We Like Our Tips

By Patrick Foy, Copper Door Restaurant

In the foodservice industry, we ’ re usually in a hurry. Despite the calm in the dining room, there ’ s an excited energy in the kitchen. It doesn ’t leave much time for chit chat but my coworkers and I try to find moments to catch up when we can. Lately, one topic of conversation has been front and center — Congress ’ proposed elimination of the tip credit and how that will impact our income.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on everyone, but the restaurant industry has been decimated. One-in-six restaurants have shuttered and more than two million workers have lost jobs. The financial strain and uncertainty is emotionally and mentally crippling. At Copper Door Restaurant, we ’ re like a family. Management is doing all it can to keep the employees afloat: adjusting hours, utilizing PPP loans, making sacrifices themselves to ensure we have enough to get by.

Those of us lucky enough to be working now have a new battle to fight. As part of the Raise the Wage Act, Congress wants to eliminate the tip credit and enact a $15 minimum wage. As tipped employees, we are fully aware that right now there is a lower minimum wage in most states and a tip credit for tipped workers like waitstaff and bartenders. We also understand that our earnings are protected under the tip credit. If a tipped employee ’ s hourly rate plus tips doesn ’t meet the standard minimum wage, their employer is legally obligated to make up the difference so that we ’ re never paid less than minimum wage. This safety net is rarely used because the U.S. has a pro-tipping culture. With our hourly wage plus tips, most servers make between $19 and $25 an hour, far above the proposed minimum wage. Elimination of the tip credit puts our wages at significant risk as it would inevitably lead to a drastic decrease in a tipped employees ’ earning potential.

Not only would elimination of the tip credit hurt the employees it’ s meant to help, but it would also further devastate restaurants. Most operate on a thin 3% to 5% pre-tax profit margin. A $15 minimum wage for tipped employees would mean a triple-digit increase in tipped labor costs. Such an increase will force price increases of as much as 20% to consumers and still require benefit and staff cuts.

For the remaining workers, our motivation would plummet along with our tips. It’ s like telling a salesperson they can no longer work for commission; where is the incentive to go above and beyond? Our hourly wage secures our place as an employee of the restaurant, but it is the tips that help us thrive. Many would reluctantly have to find a new career.

Being a server or bartender is a uniquely rewarding experience and few realize how many of us choose this as our career path. It is a balancing act that requires attention to detail, the ability to multitask, and tenacity. A knack for reading people and a caring disposition are the most important arrows in our quiver. Each of us have loyal “ regulars ” that ask to be seated in our section because we have bonded with them, we know what they like, and we overcorrect any mistakes.

"Being a server or bartender is a uniquely rewarding experience and few realize how many of us choose this as our career path."

We treat our sections like our own small businesses. To us, the restaurant floor is an interwoven system of independent entrepreneurs that runs like a well-oiled machine. We have no issue with an increased minimum wage for non-tipped workers, but for our industry the tipping model works for guests, employees, and the restaurant. It’ s a three-legged stool. We are so passionate about keeping the tip credit in place that we ’ ve started a petition at www.welikeourtips.com. It’ s a grassroots effort to assure tipped employees are heard. Together, Kellie Connolly, Leeya Rollins, Marsha Mastromariano, Tyler Green, Mike Sheehan (who all join me in this opinion) and I, the Copper Door ’ s waitstaff, have more than 100 years of experience in the industry.

We ’ ve seen lean times and prosperous. Anyone working for a great restaurant can attest to the value of the tipped employee to the industry, and the value tips have to worker lives. We feed our families, buy cars, purchase homes, pay medical bills, afford schooling ourselves and our children, and so much more, with tips.

Any thought that you need to protect us, devalues what we have worked so hard for. It is by our own hard work that we have succeeded and can live our American Dream.

We know this is one of the hardest periods the restaurant industry has ever experienced. It’ s not the time to add an unnecessary burden. On top of killing businesses, this would actually hurt the very people it’ s designed to help. Congress should get out of the way, let our restaurants recover, and let us focus on serving our guests to earn our own living.

Patrick Foy works at Copper Door Restaurant in Bedford. He lives in Greenfield.