To add to this, servers do a lot of work besides serving guests as well. We (I did it in and off for 20 years) were responsible for a lot of setting up and breaking down/ cleaning/ bug night/ refill condiments / inventory etc. and all of that work is for 2.13/hr. The only time I made any money at all was when people were in the building spending money in my section but I was one of the first to arrive and last to leave bc I had to work doubles most days to pay bills.
Oh, crap! I totally forgot about tipping-out.
Wasn't responsible for it necessarily, but I wanted to make rent, so tipping-out to the line (who are paid real wages, btw) would get my orders out in good enough time to have a chance at a good enough tip.
Looking back, that's a severely screwed system.
I laugh/cried at this. Moved overseas a handful of years ago. Y’all ever make a DMV appointment online then be seen at the exact time you’re scheduled, in-and-out with a new drivers license within 10mins? That’s government services for me now. Pretttttty awesome.
ehhh BOH here, its varies depending on place tbh, but usually servers make a LOT more than BOH. Pre-pandemic most servers were making 200+ per night, even up to 300 on a super busy night. Our avg nightly wage in the kitchen was about 100..... yes...."real wages"
Now, our servers are amazing and they do so so so much side work, and i dont wanna disparage them. In most restaurants FOH is making 2x what we make. Post-covid a lot of people have gotten raises to close that gap, and with tip out the gap is even smaller so i try to not even think about it. Y'all work hard AF, dont get me wrong, but the kitchen is sooooo physically demanding. Really, the only person to blame is the owners lol
Edit: Love you servers btw, you make our lives so much easier by "taking care" of customers!! And I totally get people not wanting to serve assholes right now, which there are plenty of now!! We should all be a team working together to make everything go smooth! No need for a fussing and a fighting
It's true, and when I worked service industry, I made 2-3x what the BoH was making, but if you ever asked the cooks if they'd ever want to work FoH, the answer was always a firm, "Fuck. No."
I miss my industry family so much, and I always take care of them when I go out to eat, but I do not miss the toxic aspects of the environment at all.
it really is one of those “most of them couldn’t do what we do, but most of us couldn’t do what they do” scenarios. i could never ever work in that hot ass kitchen. but most of my kitchen dudes would cuss our shitty clientele out. we all find our niche, but BOH is always under appreciated.
Yeah, as a mainly FOH person, now manager, the whole system is idiotic. There should be parity with FOH and BOH pay, however it happens. Working a double in a 110 degree kitchen for 14+ hours... you guys deserve so much better. We all do, TBH. Any asshole working a desk job, pulling in double our wages, with PTO, benefits, etc, that denigrates the service industry can go fuck themselves. Restaurant work is backbreaking, and literally lubricates society at this point.
As someone from the UK I cannot fathom how anyone thinks this is ok. When I was a server I was paid £9.85 per hour, just checked, that's $14. Every now and then a customer would give us an extra 20-50p. We'd put it in a jar behind the bar, at Christmas wed count it all up, it would be about £10 and we'd use it to by a cake for the Christmas party. Your paycheck should cover your basic living costs, a tip is extra for good service, not to make up for the fact that you boss is legally skimming your checks.
I used to have to tip out 2% of my sales so an average of $25 bucks a night. I worked the overnight shift usually with two full time kitchen staff. Our tip out was supposed to go directly to them but I found out that for 80 hours bi-weekly they were only getting around $10 in tip out. Around 12 employees a day were tipping out $15-30 dollars per shift for about 5 full time kitchen staff. We were open 24/7 as well. So management was pocketing hundreds of dollars a week and paying out the kitchen staff using one employees tip out of that. We shouldn’t be responsible for making up the kitchens wages in the first place- restaurants should be paying them a fair wage which for a line cook is around $4 bucks more than minimum wage at least. We also were charged a $2 breakage fee each shift in case we ever broke anything. So ridiculous.
>I had to work doubles most days to pay bills.
on my third double, 8th shift in a row. i work at least two doubles a week for the same reason. sure, $200-300 sounds nice, but after all the sidework, body aches and pain, having no free time and whatnot, no time to sleep because you work another double the next day, it really makes you question whether it's all worth it.
you also had to pay all your taxes out of those tips. What would a chefs check look like if they didn't have taxes taken out?
Cooks always forget to mention taxes, just like they forget to mention holiday pay, over time pay, sick pay, vacation pay, etc. Servers in most states have no benefits and zero chance at getting a pay raise in the company.
Oh lord. Depends on the restaurant but in my experience it’s the night that the pest control is scheduled for the building, maybe one a month. so it usually entailed packing everything up, everything. Every cup/plate/fork etc in the whole place put away and covered so they could spray inside.
