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Customers who use a credit or debit card to buy food at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Memorial Union are prompted to leave a tip. They can select a specific amount or skip adding extra money.
A display next to card readers clarifies that “every dollar goes directly towards uplifting and recognizing our amazing team but does not get paid to an individual team member.”
Still, Grace Kachelski and Sarannya Bhattacharya, two students who work for the union in catering, said the “tips” system should be abolished.
“It’s been very misleading because … nobody’s going to read all of the extra stuff,” Kachelski said.
The Wisconsin Union oversees restaurants and food services at Memorial Union and Union South, as well as catering. Roughly 1,800 students work for the Wisconsin Union and are paid at least $15 an hour, spokesperson Shauna Breneman said.
The organization’s website says, “As Wisconsin state employees, student staff members cannot accept personal tips,” but it’s unclear why.
“The Wisconsin Union does not permit employees to accept tips because administering and distributing them in compliance with federal law, UW system payroll processes and accounting requirements is not operationally feasible,” Breneman told the Cap Times when asked about the tips prompt.
Nearly two decades ago, a handful of workers at the Memorial Union were charged with stealing over $14,000 from Der Stiftskeller, The Badger Herald, a student newspaper, reported at the time.
“The students were accused of misappropriating beer sales money by not ringing up sales and putting the money in the tip jar,” The Badger Herald reported.
The union created the Student Employee Recognition Fund as “a way for patrons to show appreciation for student work in a controllable way,” according to The Badger Herald. Customers could contribute money through donation boxes at different dining locations.
Customers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Memorial Union can donate to a fund that provides benefits to student workers. However, some student workers call the system “misleading.”
Then in September last year, the Wisconsin Union began allowing customers to donate through card payments “due to declining cash donations and the anticipated impact of that decline on student employee recognition efforts,” Breneman said. The organization launched the “T.I.P.S. initiative,” which stands for “Thoughtful Investment in the Potential of Staff.”
The organization received roughly $77,000 through the initiative last year and has brought in about $209,000 in the first half of this year, Breneman said.
“These donations are not personal gratuities. They support meaningful recognition and development opportunities for all student employees,” the Wisconsin Union’s website says.
The money supports meal coupons for student employees, employee of the month awards and stipends, and staff appreciation events, according to the organization.
“Over the past 10 years, an average of $60,000 has been spent annually on student recognition,” Breneman said.
Some student workers worry customers won’t read signs explaining how money for the Wisconsin Union’s T.I.P.S. initiative is used.
Signage on cash boxes near registers encourages people to donate to T.I.P.S. “if you were satisfied with our service.” While placards on card readers briefly describe T.I.P.S., the screens prompt customers to select a “tip amount,” without using the acronym. Since the Wisconsin Union can’t change the wording in the card readers, it created the related T.I.P.S. acronym, Breneman said.
Customers may overlook the explanations about the funds or assume “tips” go directly to student workers, Kachelski said.
“Multiple times when we are working bars, if we explain to people like, ‘Oh, well, we don’t actually receive the tips,’ they’ll be upset and angry, and they’ll ask for their money back,” she said. “And we can’t give it back to them because it’s already in the jars or already in the system.”
After polling the organization’s catering employees, Kachelski and Bhattacharya said they met with a human resources administrator at the Wisconsin Union this year to discuss their concerns about the “dubious system that does not serve the interests of employees.” Not much came from that meeting, though, and conversations have since fizzled out, they said.
The Wisconsin Union should get rid of the T.I.P.S. initiative, Bhattacharya said, and the “employee benefits that are provided to us should be something that the union spends its own money on.”
The two students launched a petition, which received over 100 signatures last week. The petition calls on Mark Guthier, director of the Wisconsin Union, to:
- Publicly release itemized records about how the fund receives and spends money.
- Host forums to discuss concerns about the fund with students and workers at UW-Madison.
- Communicate with student employees about increased transparency and the future of the T.I.P.S. initiative.
“This letter represents the shared concern of student workers and limited-term employees whose labor generates these funds,” the petition says.
An organization called the Student Employee Advisory Group is made up of student workers across the Wisconsin Union. The group recommends how to use funding collected from the initiative, which Wisconsin Union leadership review and approve, Breneman said.
People can also donate to the fund online, she said.