my boss wants me to give a percentage of my tips to the kitchen
ive been working as a server at this place for about a year and today was the busiest day for us. for reference this is a small restaurant where a good day is 2,000 in total and today was well over 4000. not only am i a server, i also clean all the tables, seat people, make drinks, make certain food items, restock materials, answer phone calls, and pack to go orders. i worked a 10 hour shift where i left 30 minutes after the shift because people stayed late.
the kitchen staff has always left on time and today wasn’t an exception. there are only 2 servers in the entire restaurant and we do basically everything but cooking and washing dishes and it was a very tiring day with no breaks for lunch or anything. we made almost 600 in tips today which is a lot for us, so split between me and the other server we would’ve made 300 each. my boss however, after the shift ends, asks us to give a percentage of our tips (he said 15 or maybe 20%) to the kitchen because he said they were busy today. i get paid 7 dollars an hour in a place where minimum wage is 16 dollars. the kitchen staff get paid at least minimum wage.
he even asked me what percentage i think i should give to the kitchen (i’ve never been asked to split tips with the kitchen before) and i told him to give whatever he wants. i obviously couldn’t tell him no because he’s my boss but it’s so frustrating. there was also one particular day in the past where he had taken 50% of my tips because he said he helped because i was alone and it was really busy. his idea of “helping” by the way was moving the food from one corner in the kitchen to the other corner while ordering me to do this and do that while i’m already swamped.
i’m sorry this turned out to be more of a rant bc i’m just so tired and upset
edit: i live in ny and also this weekend is an exception to how busy it is because we are right next to a college and today is graduation weekend. please understand that most days, me and my coworker are making way below minimum wage. this weekend in general is an exception.