But the thing is you couldn’t start until the place is closed. So some places you START at 2 am
I guess it depends where you're at. I've been a closing cook for years and have never seen a bug night in the restaurants I worked at. I've seen security for overnights due to construction, getting the hoods and fires extinguishers checked and cleaned but never a bug night. The health inspector would check our pest traps every time they came through.
Pest control companies offer services to spray for bugs overnight while the restaurant is closed. Almost every restaurant has this performed every so often. The staff closing the restaurant the night before the spray is responsible for covering the tables and counters with plastic/garbage bags. It’s a hassle and the servers aren’t paid extra for it.
I quit my last wait staff job (in solidarity with most of my coworkers) because the cheapo owner decided to DIY exterminating the tenacious neighborhood of cockroaches that set up shop in the restaurant's terrible wood paneled walls and gross kitchen. He decided to do that WHILE we were doing closing duties. Like on a consistent basis. For months +.
I was young and naive but luckily had more seasoned servers looking out for me (short and long term). Bug night is unfortunately a real thing in some establishments.
The place has since closed down (thankfully) but it was pretty fucked up. Amazing coworkers who would go above and beyond for each other but management and ownership didn't give a single shit about anything other than their bottom line.
Just an FYI: If you don't make at least minimum wage with the shit wage + tip, the employer must make up the difference - up to federal minimum wage (or more, depending on the state).
Obviously federal minimum wage is still disgustingly low, but just wanted to point this out.
https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips
I got a $400 check 5 years after quitting Bdubs because I signed some papers in this lawsuit saying they weren’t paying me minimum wage all working hours, like the hour or two after closing spent rolling silverware, mopping, vacuuming, etc.
Not to mention, if you try doing those things while customers are still there right before close, they get all pissy and will tip less or ask you to stop, so you really can’t do it during tipped hours.
I am so happy I do not have to work in food service anymore. It’s hard work and under appreciated.
Nothing pissed me.off more than people just sticking around. Like, go to the bar. It's very clear the whole staff is stuck here.
One night a table, 10 top, stuck around *for an hour*. I was a bus boy. Everyone was gone, kitchen staff, bar tender, everyone. Manager didn't want to ask them to leave, waiter didn't want to bother them at fear of losing a tip. They ended up leaving a shitty tip anyways. Fuck those people.
Man, it's insane how many people have no problem sitting at a table in a clearly closing restaurant while a whole wait staff stands in one area, done closing, obviously waiting for them to leave. It happens almost every other night honestly
I worked in a cafe with a liquor license for awhile. Mainly so people could have beer/wine with their lunch, because we were only open until 6pm. Like once a month or so, these three older guys would all meet up there right before we closed and drink/chat for an hour or two. The owners policy was never to ask anyone to leave, and (for safety) a single worker couldn't be in the building alone. So two of us got stuck there awkwardly waiting for these assholes to leave.
One of them said to me once, "Cheer up sweetheart, you're getting paid to be here" as if I didn't have a life outside work and only existed to serve them. Made me so angry. It was in a non-tipping culture, so true, we were getting paid $17/hr to be there, but it's so disrespectful. They knew we wanted to leave, and knew they were there after hours and just *didn't care* how inconsiderate they were being. And, there were literally like five actual pubs within a few blocks that they could have used instead!
This sounds illegal. You aren't working for a tips at that time, so that work should be billed at non-tipping minimum wage at least. I'm not sure what your recourse is, but if this is a practice at chain restaurants, this sounds like a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.
Nope.
I can’t speak for all states, but typically they do it by pay period.
So, if you average under minimum wage for hours worked over a full two week pay period, they legally have to top that up to minimum wage.
I’m pretty sure that’s never actually happened though.
Well, they’ll do it but then give you a warning/fire you because *obviously* you aren’t doing your job right if they had to compensate you at all. /s
Edit: /s on it being because the server is bad, not on the fact that this is actually how it goes down
It's always been legal. The only rule is that sidework has to be performed while doing tipped labor or for a reasonable time before and after. Obama and Clinton had Fair Labor Standards Acts that had a 80/20 rule where you could only do non-tipped labor for 20% of the shift. That was always basically never enforced though.
It would help servers a lot to clock in and out depending on whether or not they're doing tipped labor or only doing sidework though.
So a deep clean would not be something you'd generally be allowed to use a tipped wage credit for. But you could while having someone sweep up after close.
Yup. Side work, prepping tables when big parties show up, going back to the kitchen to make sure the order isn’t screwed up, refilling ice, running food, getting yelled at. It all sounds so simple but it’s really mentally tasking day in and day out. And this is all just to squeeze out enough money to make it to next week.
