Is this fair? Are they allowed?

[Quiet Stranger]

Yes you should defiantly be going to the labour board. It's called "minimum wage" for a reason, as in it's the bare minimum an employer has to pay his employees regardless of the job. If you're getting paid less than that then it's a violation of labour laws and you should report it. You'll probably want to have a pay stub or two on hand as evidence.

I don't get pay stubs, it's kind of under the table I guess you would say

That could be a problem. On the other hand it's all the more reason to report this.

How could it be a problem?? (I get paid every night that I work, but still no pay stubs)

I said it could be a problem, not that it will be a problem. As to the how, well it's a matter of evidence. If your boss decides to deny your claims against him when the board confronts him you have no physical evidence to back it up. ...unless he kept records of all this, which could be seized for purposes of investigation.

The closest thing to pay stubs I ever get are the little yellow slips I collect whenever I deliver a pizza or deliver in general i should say

 

[nick n stuff]

breaking the law. i started my job when i was 15 and i was paid minimum wage from day one. you don't work your way up TO it but up FROM it. it's minimum so you begin there hence the name. your boss is breaking the law and im sure he knows it.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

I am also tired, gonna go to bed after this, basically what it is at the end of every shift (of mine) they add up all the totals on the debit receipts (if there are any) write the number down, then they add up all the yellow slips (you know the white slips of paper that are attached to your pizza boxes? well Drivers get the yellow ones) and then subtract the total number of all debit receipts from yellow slips, and then they subtract my pay (lets say yesterdays shift, which was 7.50 times 3 (three hours of work) from that and what comes out is what I may or may not owe them (so sometimes they pay me, or sometimes I pay them) its confusing I know, Im very tired

WTF? I don't know how they can take money from you like this, unless you aren't getting a cash envelope when you go on a run?

Or is this something like where if you fail to get enough money for a delivery you have to make up the difference? I know some places I've worked at if someone dines & dashes they make the server pay the check, which is brutally unfair but allowed.

In any case, as many have said it is allowed for them to pay you below minimum wage in certain circumstances, depending on the local laws. Look up your labor laws and learn for yourself. In some states in the US employers can pay servers less than minimum if they make a lot in tips (I've heard of places where the employees work solely for tips). In the US tips are taxable income and must be reported as well, though enforcement isn't always high.

However one thing has always been constant everywhere I have ever worked: The employer is not allowed to touch your tips! A gratuity is an exchange between you and the customer and the employer cannot legally touch one cent. This means they can't garnish your tips or take a house cut or anything like that. However I have worked at places where there was an unofficial tip pooling policy so if one person got a lot of big tables full of rich people everyone benefits. This also encourages the servers to cover each other's tables, which probably isn't an issue with pizza delivery.

The pizza places I have worked at paid me for every run I took; I didn't have to pay them. Are you using your own car? This place sounds pretty shady and it seems like they are taking advantage of you. You should do some research and educate yourself to put things on an even playing field.

I do own my own car (well technically it's my grandparents car but don't tell the insurance company that or they'd hemorrhage)also to explain what I said before, think about lets say if I have one shift where all my deliveries, the customers pay in cash, well I can't keep all that cash, the store has to get something or they couldn't stay in business

 

[benoitowns]

Just tell him he has to pay you your actual salary, if not report him. Its not allowed, but not really unfair unless he told you that you werent going to get paid minimum wage

 

[Quiet Stranger]

Are you over 18? I know that in Ontario people under 18 are not entitled to full minimum wage and are usually paid about a dollar/hour less than those over 18. It's totally unfair and stupid (and needs to be changed!), but I'd look into whether Nova Scotia has a similar policy or not.

I'm turning 20 this year so I'm over 18

 

[Jared Veeser-Lynn]

That's the easiest thing to do and it worked fro my last job

 

[Quiet Stranger]

Apparently, yes. I know a lot of pizza delivery boys and waitresses who make much less than minimum wage, but their boss tries to play it off as "You'll make more than minimum wage with tips" while tips are in reality inconsistent and frustrating at times.

Also! When the customers I deliver to pay with debit or credit and don't have spare cash for a cash tip so I tell them not to bother with a debit tip (cause I'd just have to pay more at the end of my shift)

 

[Quiet Stranger]

That's the easiest thing to do and it worked fro my last job

whats the easiest thing to do??

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Yes you should defiantly be going to the labour board. It's called "minimum wage" for a reason, as in it's the bare minimum an employer has to pay his employees regardless of the job. If you're getting paid less than that then it's a violation of labour laws and you should report it. You'll probably want to have a pay stub or two on hand as evidence.

I don't get pay stubs, it's kind of under the table I guess you would say

That could be a problem. On the other hand it's all the more reason to report this.

How could it be a problem?? (I get paid every night that I work, but still no pay stubs)

I said it could be a problem, not that it will be a problem. As to the how, well it's a matter of evidence. If your boss decides to deny your claims against him when the board confronts him you have no physical evidence to back it up. ...unless he kept records of all this, which could be seized for purposes of investigation.

While he may try to deny the claims, I'm pretty sure there would still be an investigation by the Nova Scotia ministry of Labour for failure to keep and provide records.

