As a server working in a restaurant, you sometimes get groups of people that you spend hours walking around serving and they leave you with less than what you imagine as a reasonable tip. This can happen to any server; it's especially harsh for those who highly depend on their TIPS for a living. With autograting, meaning TIPS are automatically added to the bill, servers no longer have to worry about how they are tipped because they know their tips are part of the bill. This has been a life saver for many servers and great for employers too; as it can help boost employee retention.

However, with the recent 11th Circuit, Judicial Court declared that Service Charges are not TIPS and are classified as non-tip wages. Accordingly, some employers will require these service charges to go through payroll as most employers don’t have the systems in place to pay them out daily and therefore, the employees will have to wait until their next payroll payment to receive these earnings. This can be profoundly hurtful for the server who depends on those TIPS every day and is part of the reason that they keep working in the restaurant business.

This is when having an Automated PayData Platform can help you! With Gratuity Solutions’ PayDay Portal, you are able to customize it to your individual needs and we ensure that your employees are paid in a fast, efficient, and timely manner. PayDay Portal calculates, allocates, and distributes TIPS, Wages, Service Charges, and Commissions, all in one place! We will help you maintain compliance with local, state, and federal regulations.

With PayDay Portal you get the CHOICE of how you want to pay your employees with one of our real-time Paycard or digital wallet options. Employees have access through our mobile app, PayDayPortal, where they can not only view payouts that have been disbursed to them but can also send additional tipouts to their fellow employees; the app is exceptionally helpful in states where tipouts cannot be mandated. Knowing how busy you are as an employer; we’ve made our onboarding process easy. It takes as little as 15 minutes and comes with a 30-day free trial and exceptional 24/7/365 support.

Test drive it today to stop living in the past and start living fully automated with our solution!

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Source: Eleventh Circuit: Service Charges Are Wages, Not Tips, Under FLSA | Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. - JDSupra