Gracias for the Gratuity

The summer months are by far our busiest time of year here at Satchel’s due to the increase in catering orders (grad parties, office picnics, weddings) and what I like to call the BBQ Holidays (Father’s Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day). These are busy and fun days for us. And frankly, pretty prosperous. As many of you know, we have a profit-sharing plan here at Satchel’s where all staff share in the company’s profits each month. And I am happy to say that June was a great month for all of us.

Another component of our “profitability” is gratuity. Our customers’ generosity never ceases to amaze me. Even on orders where gratuity is built into the bill (such as delivery and catering orders), folks email to ask how they can INCREASE the gratuity to a higher level. And the tip jar is always filled up on those BBQ Holidays such as Fourth of July when folks are so appreciative that we opened our doors on a day where most businesses are closed. The tips that you leave have become a truly important part of compensation here, so on behalf of our staff, I want to say THANK YOU. Tipping is not required—it is a choice. Thank you for choosing to support the staff here at Satchel’s.

I also wanted to provide a bit of info about where those tips go (and where they DON’T go), so that everyone has a clear understanding of what they are doing when they choose to leave a tip. And then provide a bit more info about tipping that you may (or may not) find helpful or interesting.

So we pool tips at Satchel’s. When we do payroll each week, all the tips are added up and divided evenly amongst the staff based on the number of hours worked. Ownership (me) does not participate in the tip pool. And when I say “divided evenly”, I mean evenly: the top of the totem pole and the bottom of the totem pole get the same amount per hour of work from the tip pool. And when I say “all of the tips” go into the tip pool, I mean exactly that. We do not skim any amount to cover employer payroll taxes or any type of bogus administrative fee that would go to ownership. Oh, and one other weird thing we do with tips: we include them in the regular payroll. In other words, all tips are reported to the IRS. No one gets any portion of their pay “under the table”. Why? Because enough of tax avoidance. Let’s just all pay our fair share.

To clarify, if you leave money in the tip jar at the restaurant, it goes into the tip pool. If there is a tip on your catering order, it goes into the tip pool. Online order for pickup? Into the tip pool. If you give your caterer an extra cash tip for the great job he or she did…..yep, that goes into the tip pool. The only thing that does not go into the tip pool is if you place an online order and use the DoorDash delivery system—in that case, the DoorDash driver gets the tip, not us (which by the way seems fair). And if you are wondering if anyone gets paid a “servers’ wage”, meaning a wage under the minimum wage (like a waiter or waitress at a sit-down restaurant), the answer is no.

Recently, I have noticed that many of our customers go out of their way to make sure that they leave a generous gratuity. And it got me thinking (not always a good thing). I got to thinking about how some of us make small gestures in the hope of creating big change. For instance, some relatives of mine down south, a young couple, decided to sell their house and move. When deciding upon a realtor, they made sure to interview at least one person of color. Long story short, they hired an African-American realtor who sold the house in a weekend (above “asking price”). Neighbors and friends were impressed and soon contacted the realtor about selling their own homes. Pretty cool story. My relatives asked a simply question: Given the racial history in our community, what can I do in my life to try in some small way to right some of the many, many wrongs? All I can say is, man, I wish I had thought of that.

OK. Back to tipping. I think part of what is going on is that some folks are asking the same type of question about income inequality. They are wondering what they can do about the growing disparity between the “haves” and the “have-nots”. They are “voting with your wallet” by leaving a generous gratuity to working folks, folks who ended up with the short end of the stick when it comes to work and wages in our society. Is this enough to shrink that disparity? Maybe not. Major change probably requires some pretty impressive and dramatic action by our national and state governments. And given our polarized political environment, that seems unlikely. But I love the idea that each of us has the opportunity to make small decisions in our daily life that seek to create a more just society. I am reminded of the Margaret Mead quote that I recently saw on a tour of the Food Gatherer’s facility here in Ann Arbor: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”