[morning-coffee]

In the U.S., from what I've heard from friends who have been food service workers, the tips are collected by the server, but split up nightly among the whole front/back set of workers.

[burnished]

Every place tends to do this differently, in practice it is never an even split (greatly favoring the servers). And at least in the state I worked was completely voluntary as the tips were yours.

[nverno]

It's variable. I worked at a place where back of the house didn't get any of the tips.

[petre]

I've heard about that in Europe as well, dunno if it's the norm or just some places that do it.

[ghodith]

Far from universal