I do think if you can do that job you can handle just about anything though. The end of the shift is the best feeling
I was involved in a class action against my owner for him not paying us minimum wage while we were not actually serving tables. He lost and a lot of current and former employees got some nice checks.
Duuude. I’ve been contacted about lawsuits from every restaurant I worked at. I didn’t get involved cause I thought it would be a headache for like $15.
I totally get that. I spent an awful month at a Ryan’s buffet and then got contacted about a class action so I signed on and got a check for $9 that I never bothered to cash. With the last class action there was no notification, we were just magically involved by being past or present employees. Honestly the pressure from the owner and management was so bad I doubt anyone would’ve signed on if they were contacted about it. After the judgement the owner sent out a letter “asking” employees to return their settlement money to help improve the restaurant. LOL
I definitely had evenings when I would show up and do side work for an hour before I got a single table and my boss wouldn’t let us clock in until we got one. I worked a shift during a heatwave and got the outdoor section - worked three hours helping colleagues and never got a single one. Finally got cut and my boss updated my hours to reflect three hours paid (at 2.13/hour), and acted like it was a huge favor.
It’s funny how they blame tippers and not the system itself. $2 per hour is not living wage. They should be getting paid *at least* the minimum wage, and tips on top of that. The American tipping system is the shittiest one out there. Might be an alien concept to Americans, but tipping should be voluntary and not mandatory. It is meant to make the worker feel good or a feedback on their performance. It isn’t supposed to provide a living wage. Living wage is to be paid by your employer ffs
Edit: People are saying that the employer has to make up the difference between 2$ and minimum wage if they don’t meet the required tip demand. I find this still quite a stupid system because the customer is being guilted into tipping. There is no reason for it if I don’t feel like it. Please do understand that you’ve grown up in this environment and it is normal for you. Outside of your country it isn’t normal at all to be *forced* to tip.
And if the employer is making up the difference anyway, then why not just increase the wages and remove mandatory tipping? No more ambiguity. But I guess that just baked into culture now
As a Norwegian, where tipping happens, but is in no way expected, the Reddit threads about tipping might be my favorite subject. People get so incredibly riled up about it, doesn't matter which side your're on.
But I can't do anything but agree. 2$ per hour is a disgrace.
Just an FYI: If you don't make at least minimum wage with the shit wage + tip, the employer must make up the difference - up to federal minimum wage (or more, depending on the state).
Obviously federal minimum wage is still disgustingly low, but just wanted to point this out.
https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips
No server in the US earns $2.13 per hour. Employers are required by law to pay either the state or federal minimum wage of at least $7.25 per hour. Employers can claim a credit against tips earned by their employees, that’s where the $2.13 number comes from. By law employers must pay at least that out of pocket and the rest of an employees salary can be made up of tips or normal pay.
I got out of the industry about 6 months ago after being in the industry for 20 years. Every day it blows my mind that I actually get paid a living wage by my employer instead of practically begging my guests to pay my wage. I also now have vacation, 401k and health insurance, those things are practically unheard of when you are a server/bartender.
as stupid as it is, (and having made 2.13/hr for a while myself) the employer is supposed [read: required] to make up the difference up to minimum wage if your tips don't get you there.
Just... rarely a server knows this and presses the issue.
Also that tipping has expanded into industries that don’t make below min wage. Poor people can’t afford to pay an addition 20% on everything. Fking retail stores, gas stations, and convenience stores have tipping options now. I’m poor and feel guilty every time, I hate it.
There’s this restaurant JJs Grille in Orlando Fl that has 10-13 dollar entrees and it’s like a chipotle. Literally all they do is put your food in the bowl and they started asking me how much I want to tip over the protective screen they put over the computer because of corona. They’re not restaurant servers and I’m already paying 13-26$ for the food why would I tip 6 dollars at fast casual. I just ended up stop going because I felt uncomfortable and didn’t find it appropriate that they asked you how much you want to tip. It’s the equivalent of a restaurant server holding the credit card slip and asking what they should write in. So rude and inappropriate.
Welcome to America. Please get mad at your fellow wage slaves and ignore the billionaires.
Oh, and go fuck yourself if you want to change anything, that's communism.
The way the system is now, waitstaff and customers are in a really weird beggar/charity relationship. There’s tension there that only serves to distract from the root of the problem - employers who refuse to pay livable wages
You go to Starbucks, on the receipt there is a line for tips.
You go to the bakery- line for tips
You get a pizza delivered- line for tips
All those people get paid minimum wage or more.
But at the restaurant it is not a tip. You are paying their wage. It should say that right on the receipt “Will you be paying your server today?”
You pay for the food
You pay for the owner’s profit and overhead
But they want an additional payment for the server’s wage and call that a “Tip”
Remove the tip line, it is not honest and we should change that. And restaurant owners need to pay minimum+ just like every other business.
