Going Gratuity Free At Roman’s Has Been A Rocky Road Thus Far, Say Employees

It’s been a rocky few months for Roman’s, the Italian restaurant at 243 Dekalb Avenue (between Vanderbilt and Clermont Avenues) that ended tipping this past January and hiked prices by 20 percent in an effort to bridge the gap between wages for waiters and cooks or janitors who don’t get the benefit of tips.

According to Grubstreet New York, the changes led to two waitstaff quitting off the bat, followed by months of transition/growing pains — “rebuilding the foundation,” as described by Roman’s HR/company spokesperson Leah Campbell — that continues even now. The main problems, apparently, have been changing the way the business’ pay and communication infrastructure was set up, and getting employees to survive the big initial drop in pay cut.

“It’s virtually impossible to go along [with making] less money in NYC,” says Roman’s bartender Anna Dunn, who has worked for Tarlow’s company for a decade and is now the editor-in-chief of the restaurant group’s Diner Journal. “I want to support people in the back of the house. It takes time to recognize that it’s not a personal thing but something that will benefit everyone.”

. . . [However, Dunn noted that] it’s also clear that ending tipping could change the dynamic of serving and who can make it work.

“Some people want to pursue their art for 40 hours a week and then work 28 hours a week in a restaurant to pay the bills,” Dunn says. “Those people are really vital to a room. What are they going to do to make the most amount of money in the least amount of hours?” She says that, before, some workers could count on big paydays on busy nights and focus only on working those times. The move to a flat hourly rate means it doesn’t really matter how busy the dining room is. “I think about how people can’t pick up a Friday shift and earn a ton of money to make up for having to take a week off to write.”

As reported in Eater NY, the wage changes went like this:

The minimum rate of pay for Tarlow’s cooks and other back-of-the-house employees will rise to $15 per hour over the next few years. . . The average pay for restaurant cooks in the city is currently $13.29 per hour, or about $28,000 per year.

Front-of-the-house employees, including waiters, will earn $15 per hour, but they’ll also benefit from a weekly revenue share program that should allow them to earn as much as they did under a tipping system. Sanitation workers like janitors will see an immediately $2 raise in their hourly pay.

Roman’s isn’t alone in this sea change: all of Tarlow’s other restaurants will be following suit throughout the course of 2016. This includes Diner and Marlow & Sons.