Four years ago, Joe Jerge put a 50-cents-per-customer charge on his menu at Lackawanna's Mulberry Italian Ristorante, to be split among cooks, dishwashers and other back-of-house workers.
“Out front, you've got servers making upwards of $60 or $70 an hour when all is said and done,” Jerge said. “But the guys washing dishes, cleaning up, cooks scrubbing down equipment and getting burnt, cut, scratched, accommodating special requests, can’t have any of that." State law forbids using server tips to pay back-of-house workers who don't touch tables.
Now the harder the grind, the bigger profit share each worker takes home, Jerge said. “You give a part-time dishwasher making $240 a week another $100 monthly share, the look on their face. It makes a big difference.”
The United States and Canada are among the only countries that base restaurant worker wages on the generosity of customers. Much of the rest of the world pays restaurant workers a living wage, without tipping.
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