He could also report them to the Canada Revenue Agency for potential tax evasion and then the auditors would be keeping the owners pretty busy and scared.

What needs to be done by Quiet Stranger is for him to keep his own record of all his payments. He should track the hours he worked, the tips he received, the tips he didn't receive, as well as the amounts used by manager to calculate how much he should be paid. He should do that every night, and that way he will have some evidence. It won't be a case of 'his word against mine' since there will be evidence of it.

That's a good point too, the absence of any records would still be point against his boss for tax evasion.
Still some tangible evidence would help his case, so yeah keeping track of his what he's supposed to get payed, tips etc. would be beneficial.

The closest thing to pay stubs I ever get are the little yellow slips I collect whenever I deliver a pizza or deliver in general i should say

That is very unusual.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

Yes you should defiantly be going to the labour board. It's called "minimum wage" for a reason, as in it's the bare minimum an employer has to pay his employees regardless of the job. If you're getting paid less than that then it's a violation of labour laws and you should report it. You'll probably want to have a pay stub or two on hand as evidence.

I don't get pay stubs, it's kind of under the table I guess you would say

That could be a problem. On the other hand it's all the more reason to report this.

How could it be a problem?? (I get paid every night that I work, but still no pay stubs)

I said it could be a problem, not that it will be a problem. As to the how, well it's a matter of evidence. If your boss decides to deny your claims against him when the board confronts him you have no physical evidence to back it up. ...unless he kept records of all this, which could be seized for purposes of investigation.

While he may try to deny the claims, I'm pretty sure there would still be an investigation by the Nova Scotia ministry of Labour for failure to keep and provide records.

He could also report them to the Canada Revenue Agency for potential tax evasion and then the auditors would be keeping the owners pretty busy and scared.

What needs to be done by Quiet Stranger is for him to keep his own record of all his payments. He should track the hours he worked, the tips he received, the tips he didn't receive, as well as the amounts used by manager to calculate how much he should be paid. He should do that every night, and that way he will have some evidence. It won't be a case of 'his word against mine' since there will be evidence of it.

That's a good point too, the absence of any records would still be point against his boss for tax evasion.
Still some tangible evidence would help his case, so yeah keeping track of his what he's supposed to get payed, tips etc. would be beneficial.

The closest thing to pay stubs I ever get are the little yellow slips I collect whenever I deliver a pizza or deliver in general i should say

That is very unusual.

The little yellow slips I'm talking about, well, you know how theres a white slip on a box or bag (its for the customer, it basically tells you the order and how much it costs) anyways, attached to that is a yellow slip (its one of those things where if you write on the white slip it goes through and shows up on the yellow slip) that we drivers get for something....I don't really know what they're for other then to calculate what we owe at the end of the night

 

[Blindswordmaster]

There is no such thing as minimum wage, you work for that you're willing to get paid. If you're off the books, you have no recourse. If you're on payroll, tell him you want a raise. NOW!

 

[loremazd]

You don't have to give minimum wage in a job that takes tips.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

You don't have to give minimum wage in a job that takes tips.

I should also mention one of my co workers is only getting paid 8 bucks an hour and she is only a cook (she doesn't get tips)

 

[FlameUnquenchable]

Yes you should defiantly be going to the labour board. It's called "minimum wage" for a reason, as in it's the bare minimum an employer has to pay his employees regardless of the job. If you're getting paid less than that then it's a violation of labour laws and you should report it. You'll probably want to have a pay stub or two on hand as evidence.

I don't get pay stubs, it's kind of under the table I guess you would say

That could be a problem. On the other hand it's all the more reason to report this.

How could it be a problem?? (I get paid every night that I work, but still no pay stubs)

I said it could be a problem, not that it will be a problem. As to the how, well it's a matter of evidence. If your boss decides to deny your claims against him when the board confronts him you have no physical evidence to back it up. ...unless he kept records of all this, which could be seized for purposes of investigation.

While he may try to deny the claims, I'm pretty sure there would still be an investigation by the Nova Scotia ministry of Labour for failure to keep and provide records.

He could also report them to the Canada Revenue Agency for potential tax evasion and then the auditors would be keeping the owners pretty busy and scared.

What needs to be done by Quiet Stranger is for him to keep his own record of all his payments. He should track the hours he worked, the tips he received, the tips he didn't receive, as well as the amounts used by manager to calculate how much he should be paid. He should do that every night, and that way he will have some evidence. It won't be a case of 'his word against mine' since there will be evidence of it.

That's a good point too, the absence of any records would still be point against his boss for tax evasion.
Still some tangible evidence would help his case, so yeah keeping track of his what he's supposed to get payed, tips etc. would be beneficial.

The closest thing to pay stubs I ever get are the little yellow slips I collect whenever I deliver a pizza or deliver in general i should say

That is very unusual.

The little yellow slips I'm talking about, well, you know how theres a white slip on a box or bag (its for the customer, it basically tells you the order and how much it costs) anyways, attached to that is a yellow slip (its one of those things where if you write on the white slip it goes through and shows up on the yellow slip) that we drivers get for something....I don't really know what they're for other then to calculate what we owe at the end of the night

When you say debits, do you mean people using cards to make the transactions? We always did those in the store and then the people just signed for the purchase.

