On April 26 Forbes.com featured San Francisco Senior Counsel Sara Moore's panel presentation "Tip Sharing: To Do or Not To Do?" at the 5th Annual Golden Gate Restaurant Association (GGRA) Conference in San Francisco.
The article highlighted the key points about tip sharing. California historically prohibited tip sharing with back of the house employees. However, the Department of Labor issued new guidance last year, which questioned this historical practice. Concerns over the ambiguity of the tip pool led Congress to take action, clarifying that tips could be shared with everyone except for managers and owners. With this legislative change now a year old, a handful of restaurants in the Bay Area have been piloting the program in which the tip pool is shared with the cooks and other kitchen employees - back-of-the-house (BOH) and the servers and other staff in the dining room - front-of-the-house (FOH).
Moore shared insights on tipping, "Tip sharing is nothing new. However, most restaurants have only typically pooled tips for the FOH staff, to make sure that bartenders and bus boys get their piece of the gratuity pie. Now you can say that you want the back of the house to share in the tip-pooling process."
The other panelist joining Moore were two Bay Area owner/operators of fine-dining destinations, Max Dibble, the office manager at London-inspired restaurant, The Cavalier, and Anthony Strong, Chef/ Owner of Prairie, a modern Italian restaurant in San Francisco’s mission district. The moderator was Gwyneth Borden, executive director of the GGRA.
To read the article in full, please see here.
Sara Moore is senior counsel in the San Francisco office of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani. Moore defends employers in all employment-related disputes, including discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, retaliation, and alleged Cal/OSHA and wage and hour violations. She often provides legal advice to restaurant management and Human Resources personnel on a wide-range of employment matters including how navigate California law, avoid lawsuits, improve policies, and ensure wage and hour compliance. She is also a member of the firm’s Employment and Retail & Hospitality practice groups.