Originally Posted by
CJKatl
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BTW, you do realize the waiter has to tip out to other employees who work on the floor, right? And that's usually based on sales, too. The customer does not tip the bus boy, runner or host, but they get a cut of the waiter's tip, as does the bartender even though the bartender may also receive tips directly from customers. And if you are ordering a $400 bottle of wine, you may be dealing with a restaurant that has a wine captain who will also get tipped out based on wine sales, in which case the waiter is paying for the joy of waiting on the person in the first example.
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According to this article, California forbids the practice of mandatory pooling tips. [Edited. This prohibition is only with back of the house employees]
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...224-story.html
Of course, California is the odd state in that servers must be paid minimum wage.