Minimum wage can't be paid through tips, says HMRC

David Price
Member - 80 posts

Tips have been seen as for a long time as a Tax Free perk, and should never be part of anyones overall rate that they are paid to do their job.

All the Restaurants and Bars that have been doing this should be prosecuted, for not paying the minmum wage. The fact is that quite some well known companys have been doing this and I wonder if the Govenment will have the balls to stand up to them and get them to give those employees all the back pay they are due?

It is well known that Taxi drivers get tips which go towards their overall takings for the day, they are not paid a fixed rate first then get tips on top, nor can they pay themselves the minimum wage. However thay are classed as self employed so all the money they take is earnings, but their tips are not traceable like the money on the meter, so it is hard to know exactly how much they get one way or the other.

A restaurant worker on the other hand is not self employed, and therefore the minimum wage applies, as tips are normally given to an indevidual and are not intended for the whole of the staff to share. If a persons pay relied on tips to make up the difference, how much would they end up taking home when business was bad, probably not a lot.

The restaurants make enough money on the food they sell, and they have been taking money from their hard working staff for far too long, and as a result of case hopefully those staff will now get what they deserve, unfortunatly it will mean that we all end up paying more for our meals when we eat out, as one thing is for sure the company won't?