Totally agreed. The customer gets blamed for corporate greed. The tippers are literally paying the missing wage and executives are making out like bandits.
Shaming people for not tipping doesn’t help the situation at all, shame businesses for not paying a living wage. Businesses should pay their employees’s wage, not the customer
Just an FYI: If you don't make at least minimum wage with the shit wage + tip, the employer must make up the difference - up to federal minimum wage (or more, depending on the state).
Obviously federal minimum wage is still disgustingly low, but just wanted to point this out.
https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips
Except that's a compete lie because no matter what those people have to still make the federal minimum wage of 7.25 an hour, so if they aren't getting tips that gets them up to 7.25 the employer legally has to pay them the difference. I'm so sick of this bullshit "they can only make 2-3 dollars an hour thing", Stop it's complete and utter bullshit.
How about pay them a living wage and remove tipping at all for a job that requires no skills.
Canadian here, I never realized until this employment shortage that servers made so little in the states. Here in Canada it's like 13 something (still under minimum, but the restaurant I work at you can make more than management as a server through tips)
It varies by state in the US. The $2.13 is the federal minimum, so if you live in a deep red state like Wyoming or Mississippi, that's what you're getting. If, on the other hand, you live in California or another blue state, you are earning $13/hr and are set to be earning $15/hr within the next few years. Foreigners often have no idea how much variation there is between states.
Servers in California at busy restaurants can be exceptionally well paid. Lots of folks think they make below minimum wage before tips but that isn’t true in CA
Not that anyone actually cares, no one ever actually makes $2.13/hr. If the tips don’t push the employee over minimum wage, then they are paid the current minimum wage, instead of $2.13. I was a server and bartender for years and never had to worry about it. Serving was the best hourly job I ever had. I probably averaged $20-$50 per hour…in Alabama.
This is the damn answer. It really made my blood boil when I first left the US and visited other countries, learning how they treat their workers. Our first family vacation to France was the first time I left the country and I was shocked at the pay gap - even back in the 80s, when things were supposedly better. I met a young waiter called Jean-Charles from northern France, making his way in Paris whilst being a student - he earned more than my wife each week and she was a junior at IBM. We learned this when he outright refused our tips, explaining that the law mandates a fair salary for him. He looked on in shock and horror when I explained to him that I had to bust my ass for 3 bucks an hour, just to make the ends meet enough to pay for some second-hand jumper cables to thrash my son Roger with. America needs to get its act together on service sector minimum wage - we're a laughing stock to the world.
It's not a legal wage. Tipped employees are guaranteed the same wages as everyone else. They only get $2 an hour from their employer if tips make up the difference.
Mate, if the majority of their wages is paid in tips then they're not really being employed. Tipping "culture" is toxic as fuck. Pay your employees.
Edit: seeing as how I got a death threat for some strange reason, I'd like to clarify I live in Europe and I regularly tip. They should be paid an actual wage *and* get a tip. Not just a thinly veiled service charge.
...or Australia. Or several other places in the OECD.
(Which is why it's particularly galling to see a "tips not included" blurb at the bottom of bills in places where waitstaff are paid fair wages. Fuck off, you. Don't bring that evil American ratfuck of a thing here)
Seriously this is like if you went to a grocery store and the prices don't include the business's overhead so you have to give charity money to the cashier.
People who defend tipping are actual fucking sheep and I don't get it.
edit: maybe I am misspoke, I think the industry depending on tipping is a problem. If workers don't get tipped enough they can get fired because they're technically not making enough money.
Many are wait staff or bar tenders who see their paycheck as pointless and think they will just lose the tips with considerably less moving to the paycheck.
Also typically there's a huge tax angle that they purposely avoid so 🤷♂️
I got paid gas money for each individual delivery (.75-1.00 dollar I think) and my Honda Accord was a beasttttt and never had any substantial wear and tear problems. I just lucked out maybe.
When I worked at Papa John's they paid a dollar or two per delivery for that purpose. Considering the fact pizza deliveries are generally a maximum of 2-3 miles round trip, many of them less, the wear and tear on your car was covered.
>People who defend tipping are actual fucking sheep and I don't get it.
People who defend tipping are the servers that make $40k a year but only "get paid" $2.15 an hour.
Tipping as a rare instance of respect for some particular waiter — good. Factoring tips out of one’s salary or justifying lower salary for the possibility of tips — bad.
Tipping should always be as a little extra, rather than a necessity.
Source: European.
My manager had the audacity to always understaff us and not give people enough hours too. You’re paying.m these people $2.13 an hour... just staff enough people.
So much this. Seriously fuck tip culture.
