GRAND RAPIDS, MI — How does this sound for a bonus?

Come in, work a busy restaurant shift for a couple hours and walk out with about $300 to $400.

For the 150-some employees at HopCat, Stella’s Lounge and McFadden’s in Grand Rapids, that’s what’s on the schedule for the inaugural BarFly Ventures company Employee Appreciation Day happening next Tuesday, Oct. 23.

Mark and Michele Sellers, who own the three popular downtown Heartside bars, are giving 100 percent of gross sales back to their employees that day.

The morale-booster is a way of saying ‘thanks for working your butts off during ArtPrize.’

“It’s every dime we take in that day,” said Mark Sellers. “T-shirts, food, drinks, everything. Basically, they are the owners for the day."

Sellers is modeling the practice after that of a bar he and Michele used to frequent in Chicago, called The Charleston. Brewery Vivant in Grand Rapids did something similar in July, when they gave all revenues from pub sales back to employees during an appreciation day.

At Sellers’ bars, the staff will pool tips and sales total at the end of the night and divide the sum evenly between everyone who worked. In order to give everyone a chance to work, the bars are on short, rotating two-to three-hour shifts that day.

It also provides a chance for kitchen staff to make something more than normal wage, he said. Because cooks and dishwashers are generally not tipped employees at most restaurants, they get paid the same whether one or 100 people are served.

Between the three bars, an average Tuesday sales total about $25,000, said Sellers. However, the company employees are trying to get as many people to drink and eat downtown for obvious reasons, so the total may be “double that, at least.”

"It's great to make money and have things go well, but you have to give back to your employees because they are the ones that do all the hard work," said Sellers, who characterized the decision as being made for karmic reasons, not financial ones. The philosophy fits with a company that recently piloted a new recycling and energy efficiency program this year.

ArtPrize 2012: Ten images from day four 10 Gallery: ArtPrize 2012: Ten images from day four

The financials, however, set the table for the giveback. With hundreds of thousands of people downtown during the three-weeks of ArtPrize, the three BarFly bars did almost $600,000 in sales.

Those are record numbers for ArtPrize sales, he said. The sales are up 25 percent over the three weeks of ArtPrize 2011, and 50 percent over a normal four-week period.

“Our employees really worked hard; went above and beyond,” he said. “We just wanted to do something to thank them.”

The day starts at 11:30 a.m. for HopCat, and 4 p.m. for Stella’s and McFaddens. Each bar closes normal time on Tuesday at 2 a.m. The appreciation day runs open to close.

Sellers said he plans to repeat the practice in future years.

Email Garret Ellison or follow him on Twitter.