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for servers, meaning that they had much less tax to pay as well. However today tips are meant to be declared and then taxed appropriately by the servers. This has meant that tips are now not as valuable as they once were, and that many people have had to leave the service industry due to lower earnings.

In recent times many businesses have started to alter the way that tips are given to their staff. The common practise these days is fast becoming that all the tips that staff receive are put into a pool, and then divided between them at the end of the night or sometimes week. From the perspective of the business this is usually a good move, because all staff receive a fair share, as well as the fact that it makes it easier for them to record the tips being received for taxation purposes.

Many staff however do not like this new method of tip remuneration, and would prefer to go back to a time when individuals kept their own tips. From their perspective the fact that they might be a better server than someone else now doesn't come into play. Essentially through this system a terrible server and an excellent one would be paid the same amount. And so of course there is no incentive for the bad ones to improve.

However from the other perspective servers aren't always all given the same opportunity to actually earn tips for themselves. For example one server might be able to serve customers all night whereas another might have to perform other duties, which means that they miss the opportunity to earn tips of their own. Given that wages are usually very low in these kinds of jobs, this can often mean that a member of staff who often has to forgo interaction with customers might struggle to make much money at all.

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