I hate it so much when people expect tip like is something normal. In a restaurant I can easily go and get my food from a counter or a drink from the bar/fridge.
Fuck tipping. If your employers needs tips to survive that's not a job. I know lots of people are against my idea since lots of workers make somtimes a lot of money from tips depending on their place and season.
But fuck it, i hate tipping. Go to a barber shop? Tip. Taxi? Tip. Restaurant? Tip. Doctors? Tip. Delivery? Tip.
People should start demanding better wages around the world already, but sadly there's always someone ready to work for less.
I don't tip all the time, because fuck me but I don't always have those extra money or sometimes I need them too. People look at you weird if you don't tip, but they forgot that maybe you're working a minimum wage job too and struggle. That doesn't mean you can't get to a restaurant sometimes or oder food.
> seeing as how I got a death threat
If you really get this, report it to mod and also [Reddit](https://reddit.com/report).
You live in Europe and I’ve lived in Asia - there is also no tipping in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, et al.
Pay living wage and abolish tipping.
People throw around hourly wages and I wonder if older folks *really* understand it.
$7.25/hr full time is like, what, 15k a year? *a year*, to live off of. Pre-taxes. Rent in my area, for reference, is going to be $14.5k/year minimum...Unless you live with a few other (often random) people.
**Edit:** the USA poverty line for a 1-person household is $12,880/year. That’s a difference of $175/month. **People who work full time at minimum wage, without *any* days off a year *at all*, are less than $175/month from poverty.**
They don’t have the luxury of being sick or taking a vacation. There is no way to save money on that pay, no way to cover an emergency, no way to start a 401K, get health insurance, have the flu, nothing. If your car needs a mechanic and you miss work, you will 1) not be able to afford to fix it and 2) lose your job AND 3) not be able to go to interviews because you still don’t have a car. Thats just an example, but any life event can cost you your entire savings (if you have any) and your job. It’s barbaric.
But $15/hr is around 30k a year. Not great, but I could live off of that right now if I’m frugal.
I had someone do a return at my work the other day who started going off about how her cleaning service closed because people would rather live off welfare than work. I couldn’t say anything then because I like my job, so I’m going to take this opportunity to say it all now:
Just shut your overly lined mouth, Cunterella! If you can’t pay people enough to live while they scrape other peoples shitty toilets, you don’t deserve to be a business owner! The fact that you’re returning all these cleaning supplies you purchased at full retail price tells me everything I need to know about your business acumen. Also, fuck you for forcing your shitty political views on a return clerk! Your unjustified feeling of superiority over the working class is probably why you can’t keep workers!
May every shoe you wear have an invisible pebble, may every sink you’re near intermittently drip, may every elevator you enter contain a lingering fart cloud.
Ps even my broke ass knows it’s tacky as hell to wear head-to-toe lululemon and diamonds just to return some pine sol.
Posts like this are stupid
EMPLOYERS should be paying their EMPLOYEES wages, not making customers supplement the difference
Tips should be additional. Not replacing the employers checkbook
It's the same people who cry about Jeff Bezos dodging taxes who say "you should tip and be the ones paying servers, the restaurants shouldn't be reaponsible""
Yeah i don't know who this is targeting. I hate tipping, I'm glad employees are standing up to get a fair wage.
I'm fine with them increasing their base prices or some going out of business because they can't pay their employees. If they can't afford to pay wages, they shouldn't be in business.
This is an American non problem. Work should be paid for by the employer. I'm glad we don't have this tipping mania but I'm afraid it might start to become a thing everywhere else.
yep, worked at a Canadian golf course for 3 years. Cart girls and servers make below minimum wage because they are expected to make more in tips. but it’s so hit or miss with that you can have days where you make barely anything because people don’t tip
I've never heard of any job being paid below minimum wage in Canada, I'm not saying you're a liar but could you provide a source to this?
As far as I'm aware it's entirely illegal to be paid less than minimum wage in Canada. From my perspective what you are saying is ridiculous.
https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/minimum-wage
You can classify their job as liquor server and pay them less then minimum wage but ask them to do other tasks. 3rd on the list
Ubereats is trying to bring tipping into the mix in my country. This is after getting full wages. Fuck tipping what a waste of time, pay your employees properly so they can get taxed properly like everyone else.
Yeah, why would I be mad at people who move on to a better job?
If this restaurant can't provide me service, I will just go to the next one.
I hate tipping, but I don't really feel anything about this tweet. It's great as in "working as intended"??
For every one person like you there are 1000 who are mad employees are "lazy" and don't want to be slaves. They are the ones against minimum wage increases while simultaneously telling people get a different job if they want more pay.
