waiter’s income is tips' Average tips: £60 per eight-hour shift I think they treat waiters best in ... the US Everything has got fairer since the tipping scandal was exposed in the summer of 2015. This is when it was revealed that dozens of restaurants were exposed for skimming tips from staff for administration fees. However, you still hear horror stories from new employees at some chains. I’ve heard of restaurants not paying their chefs a share of the tronc (a payment arrangement used to distribute tips). Some restaurants will take 4% of all sales to pay the chefs and as an admin fee. So, if you sell £1,000 worth of food, the company will take £40. This is regardless of how much you make in tips. This means that if a table has a £100 bill and doesn’t tip, the waiter has to pay £4 of their own money. This leads to a money-grabbing culture and, ironically, to bad service. If a table doesn’t tip, the waiter feels as if they are being robbed by the company and ends up resenting the customers. I can average around £60 in tips per shift but, on a good night, this goes up to over £100 and, on a poor night, it’s around £40. Around 50% of a waiter’s income is tips. All restaurants should have to publicly state their exact tipping procedure. America has it pretty good – everyone tips. 2. Elle, 22, Edinburgh: 'We never know whether it’s fair' Average tips: