I just started a new serving job. What should I know?

Your first-week checklist

Not tax or legal advice. Your restaurant’s training and handbook come first where they add to this list. Your state may have stricter rules.

Plain English

Training: what to expect

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says servers typically learn on the job, in training that usually lasts from several days to a few weeks, working with an experienced server. It says training covers serving techniques, the restaurant’s order and payment systems, and handling difficult customers. BLS also notes servers may meet with managers and chefs before a shift to go over the menu, specials, and ingredients for potential food allergies.

Ask your trainer about the things every restaurant does differently: table numbers, the POS, steps of service, and side work. Write it down. Nobody expects you to know it all in week one.

Learn the menu

Start with the sections, the dishes that sell most, and what each one comes with. Quiz yourself instead of rereading. The two-day menu plan and what to study before your first shift have the details. For a bar menu, see how to memorize cocktail specs.

Allergens: never guess

FDA lists nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame. FDA says reactions can range from hives to life-threatening anaphylaxis. When a guest mentions an allergy, check the allergen chart or ask the kitchen, and follow your restaurant’s process for flagging the order. See Food allergens for servers.

How you get paid

DOL’s Fact Sheet #15 covers the federal rules. If your employer takes a tip credit, your cash wage must be at least $2.13 an hour, and your cash wage plus tips must reach at least $7.25 an hour for each workweek. If they don’t, your employer makes up the difference.

Before taking a tip credit, your employer must tell you five things: your cash wage; the tip credit amount (up to $5.12); that the credit can’t be more than the tips you actually get; that all your tips are yours except for a valid tip pool among tipped workers; and that the credit doesn’t apply unless you’ve been told these rules. The notice can be oral or written. If you don’t remember getting it, ask.

Your state may require a higher cash wage or no tip credit at all. DOL says the employer must follow whichever standard protects you more. DOL keeps a list of state labor offices.

Tip-outs and tip pools

Under the FLSA, your employer can require you to share tips in a pool. If you’re paid a tipped cash wage, the pool can include only workers who customarily and regularly get tips, like servers, bussers, and service bartenders, and your employer has to tell you your required contribution amount. Your employer, managers, and supervisors can’t keep any part of your tips. See What is a tip-out? and Can managers take from the tip pool?

Start a tip log from day one

IRS Publication 531 says you must keep a daily tip record so you can report tips accurately to your employer and on your tax return, and prove your tip income if you’re ever asked. For each workday, write:

• The date.
• Cash tips you got from customers or other employees.
• Card tips your employer paid you.
• The value of any noncash tips, like tickets.
• Tips you paid out to other employees, and their names.

If you use your employer’s electronic system, Publication 531 says you must get and keep a paper copy. Report each month’s tips to your employer by the 10th of the next month, unless they were under $20 for that job. See How do I keep track of my tips?

Breaks and hours

• Breaks: DOL says federal law doesn’t require lunch or coffee breaks. If your employer gives short breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes, they count as paid work time.
• Meal periods: usually 30 minutes or more, and unpaid only if you’re completely relieved from duty. If you have to watch your tables while you eat, DOL says you’re not relieved.
• Training and meetings: DOL says these count as work time unless they’re outside your normal hours, voluntary, not job-related, and you do no other work during them. Required pre-shift meetings and job training count.
• Staying late: work your employer allows is work time, even if nobody asked. Side work after you clock out still counts.
• Overtime: at least one and a half times your regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. For a tipped worker, DOL says overtime is figured on the full minimum wage. See Overtime for tipped employees.

If you get sick

Tell your manager as early as you can. Under the FDA Food Code, a food worker who’s vomiting or has diarrhea stays out of work. See How do I text my boss that I’m sick? and Calling in sick as a server.

If you’ll serve alcohol

BLS says most states require workers who serve alcohol to be at least 18, some require them to be older, and some states, counties, and cities require alcohol-service training. Some states also require food-safety training for servers. Ask your manager what applies where you work.