A tempest over tipping, as Labor Department weighs rule change
On a good night, Melissa Aucoin clears $150 in tips from the tables she waits on at a suburban Italian restaurant, where entrees start at $16.
Her hourly salary is only $3.75, so like many tipped hospitality workers she relies on gratuities to pay the rent.
“Whatever tips you get from those tables are yours,” she says.
Back in the kitchen, cooks and dishwashers make more per hour, but don’t see any of the tips from customers, creating a widening disparity in earnings that has vexed some restaurant owners and raised public discussion about where tips go and who should benefit.
Ms. Aucoin, who has worked as a waitress for more than two decades, among other jobs, says that it’s only fair that she keeps the tips since she’s hustling to satisfy her customers, though she understands the frustrations of
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