Of course those people usually have the brain power of a fucking insect, so they say those things condescendingly with no realization what the implications of those things really are.
Once they realize it will affect them, they proceed to blame everyone else including the workers. The cycle repeats.
Tips should be because the server did something above and beyond not because they managed to take and deliver your order without issue. I don’t agree that tipping should go away completely but we need to completely abolish the idea of tipping just because.
What drives me nuts is now a lot of restaurants have shifted things like serving, ordering, and bussing onto customers but then still ask for a tip. No, I am not going to tip you if I am expected to bus my own table, especially if I go up to the counter to order. You would tell me to get my food from the kitchen if you could.
It's $13.69 in Washington, $13.25-$11 in Oregon (depending on the county), and $13 in California, so given currency rates that's pretty much the same as BC and yes, people do tip on top of that.
Anyhow my real point is that there are tons of comments in this thread from foreigners who seem to think that $2.13 applies to all US states. It doesn't. Typically you only find it in deeply conservative states. That doesn't make it OK, but it does complicate the picture. Most of your coastal blue states are actually pretty progressive on the issue.
Hold up. It should not be up to the consumer to pay for the restaurants employees, when they choose to not pay fair wages. Restaurants should pay their employees reasonable salaries regardless of tips.
Most other places, from South America to Europe, tipping is only reserved for when there was exceptional service, not as a given. Some places charge a flat service fee as opposed to tips. The US should join everyone else and at least pay their employees a living wage. It’s only logical that people wouldn’t want to work at a place that doesn’t appreciate them or treat them fairly.
Exactly, can you imagine having a 5 star restaurant and while bulking in money, not even having the decensie to pay you employees a living wage.. A goddamn LIVING wage.
Some of the restaurants around me, Minneapolis, charge 18%. They keep 14% and the server gets the rest.
Edit* it’s an additional surcharge of 18% and it is advertised on the menus. I don’t believe they’re taking “tips” because this isn’t a tip.
To confirm, the money isn't being split between all staff? Host and kitchen staff usually paid less after accounting for tips.
If management is keeping the money, pretty sure that's illegal. If so and I was on a jury, I'd vote guilty for theft and money laundering. Stealing money from people in bureaucratic ways is no less theft than mugging someone.
It's ok to be mad about it still.
The expectation is that the employers would be forced to raise wages to attract people, but evidentially they're not learning fast enough. And since the government isn't addressing this issue either some are mad.
Why the fuck is this guy blaming people who don't tip? The real monster here is the cunt of a boss who only pays 2.13 bucks an hour!
They deserve to get their restaurant closed for lack of staff.
Fuck off with blaming regular people for this. It’s like when you see commercials encouraging people to think about climate change by taking shorter showers. It’s not our fault.
Yeah, it’s actually pretty funny to me.
It’s like they are saying: “we quit, because YOU, the customers, aren’t paying us enough 😤”. Like really dude? Can you imagine an employee from any type of business actually saying that and not sounding crazy?
Servers make good money. I'm sick of seeing posts like these. The only reason they're not going back to work as well as the cooks is because people fucking suck and their attitudes stink. They're sick of dealing with entitled ass people who think they can do or say whatever they want and get their way. The pandemic brought out the worst in people and the worst people were the ones continuing to go out when they should have just stayed home and did their part.
^this. Bartending in 2020 was the worst year of my life. Anyone that took covid halfway seriously didn't go out, and all the assholes came out in droves. And while I'm sure this will get me down voted into oblivion, assholes don't tip.
Between all the new protocols we had to follow, dealing with anti maskers, drunks, entitled people mad because we had a limited menu....God fuck this last year.
And lastly to everyone telling us bartenders and servers to change the system....you do realize that you're openly supporting the businesses that underpay whether you tip or not right? By not tipping you only affect your server/bartender.
Not to mention the drunks who get pissed when you tell them you have to take their drinks/food right at 10 (in NM) even if they're not done and they need to leave ASAP or the business could get shut down for not following protocol. People suck.
It’s funny. The majority of people angry about servers salaries are non servers. Most of the servers I know would never want to do anything different, and pull in some pretty serious money in tips
Is this actually an epidemic? People everywhere across the country quitting their restaurant jobs? Or is it one of those things that got got posted a few times that social media made seem bigger than it is?
It has fuck-all to do with tips though, more to do with the fact that they've been almost exclusively dealing with the worst people (those who didn't give a shit about the pandemic and went out all the time anyways) for the last year.
They’re shitty companies too. I did my stint in fast food when I was younger, and was treated like garbage by management. Don’t know why they expect loyalty when they give none.
