Does Pizza Express still pay minimum wage which includes tips?

[PosieParker]

I'm really that MN would support a company that pays it's staff the minimum wage and this is made up from tips too. When you tip at Pizza Express the house takes it to top up wages the staff have to hand it over. Or has this changed?

It's exploitation.

here it says cash tips go straight to the staff

here it claims they have never used tips to make up the minimum wage

Isnt it illegal for tips to go straight to staff (because this means that they are not paying tax on them). Ive often wondered about this. Should this not be declared?

I'm sure I heard it on a radio discussion..

Oh well panic over!!!

It is illegal for companies in the uk to make up minimum wage with tips.
Gratuities left via card machine tend to be payed via their payslip at the end of every month, so get taxed, and cash tips go straight to staff. Whether they go just to one person or they are all pooled and divided with chefs etc is up to them.
It is the staffs responsibility to declare to the IR any extra income they are receiving ie tips however I have never known anyone to do it...

Hi there
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We've spoken to Pizza Express and just to clarify, Pizza Epxress has never used tips to top up wages to minimum wage, they?ve always paid it in full.
HTH
MN Towers

Sibel, that sounds really bad!

Everywhere I've worked in catering either told the waitresses/bar staff to keep the tips, or shared them between the staff at the end of the month.

There was a whole hoo-haa a few years ago and the practice was very widespread. It has however been made illegal.

www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/may/06/tips-minimum-wage-ruling

Seems you have been lucky then. I remember the piece on radio news when a number of food chains had been found to have only topped up tips to meet minimum pay levels.

Tips paid with credit / debit cards alongside cost of meal actually becomes cash for the business, even though tips are intended for staff. Tips paid in cash are more likely to reach the staff pocket (though I take the point about tax, made earlier).

Sometimes sharing among all staff is unfair as it rewards less attentive staff while hard workers get less than they deserve. There was an interesting piece on radio in America where some waitresses experimented and the more 'off hand' they were, the higher the tips. Well, maybe that was just Chicago, but personally I'd avoid anywehre that has a 'service charge' already on the bill - it takes away the idea of voluntarily rewarding a good job and makes it mandatory.

Thanks for the link, FFF, I couldn't remember when it was, but stuck in the memory as a digusting practice and a list of firms to avoid, at the time.

Actually, this other Guardian link gives a more detailed description of how staff were not getting 100% of tips in quite a number of places, back in 2009.

I see there's a link to http://www.fairtips.org/ which is well worth a look before planning a meal out (especially if a lt of people will be going) - though I wish they had an A-Z list of restaurants / chains.

I would have suggested an MNetters survey, but the fact there's already a shortcut means it should be a bit easier to check on firms which are fair to staff and pass on all the tips.

Why have Sibel's comments been deleted?

Or are we not allowed to open people's eyes to how companies treat their staff.

I guess this has been revived because all those posts were deleted upthread?

fwiw I worked for PE (briefly - it was hideous) and never saw any of the tips that came through by credit card. However, the stores are franchises I believe. The people running the one I worked at were removed though - I imagine therewas all sorts of dodginess going on there.

ime sharing among all staff is the way to go; I far prefer this. What tends to happen otherwise is that the good sections go to queen bees who rake it in, whilst everyone else runs around helping them but making eff all tips wise.

point taken about others helping out too - have never worked in one myself. sorry

Okay
These are facts as I've been working for the company as a chef for 20 years.
The company has never taken cash tips to top up wages. However, on credit card tips they do take 8 percent admin costs 30 percent goes to kitchen. And the restaurants in the UK are all company owned. No franchises since 1995.

I never thought of tax implications. When I was younger I worked in a very nice hotel and used to earn at least £800 a month in tips in the summer, more than my actual wages.

Since this has been bumped, an interesting experiment here:

jayporter.com/dispatches/observations-from-a-tipless-restaurant-part-1-overview/