Whats with restaurants not splitting checks?

[chet everett]

Not hard to find ---

Illinois Dept of Labor -- Mininum Wage by Employment Category


There are Federal standards that the employer must meet as well -- if the employee does not receive enough in tips to at least make their hourly wage equivlent to the legislated state minimum further if the tips are too low the employer cannot cut hours, equivlent must be made up -- U.S. Department of Labor - Wage & Hour Divisions (WHD) - Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by monksy

Generally the reviews from Yelp are pretty bad in Chicago. I think this is more of a city by city basis, or maybe its the quality of the reviewer kind of problem.

In larger cities Yelp is always bad, because there are better options out there. There are always "foodies" who post online who are nothing but posers following a trend. There are also intelligent people who have worked in the industry, have been interested in food all their lives, or are just getting into checking out different places and are capable of writing informed opinions on a place (and most importantly acknowledge it is just their opinion).

In Chicago sites like LTHForum and Chowhound attract the people who write more informed reviews away from Yelp. Yelp is left with people who post things like "my boyfriend broke up with me at this place - ZERO STARS!!!!!".

Another thing that happens in large cities is that chain places have bad service due to competition. A BW3's in Tennessee may be the best server gig in a city, but it is not a desirable job in a larger city like Chicago. Anyone with half a brain can get shifts at places with higher prices (and subsequently, much better tips) as well as more considerate customers. The solid servers gravitate to better places, and the chain places are left staffed by college students who don't have the first clue what they're doing. There are also plenty of places that cheap but family run in the city, and they have great servers. But in general they don't tolerate entitled idiots. I don't care if you're going to be an idiot, just stay in Lincoln Park and stop whining about crap.

[monksy]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

Well, whether $1.80, $2.13, or $4.80, it's all well short of minimum wage, and disturbingly short of a living wage. I'm okay with doing my part to see that a mediocre server earns enough to live, and a good server earns enough to live semi-comfortably. He/she would pretty much have to kick me in the balls before I'd consider not tipping at all.

The problem is that when you say "semi-comfortably" it keep increasing.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by monksy

The problem is that when you say "semi-comfortably" it keep increasing.

Cost of living tends to do that.