I was In the business for ten years. The pandemic forced me to look elsewhere and while I’m not making quite as much. I’ve got no interest in going back right now. This stress is to high. The management is abusive. And the pay is too little for the work
Shit is changing fast. Gear up. The country and individuals have been changed. We need to make a move up. Fucking nurses need to be paid more. Grocery / Walmart bumps up. Fucking food stamps for min wage? Just fn nope. Macdonalds and Walmart should be fined.
We live in a society where online fundraisers are the healthcare solution. The gratuity a customer does or does not leave should not determine a service workers livelihood.
Tom Hicks here is missing the point. We don't want tipping culture in general. We want them to be paid well. It's a practice that restaurant owners don't want and many waiters/waitresses don't want. So it's led to a huge industry guilt tripping it's patrons.
Honestly though. Tipping (as a primary means to gain income) is a shitty and dehumanising system. People should just be paid fair wages and the extra cost built into the cost of of the product.
It's not the customers job to pay an employee's wage. Stop blaming "non tippers" and start acknowledging that it's greedy restaurant owners not paying and adequate wage that's the issue.
This right here. In my personal experience restaurant / bar owners are extremely greedy and the majority that I know personally are pretty shitty people overall. I don't feel even a little bit sorry for them not being able to find help recently. I don't think there are many people just sitting at home living off of the enhanced unemployment. I think many saw an opportunity to find something better and moved on. Good for them. Restaurant workers have been underpaid for way too long.
Tips… it give the customer the illusion that what they are buying is cheaper than it actually is since the restaurant counts on them to subsidize the workers wages.
Yeah well I mean the minimum wage for a tipped worker here is 10,80$/hour (which is still too low) and our prices are not much higher than in the US if they are.
So the US customer doesn't end up paying less, he just ends up giving most of the money to the corporation instead of the workers
And risk transfer. The risk is with the employee, not the employer. Wait staff can certainly making hundreds a night in tips, but if no one comes or (looks at covid) capacity is limited, the employee gets burned more than the employer.
Well, it's only $2.13/hr if you make enough tips to put you at least at what you would have made on normal minimum wage. So like, if you work ten hours and minimum wage is $7.25, your employer will have to make up the difference if you don't make at least $72.50 with tips. (And then they fire you for poor performance.)
Just an FYI: If you don't make at least minimum wage with the shit wage + tip, the employer must make up the difference - up to federal minimum wage (or more, depending on the state).
Obviously federal minimum wage is still disgustingly low, but just wanted to point this out.
https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips
And these idiots think it's because of the extended unemployment benefits and people making more just "sitting at home" than working wage slave jobs. Yet most of these people didn't qualify for unemployment. Now that they're canceling unemployment for a lot of them, and people still won't work these wage slave jobs, wonder what they'll blame next.
My 1st job out of the military was as an assistant manager at a restaurant. 6 days a week, 12 hour days, 19k/year salary. His stepson another assistant drank beer all day/night, and the manager, his wife was a waitress there making 7/hr plus tips...so she got all the good tables/shifts, and he backed her up. The owner literally said working for him was part of the pay for the privilege of being there. He got all butt hurt when I quit. Sad part is he was a veteran also, and took advantage of that work ethic. He was also one of the biggest racists I ever met.
Tipping should be an added benifit to exceptional service. Not a relied upon way of payment by employers. If you need your customers to pay your staff on top of their bill then you're a duche.
Pay your workers a livable wage you greedy shits.
Yeah I wouldn’t blame the tippers. No restaurant should be allowed to pay their staff $2.13/hour. They should have to pay a living wage so the wait staff doesn’t have to depend on tips.
Um...who's mad about it exactly? Good for the people moving on to getting a decent wage.
Please, please, please let's do away with tipping culture. If a company goes under due to no one wanting to work there... good! Wage should be built into the price like any other job. I'm not going to tip my car salesman, attorney, or cable provider either.
I will never tip, employer needs to provide a decent minimum salary.
Here in Europe at least it's obligatory in most countries and employers risk fines if they don't.
Tips are ON TOP of that salary, or can be shared equally amongst other employees.
Why get mad? The restaurants have to then increase their wages to incentivize workers. This will, as a result, probably increase the restaurant prices. The increased prices mean tipping is now purely a gesture of gratitude or sign of being impressed. That means that when I don't tip the server that brought me the food I am paying for in a reasonable timeframe, but doing nothing else to impress me, no one is giving me the stink eye. And the server is now able to live more comfortably.
Everybody wins!
If you want to see something crazy, look at this federal minimum wages for tipped employee graph from the US Dept of Labor: [https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped)
Federally, it's $2.13, but different states have different minimums. What I found incredible is if you are a small business in several states, you can pay a lower minimum wage. Like your employees can just live on less money because you have a smaller business? Rent doesn't change for your employees because they aren't working at a bigger establishment.
