Quebec restaurants want power to set rules for tip sharing between servers and kitchen

Some Montreal restaurants are hoping to attract workers back to the kitchen with higher pay in part using tips from the serving staff.

The Quebec Restaurant Association is asking the provincial government to give restaurants the power to force tip sharing at their establishment, so tips would be split between wait staff and those working in the kitchen.

Right now, under Quebec's Labour Standards Act, servers keep their tips. That can only change if the staff decides to implement a tip-sharing agreement.

"Our kitchen staff are paid $19 per hour, on average. When we look at the servers, when we include the tips they receive and declare, their hour rate is more like $35 an hour," said Martin Vzina, a spokesperson for the association.

"So we have a gap of about $15 an hour, and it's a big gap."

It's led to frustrations among kitchen staff, he said, who could work full-time hours and still not make as much as the servers who work part time.

He said the hope is that with the promise of making a cut of the tips, more people will be incentivized to work in the province's kitchens.

Tip-sharing in practice

Some Montreal restaurants already have tip-sharing. Pablo Rojas, the co-owner of the Provisions restaurant in Outremont, said he's glad his restaurant staff decided to try it out.

"The idea was: the cooks were also serving people and it was the right way to make all my guys have a better salary, instead of having such a big gap," he said.

At Provisions, tips in the restaurant are shared by the entirety of the wait staff, regardless of whether or not they're working, with a percentage of that total going to the kitchen.

WATCH | Why this Montreal restaurant started sharing tips:

Montreal restaurant says sharing tips with kitchen staff keeps everyone happy

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Quebec labour regulations require staff to agree before sharing their tips. But Quebec's restaurant association says the practice could help with staffing shortages.

Rojas said restaurants need to find a way to move forward "without anyone being exploited, without being underpaid," especially after the pandemic.

"If cooks are not happy and are not there to do their job, you could be the best waiter in the world you won't be able to make a living," he said.

Why not higher wages?

Not everyone is happy about the idea. In an open letter published earlier this week, the Fdration des travailleurs et travailleuses du Qubec (FTQ), a workers union in the province, said better conditions for cooks shouldn't come at the expense of wait staff.

"Now we're saying, to compensate for the inadequate pay for kitchen staff, that we should take from the income servers make instead of paying them more, which is the responsibility of the employer," the open letter read.

The letter points to the fact that in Quebec, wait staff make below minimum wage, saying that many are also struggling to make ends meet.

There is also a labour shortage when it comes to service staff, and this could make the job less appealing, it added.

"To attract and keep [kitchen] staff, you need recognition, better conditions and obviously better salaries," the open letter read.

But Vzina, of the restaurant association, said that won't solve the core problem. He said if restaurants increase the base pay for kitchen staff, prices will also increase. That means bigger bills and bigger tips.

"So the wage gap will still be there," he said.