I was going to agree with everyone else that you may not get paid minimum wage because you have a job that makes you tips, but when you said you have to pay them at the end of the night...that's where red warning lights started flashing for me.

Firstly, it seems that you are getting paid cash, which is off the record and illegal.

Secondly, how do you give people change, etc. Do they hand you a bag with a certain amount of money in it at the beginning of the night, and then basically see how much you have in the bag at the end of the night?

What we used to do, is all receipts, the yellow slips you have, were kept with us, and the pink receipts were kept in the store, and white slips went to the customer. We would have our names, or initials on all receipts to make sure that we took the deliveries, and then our money bag would be counted against the total amount of the receipts at the end of the night.

Basically I counted up all of my deliveries and the amount originally in the bag to begin with and kept any amount over that total. This is so that the company knows how much you should have collected from the customers, how much you started with, and that you aren't cheating them (the company by stealing money from them), and how much you get because of tips. Any amount over what should be in the bag is yours, and nobody should be taking anything out of that...not 15%, not 1%.

For credit card/debit card transactions we basically kept the merchant copy, and then were reimbursed at the end of the night for the total amount in the Tip section. Since they were not cash transactions they were not counted against our money bag.

In the 6 years that I worked in the Pizza business I never had to pay my employer anything...that part is sketchy at best, and my feeling is they're taking advantage of you.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

Yes you should defiantly be going to the labour board. It's called "minimum wage" for a reason, as in it's the bare minimum an employer has to pay his employees regardless of the job. If you're getting paid less than that then it's a violation of labour laws and you should report it. You'll probably want to have a pay stub or two on hand as evidence.

I don't get pay stubs, it's kind of under the table I guess you would say

That could be a problem. On the other hand it's all the more reason to report this.

How could it be a problem?? (I get paid every night that I work, but still no pay stubs)

I said it could be a problem, not that it will be a problem. As to the how, well it's a matter of evidence. If your boss decides to deny your claims against him when the board confronts him you have no physical evidence to back it up. ...unless he kept records of all this, which could be seized for purposes of investigation.

While he may try to deny the claims, I'm pretty sure there would still be an investigation by the Nova Scotia ministry of Labour for failure to keep and provide records.

He could also report them to the Canada Revenue Agency for potential tax evasion and then the auditors would be keeping the owners pretty busy and scared.

What needs to be done by Quiet Stranger is for him to keep his own record of all his payments. He should track the hours he worked, the tips he received, the tips he didn't receive, as well as the amounts used by manager to calculate how much he should be paid. He should do that every night, and that way he will have some evidence. It won't be a case of 'his word against mine' since there will be evidence of it.

That's a good point too, the absence of any records would still be point against his boss for tax evasion.
Still some tangible evidence would help his case, so yeah keeping track of his what he's supposed to get payed, tips etc. would be beneficial.

The closest thing to pay stubs I ever get are the little yellow slips I collect whenever I deliver a pizza or deliver in general i should say

That is very unusual.

The little yellow slips I'm talking about, well, you know how theres a white slip on a box or bag (its for the customer, it basically tells you the order and how much it costs) anyways, attached to that is a yellow slip (its one of those things where if you write on the white slip it goes through and shows up on the yellow slip) that we drivers get for something....I don't really know what they're for other then to calculate what we owe at the end of the night

When you say debits, do you mean people using cards to make the transactions? We always did those in the store and then the people just signed for the purchase.

I was going to agree with everyone else that you may not get paid minimum wage because you have a job that makes you tips, but when you said you have to pay them at the end of the night...that's where red warning lights started flashing for me.

Firstly, it seems that you are getting paid cash, which is off the record and illegal.

Secondly, how do you give people change, etc. Do they hand you a bag with a certain amount of money in it at the beginning of the night, and then basically see how much you have in the bag at the end of the night?

What we used to do, is all receipts, the yellow slips you have, were kept with us, and the pink receipts were kept in the store, and white slips went to the customer. We would have our names, or initials on all receipts to make sure that we took the deliveries, and then our money bag would be counted against the total amount of the receipts at the end of the night.

Basically I counted up all of my deliveries and the amount originally in the bag to begin with and kept any amount over that total. This is so that the company knows how much you should have collected from the customers, how much you started with, and that you aren't cheating them (the company by stealing money from them), and how much you get because of tips. Any amount over what should be in the bag is yours, and nobody should be taking anything out of that...not 15%, not 1%.

For credit card/debit card transactions we basically kept the merchant copy, and then were reimbursed at the end of the night for the total amount in the Tip section. Since they were not cash transactions they were not counted against our money bag.

In the 6 years that I worked in the Pizza business I never had to pay my employer anything...that part is sketchy at best, and my feeling is they're taking advantage of you.

Well you see we have these debit machines (portable) that we take to the houses that are paying with debit or credit and we don't sign the receipts, we just keep the ones that we take, also I have met a few ex employees that have worked there and they told me it sucks over there (one was an ex employee, one was the girlfriend of an ex) and the ex employee said they'll try to take every dime and nickel they can