Thread: What do you think sharing 50% of tips with the restaurant owner?

Well this is something going on in my area now....I dont dance there, and I dont think I would ever do, in this condition.
I heard that dancer dances to CD, so yes it is not live music where you can perhaps share your tip.

There are other places though, where I dance, there is live music, and we dont share our tips...
so anyone experience a demanding owner? and the place is farely new.

I think it's !@#$ - do the waitstaff do that too? Man, that is really exploitation!

I believe tips are yours, as earned.

Tips are just for you! That's who the tips are for!

i can see sharing tips with the band (some locations do that) cuz it's symbiotic (tho body tips are the DANCER'S), however, there is NO reason to share tips with the OWNER! period.

I think that's crap. unless he's going to share 50% of the door cover with you. ;)

OH HELL NO!!! That shows that they have no respect for you as a professional and as an artist. Stand up to them and say no because once you back down and accept being treated that way they will think they can always do that to you AND you are better than that.

Are they sharing 50% of the bar or door proceeds with you too?

Do they make you buy your own dinner too?

It's wrong. The owner likely knows it, too.

Hell NO!!!
Back in the 80's we didn't even split our tips with the band, we were given our tips and we "tipped" the band at the end of the night! This also gave them motivation to play a good show for the dancer, the better she did with tips, the more they received.
It's sort of like a cocktail waitress tipping out her bartender at the end of the night. That all changed when we got newbies working in the nightclubs.

What Aradia said.

That's absolute BS!! I would never dance at a place that even suggested such a thing. Why should I pay them to dance?!! ,m::

I am glad we share the same opinion...I am not the only one...i hope somone do something about it soon.

I think its wrong, i work with live music every week and if people want to tip the musician (he dont play darbouka or simular he has a keybord from where he plays my cds and sometimes sing when i dance) they go directly to him and tip him. People give to the person they feel deserve it no need to complicate it ...

Oh a big HELL NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in calif .there are laws guarding you on this, check local laws!

Absolutely NOT. Your tips belong to you.

it would be nice if all the dancers would say no!!!! to tip sharing at that place and see what happens.

I put it right in my contract "Any and all tips are sole property of the dancer."

If this comes with higher compensation, and if the difference is larger than the average 50% of tips, it sounds like a desirable arrangement ;-)

Like Zamora said, it's illegal in Ca under labor code section 351.

CA Codes (lab:350-356)

Tips and gratuities

Originally Posted by steffib

If this comes with higher compensation, and if the difference is larger than the average 50% of tips, it sounds like a desirable arrangement ;-)

No! The higher compensation AND the tips should all be for the dancer. This is the audience's show of appreciation.
Cory Zamora's advice to check local laws is excellent!!! Look it up! You may have legal protection. If so, find it (most things like that you can find online) and email the link to ALL the dancers you know in your area and post it all over:on Bhuz, tribe etc. Get the info out there!

the pay is up to the resturant and the dancer but the tipps are from the auience showing there appreciation and i do not think they are giving the dancer a tip thinking the owner is getting it. Tips are the icing on the cake i tip my waitress on how well she did her job and i know they do not make that much so that is just extra.

It happens sometimes. I covered for someone once at a small place and that's what they did. I thought it sucked but it really wasn't my gig.

but the pay was kinda high so I didn't complain. By the end of the night I had made about $200 including tips for one 15 minute show. They cut the second show since the tips weren't that high.

Did the owner dance? Did he shlep your stuff or wipe your brow after a very strenuous set? HELL NO! He makes money off of selling food. That is why we are there.... to sell more food. Really!
There was an Afgani restaurant in town that took all of the waitstaff's tips. They are no longer in buisness. Hmmmm wonder why?

Originally Posted by hxangl

Like Zamora said, it's illegal in Ca under labor code section 351.

CA Codes (lab:350-356)

Tips and gratuities

Thanks so much for this info...I will be informing others...

Not a chance in hell.

It's not really customary to tip dancers in the UK - it doesn't happen much outside of the ME community. But there's absolutely no way I would agree to dance in a venue that expected money from me in any way, shape or form - guaranteed it's the kind of place where you'd also have to deal with being last on the list of priorities, have sh*tty changing space, or have to fend off over-attentive owner/waiters.

HELLLLLLLLLL NAWWW! que va tía~! how does that even work???

Originally Posted by turkishdancer

Thanks so much for this info...I will be informing others...

Whichever brave soul bring sit up with the owner might want to print out the codes and speak "out of concern for the owner" and also "because you know he wants to do the right thing"