Moral question...how much to pay?

Okay, I have a question. First let me explain the situation.

Last night I went to work. I got to work and my boss introduces me to this new employee and tells me to train him. It';s the guy's first day at work, he's not in the computer system yet, and he's not on the schedule. He's not even supposed to work at all, he's just there so that I can sort of show him what to do.

Unfortunately, last night also ended up being a total cluster****. It was busy as hell, one of the scheduled employees didn't show up so we were 50% short on labour, and it was pretty much just a total nightmare. After about an hour, I ended up pretty much having to say to the guy, "sorry, but I can't train you any more. Get to work, and don't **** up."

So I ended up throwing the guy to the wolves with pretty much no training after his first hour of training day. Granted, it's not a hard job, but it can be a tiring ordeal when things get ****ed up, so I felt really bad about having to take advantage of him like that. I also felt bad because he had no idea that last night was going to be such a freaking nightmare. I mean, he comes into work to be trained, we SHOULD go easy on him his first day so that we can focus on adequately explaining things to him. I was supposed to SHOW him what to do on the first day, not just throw him to the wolves without expecting it.

So anyway, he doesn't get tips yet because he's still in training. He doesn't get tips yet until he's out of training. However, my boss told me to tip him out, and I agree. For going through that kind of a ****storm (worst I';ve seen in a while) after only his first hour at work, he deserves to get tipped as a real employee, not just a trainee.

However, my question is about how much to tip him. See, the way it normally works is that the managers will add up the total hours worked by all of us. They'll then divide the hours worked by each employee by the total number of hours worked. They'll then multiply that precentage by the total number of tips to determine how much of the pot each employee gets.

So I figured out how much to pay him based on that formula.

However, I then started thinking..."wait a mintue. My hourly wage is LESS than minimum wage because I'm getting tips. He's getting minimum wage regardless, because he's not officially getting tips yet. So if I'm tipping him out AND he's getting paid minimum wage, aren't I getting screwed?"

So here's my question. Should I give him fair share of tips and ignore the fact that his hourly wage is twice as mine? Or should I adjust the amount that I give him to reflect the fact that his wage is higher than mine, thereby ensuring that the total money made by both of us is proportional to the time that each of us worked?

i, personally, would do the second one, but i have a question first: y arent u getting paid minimum wage? its illegal for u not to get paid at least that.__dana__

If your job depends on tips, it's legally allowed for you to get paid less than minimum wage. I get paid decent money, but my weekly paycheck comes out to around $10.

The only problem is that the guy I'm tipping is actually getting paid minimum wage because he's not supposed to be getting tips yet. I want to pay him fairly. I mean, I feel bad for what the dude went through last night and I think he should get compensated. But if I tip him according only to the amount of time worked, I'd feel like I'm getting screwed because then he'd actually be making MORE than me, since he's making minimum wage and I'm not.

[QUOTE="__dana__"]i, personally, would do the second one, but i have a question first: y arent u getting paid minimum wage? its illegal for u not to get paid at least that.MrGeezer

If your job depends on tips, it's legally allowed for you to get paid less than minimum wage. I get paid decent money, but my weekly paycheck comes out to around $10.

The only problem is that the guy I'm tipping is actually getting paid minimum wage because he's not supposed to be getting tips yet. I want to pay him fairly. I mean, I feel bad for what the dude went through last night and I think he should get compensated. But if I tip him according only to the amount of time worked, I'd feel like I'm getting screwed because then he'd actually be making MORE than me, since he's making minimum wage and I'm not.

Granted, he went through hell, but who doesn't?

Take the second option (pay equals to the amount of hours). You MUST allow for the compensation (he's getting more then you). He just started, you didn't, no employee, regardless of rank, or seniority, should have to screw himself, or herself, for a noob. Period. How would you feel, if you was nice to him, then later on, he quits 'cause he can't handle the pressure? Exactly.