Job description[edit]
Primary functions of the busser are to clean and reset tables, carry dishes and other tableware to the kitchen, serve items such as water, coffee and bread, replenish supplies of linens, tableware and trays, and assist servers with clearing plates and other areas of table service.[8][12] Other tasks include cleaning and polishing fixtures, walls, furniture and equipment, cleaning tableware, cleaning food service areas, mopping and vacuuming floors, cleaning up spills, removing empty bottles and trash, and scraping and stacking dirty dishes.[8]
Etiquette[edit]
One guide to manners advised that bussers should not speak to or interrupt those being served, and to simply refill glasses at the table rather than asking if customers would like more water.[16] Likewise, it advises customers against engaging bussers and waiting staff in distracting conversations, as they are often busy.[16] A business etiquette guide suggests that customers should refer to bussers and waiting staff with the gender-neutral terms busser and server rather than busboy or waiter.[17] However, this has not been widely taken up outside of the industry. It also says that the busser is the employee that must be informed if items like a water glass or piece of flatware is missing.[17]
Tip income[edit]
Bussers are not traditionally tipped directly in the United States, but restaurants may employ "tip pooling" or "tip sharing" arrangements, in which a portion of servers' tips are shared with other restaurant service staff.[18]
In the United States, tip sharing may be either voluntary, where waitstaff give a portion of their tips to coworkers as they see fit, or mandatory, where the employer sets a formula by which tips must be shared with coworkers such as bussers and bartenders.[18] In the UK the pool of tips is classically known as the 'Tronc', from the French meaning collecting box. Federal Department of Labor regulations do not allow restaurants to include managers in tip sharing, and inclusion of "back of the house" employees such as dishwashers and cooks has been the subject of legal disputes since 2009.[19][20] Recipients of tips in shared tip restaurants may be paid a "tip-credit wage", below the ordinary minimum wage in the United States, if the amount of shared tips in a pay period brings their average pay to the minimum wage.[18] Federal subminimum wage is set at $2.13 per hour, though state and local laws may require higher rates.[21] California, for example, requires tipped employees be paid full minimum wage.[22]
A spokesperson for restaurant operator Darden Restaurants, which incorporated tip-sharing in 2011 at their Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains, said that it was more consistent and fair "to recognize everyone who delivers a guest experience", and noted that the lower hourly base wage for bartenders and bussers offered "the opportunity to ultimately earn more", depending on a restaurant's volume of tips.[18]