Skift Take
Custom tipping screens from Toast, Square, and similar digital point-of-sale systems can, in some cases, double an employee’s paycheck. In an extremely tight labor market, it can be a big selling point.
Five years ago, employees at the Paris Creperie in Brookline, Massachusetts, a quick-service restaurant just outside of downtown Boston, didn’t see much come across the counter by way of tips.
It wasn’t that their customers were especially stingy. Brookline is an affluent neighborhood — according to 2010 U.S. census data, the average household income ranges up to $170,000 — but 90 percent of the creperie’s customers pay with a card instead of cash. “The staff was working with a legacy point of sale system and a nice tip jar with various attempts at clever signs,” Henry Patterson, head of finance and administration at the creperie, explained. At the time, tips weren’t a meaningful part of the staff’s paychecks.
In 2015, the restaurant switched its point of sale technology to Boston-based Toast and set up a custom tipping screen, similar to what other digital point of sale systems like Square and Revel offer. The difference in customer tipping behavior was instantaneous.
“We went from almost nothing to averaging $4 an hour per employee,” Patterson said, noting that employees can average more on the weekends when the restaurant does the majority of its business. Customers will generally tip between 10 to 15 percent on their checks, which typically range from $10 to $15.
The creperie’s staff starts at a base wage of $11 an hour, the minimum wage in Massachusetts. With tips,
