Hi @cmmangum71. The subject of tip outs has come up a few times here. I’m pretty sure that feature requests have been submitted for them, as well. I’ve not seen an announcement yet about either a beta test or plans to release this. Maybe a Square person can chime in here if I’ve missed something.
Having said that, this is a tricky subject. Every state has different laws about tip outs. I know that in the states in which I’ve worked in hospitality, automatic employer-mandated tip outs are not legal. Sure, we can suggest strongly that servers and bartenders tip our bar backs, bussers and others. And we can even suggest the amount they should consider. But, at the end of the day we are required here to leave it up to the person who actually received the tips whether or not they are going to tip out. In my state, even if an employee agrees to tip out at the suggested rates, we still must have them do it manually, not have a computer do it automatically.
The same is true of tip pools in my state. In order to have a tip pool, everyone must agree in writing, and they must be given the opportunity to opt out at any time. Square has tip pools now, but those were easier to implement than tip outs since they are all or nothing and they have given us the appropriate options to configure our pools to meet local laws.
I’ll admit that I’m guessing here, but I’d bet that Square is treading carefully here. They will have to research the laws of all 50 states and every country in which they operate. They will have to be sure that if they do offer something like this, it complies with all known laws and they will have to dedicate a team to ensuring that as laws change their software changes. It is a massive undertaking in this tricky minefield of tipping. They certainly don’t want to give us a tool that could land us in court, or worse, because we used it to do something that violated the law. It happens every day with businesses, intentionally or not.
I’m not saying that you are suggesting that, mind you. I’m just suggesting that this is probably not something that is going to be addressed any time soon.
Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)
Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!
