Pay Day for whom??

[Aurora957]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Arizona

I work as a waitress at a popular mexican food restraunt. The waitress wage in Arizona is $2.15 / hour. There have been times when I, (and other servers) have received negative paychecks from our employer. They explained due to the amount in tips we made and claimed, our wages of 2.15/hour didn't cover the necessary taxes like state and federal. The pay stub was informing us what we were still owed for taxes. This sounds EXTREMELY weird to me, since when do we pay our employers for a job?!? :-( Does this sound like tax fraud on their part or something still illegal? Where do I go to have this looked into?

 

[cbg]

Call your state Department of Labor IMMEDIATELY.

 

[tigger22472]

I have been a waitress at quite few different places and although they all do things differently I'm not sure this is illegal. Do as suggested and call the labor board but you are required to report a certain percentage of your sales. I believe at least in my state of Indiana you are required to report 10% of your wages. Although I have never received a negative check I have received a check that the amount was 0 and every quarter given a statement from the IRS as to taxes owed. As a waitress it is up to you to make sure it is reported right and that taxes are paid.

 

[JETX]

As expected, cbg is absolutely correct. What they are doing (in subtracting money not earned) is improper. Contact your state labor board NOW.

 

[divgradcurl]

cbg and JETX are right on, but I just wanted to point out that what tigger22472 mentioned isn't correct.

but you are required to report a certain percentage of your sales. I believe at least in my state of Indiana you are required to report 10% of your wages.

This isn't the law anywhere. Tipped employees are required to report their actual tips; it may be that some restaurants are lazy, and just "guesstimate" the amount of tips you should be receiving each night based on a percentage of the receipts, but this is not legal, and if your employer is doing this, it's also time to talk with your local DOL.

Now, it is certainly possible that this could result in a zero paycheck due to the taxes on the reported tip income, but the whole idea of reporting a percentage of sales as tip income is not the way it's supposed to be done.

 

[Aurora957]

Thanks guys, I will contact labor board, and probably somebody to help with past taxes...since it was on last years tax refund.

**A note**
I have understood from past employers and fellow servers that we are to claim the majority of our tips. But we are not to claim everything we make. Due to this:

Example: Somebody pays a tab of $40.00 on their credit card.
They leave me a tip of $8.00.
There are ALWAYS people servers tip out. (in my case 3 others the bartender, pantry and food runner)
Now, I'm left with an estimated amount of $5.00
Now I'm supposed to claim the amount of $8.00, since its a credit card and the amount is documented. Now I'm paying taxes on tips I didn't even leave the restraunt with!

So I've been told to always claim at least the credit card tips and to estimate what my tips are after tip out...and claim THAT amount.

(Just stating what I've been told and why.....makes sense to me though!

 

[tigger22472]

Have you discussed this with your employer yet? Actually I would really start there before going to the labor board unless you call and ask GENERAL questions. The IRS is infamous for auditing people in food service... so if I were you I'd ask the employer first to try to explain before bringing a S**tload of trouble onto yourself. And as a former waitress and bartender I also agree with you on the tip idea.