Workers at Greenbelt’s New Deal Cafe no longer rely on tips to make their weekly paycheck.

Since the summer, the cafe, located in the historic town center at 13 Centerway, has paid hourly staff $14.40 an hour and put all tips in a pool that is divvied up each week based on hours worked. In recent months, that’s given $3 to $6 more per hour for each worker.

The new model was put in place when the cafe began a new arrangement with the Greenbelt Co-op Supermarket and Pharmacy that gave New Deal Cafe staffers access to employer-supported health, dental and vision insurance, co-op general manager Dan Gillotte told the Hyattsville Wire.

“I’ve been interested in the ongoing debate over tipping we’re seeing in various progressive circles and set about creating an approach where front of house and back of house staff could be paid fairly and also benefit from the generosity of our customers,” he said.

Gillotte said that the new approach also encourages more of a team effort among staff, reducing the typical tension between front-of-the-house servers who traditionally get tipped and back-of-the-house kitchen staff, who traditionally don’t.

With business uneven during the coronavirus pandemic, other restaurants — including Hyattsville’s Pizzeria Paradiso — have moved away from the standard tipping model, in which workers can be paid below minimum wage.

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