Patriot76- Don't feel restricted. If you feel that bus boy may deserve more than his cut of the tip, give it to him yourself. If everyone did their job, cool. If not, I don't see any problem taking money from the total tip and giving that to the busboy. He's the end of the line so there's normally no one he tips out. If he does, it's normally the dishwasher.
Also, keep in mind that a restaurant needs to be a cohesive working unit. Other servers, bussers, manager, etc will go where the help is needed if they are able to. If one server is being bogged down, another may step in. In your instance, say a server needs to take someone's order asap. They may have asked another server to drop your check on the way by your table.
Here's a breakdown of where you tip may go:
Server gets tip money and it here:
Expediter (Brings your food to you, manages meal orders coming up from the kitchen) - 5-10%
Hostess - 5-10%
Busser - 15-25%
Bartender - 5-15%
Kitchen workers (this isn't common everywhere) - 5-10%
It's different at every place, but that's a good range to go by. There also aren't all of these positions at every restaurant. So the server ends up with around 30-60% (I'd say normally 30-40%) being tipped out to other people.
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