• Know the employee rights for a server in Arizona.serving drinks image by John Keith from Fotolia.com
  
  Working in the service and hospitality industry is hard. Most employees depend upon patrons' tips to pay their bills, work long hours, and often do not have as many protections and benefits as other types of employees. Arizona has only a few differences in the employee rights for a restaurant worker that vary from a standard employee.
  
  

Minimum Wage

• Arizona's standard minimum wage as of the beginning of 2010 is $7.25 but the law provides a different minimum wage for tipped employees. Regularly tipped employees, like servers or waiters/waitress, earn a minimum of $4.25 from their employer.
  
  The Arizona government assumes that tips will bring a server's actual wage up to at least the standard minimum wage, called "tip credit." If your tips are very bad one night and they do not add up to the standard minimum wage when added to your hourly wage, your employer must make up the difference so you are being paid $7.25 an hour.
  
  

Tips

• Earning tips on the tables you serve is standard practice. Generally, the idea is that the tips you earn are yours. However, your restaurant may require you to pool tips with other servers, bartenders, and bussers under Arizona law.
  
  This means everyone places their tips in a common pool, which is counted and distributed evenly among the pooled employees. Arizona law even permits pooling tips with managers and other customarily non-tipped employees in the restaurant.
  
  

Breaks

• Arizona does not have any laws requiring rest and meal breaks for employees. If your restaurant does give them, it must comply with the federal government's Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA says that if you take an authorized rest break, it must be for 20 minutes or less and paid time. If a meal break is given, it must be a minimum of 30 minutes completely relieved from all your duties including food preparation, food running, and tending to your tables in addition to being unpaid time.
  
  

Worker's Compensation

• Arizona requires all employers, including restaurants and bars, to carry worker's compensation insurance and to display a poster called "Notice to Employees, RE: Arizona Workers' Compensation Law." Arizona requires this insurance of its employers so that you will be paid should you be injured on the job and unable to work because of it as well as be medically cared for, paid by your employer and/or their insurance company.