LONDON TIPPING SYSTEM.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20039, 22 September 1930, Page 2

LONDON TIPPING SYSTEM.

MINIMUM WAGES FOR WAITERS. (non oca ovx coß3iisi'Cj.TM:i;T.) ''LONDON, August. 13..' Miss Margaret Bondfield (Minister for Labour) is. endeavouring to apply the Trade Boards Acts, 1909 and 1918, to the catering trade. This means that a Trade Board would be set up to fix statutory minimum wages and hours, with overtime rates, and the crux of the matter would be the tipping ■ system. The situation- bristles with difficulties, owing to the many grades existing in the catering trade from the "good pull up,for carmen" type of dining-room to the high-class restaurant. A large employer of labour, when interviewed, expressed the view that if a minimum rate of wages were fixed, any increased cost to the employer uould be passed on to tho customer. In the Central London district he knew of waiters who received less than 10s a ■week in wages, and these men had to depend upon "tips" for a living. A waiter in a good-class restaurant usually earned 30s in wages and probably, vith tips, made about £o a week.

An official of the International Geneva Association, whose members belong to the catering trade, said that the wages question was the crux of the whole problem. Most of the waiters in tho large \Vost End restaurants had to depend upon tips for a living, and ho knew of cases where waiters paid a guinea a week for the privilege of serving customers, from whom they received substantial gratuities. Some of them were paid from 10a to £1 a week as wages. In the small restaurants and dining-rooms waitefs rarely received more than £2 a week, which with tips would not average more than £2 10s or £3 a week.

"A waitress in pne city tea-shop said: "!My wages are 28s 6d a week, with a shilling off for insurance, and I make another four or five shillings a week in commissions. One day we work 10 hours and the next day C hours. On our long day we get breakfast, lunch, tea, and some supper. I have to pay 12s a week for a room."

Elsewhere, a waitress said, "The wages don't count, but most of us do very well here. I reckon I make £Z 10s a week, but thaVs because some of the customers like to talk to the girls."