to correct it. I couldn't risk loosing my job. Sure, if they fired me for reporting them they'd be in trouble, but how long would it take for me to get justice and force them to pay? I wouldn't be able to eat while I waited for some kind of justice to be doled out.

[sharpplanar]

That is an unfortunate position, and I doubt you are the only one to have experienced that. I was personally employed at a place that didn't pay overtime, that is why I was aware of the DOL as a tool. One of the other employees called to try to get an investigation going and shared it with us. The owners never knew.