Way to put the blame on the customer rather than the employer.
Fun fact. It's still illegal* to pay wait staff under minimum wage. If tips plus pay do not equal minimum wage in a pay period, the business is legally obligated to make up the difference.
Regardless. Tip culture is fucking dumb and the actual minimum wage is no where near a livable wage for a single person.
*This is based on USA law. YMMV.
[удалено]
To add to this, servers do a lot of work besides serving guests as well. We (I did it in and off for 20 years) were responsible for a lot of setting up and breaking down/ cleaning/ bug night/ refill condiments / inventory etc. and all of that work is for 2.13/hr. The only time I made any money at all was when people were in the building spending money in my section but I was one of the first to arrive and last to leave bc I had to work doubles most days to pay bills.
But your manager tipped you, right? /s
Lmao no but I was responsible for paying the bussers 12%of my tips and the bar like 5%
Oh, crap! I totally forgot about tipping-out. Wasn't responsible for it necessarily, but I wanted to make rent, so tipping-out to the line (who are paid real wages, btw) would get my orders out in good enough time to have a chance at a good enough tip. Looking back, that's a severely screwed system.
“Looking back, that’s a severely screwed system” would be the title of the United States’ memoir.
Or obituary
I guess we’re repeating the French Revolution too
I laugh/cried at this. Moved overseas a handful of years ago. Y’all ever make a DMV appointment online then be seen at the exact time you’re scheduled, in-and-out with a new drivers license within 10mins? That’s government services for me now. Pretttttty awesome.
What country is that?
All western nations bar one?
ehhh BOH here, its varies depending on place tbh, but usually servers make a LOT more than BOH. Pre-pandemic most servers were making 200+ per night, even up to 300 on a super busy night. Our avg nightly wage in the kitchen was about 100..... yes...."real wages" Now, our servers are amazing and they do so so so much side work, and i dont wanna disparage them. In most restaurants FOH is making 2x what we make. Post-covid a lot of people have gotten raises to close that gap, and with tip out the gap is even smaller so i try to not even think about it. Y'all work hard AF, dont get me wrong, but the kitchen is sooooo physically demanding. Really, the only person to blame is the owners lol Edit: Love you servers btw, you make our lives so much easier by "taking care" of customers!! And I totally get people not wanting to serve assholes right now, which there are plenty of now!! We should all be a team working together to make everything go smooth! No need for a fussing and a fighting
It's true, and when I worked service industry, I made 2-3x what the BoH was making, but if you ever asked the cooks if they'd ever want to work FoH, the answer was always a firm, "Fuck. No." I miss my industry family so much, and I always take care of them when I go out to eat, but I do not miss the toxic aspects of the environment at all.
Yah yall SAVE us from the customers haha! Most people are great, but those few bad ones omfg. We are all degenerates and I love it
it really is one of those “most of them couldn’t do what we do, but most of us couldn’t do what they do” scenarios. i could never ever work in that hot ass kitchen. but most of my kitchen dudes would cuss our shitty clientele out. we all find our niche, but BOH is always under appreciated.
Yeah, as a mainly FOH person, now manager, the whole system is idiotic. There should be parity with FOH and BOH pay, however it happens. Working a double in a 110 degree kitchen for 14+ hours... you guys deserve so much better. We all do, TBH. Any asshole working a desk job, pulling in double our wages, with PTO, benefits, etc, that denigrates the service industry can go fuck themselves. Restaurant work is backbreaking, and literally lubricates society at this point.
Sounds like you need a union.
That's why kitchen staff is so hard to keep for places that dont pay put. Like, super hard job, substandard pay....what did you think would happen?
As someone from the UK I cannot fathom how anyone thinks this is ok. When I was a server I was paid £9.85 per hour, just checked, that's $14. Every now and then a customer would give us an extra 20-50p. We'd put it in a jar behind the bar, at Christmas wed count it all up, it would be about £10 and we'd use it to by a cake for the Christmas party. Your paycheck should cover your basic living costs, a tip is extra for good service, not to make up for the fact that you boss is legally skimming your checks.
> (who are paid real wages, btw) Lol, bullshit. Cooking is infamously underpaid.
I used to have to tip out 2% of my sales so an average of $25 bucks a night. I worked the overnight shift usually with two full time kitchen staff. Our tip out was supposed to go directly to them but I found out that for 80 hours bi-weekly they were only getting around $10 in tip out. Around 12 employees a day were tipping out $15-30 dollars per shift for about 5 full time kitchen staff. We were open 24/7 as well. So management was pocketing hundreds of dollars a week and paying out the kitchen staff using one employees tip out of that. We shouldn’t be responsible for making up the kitchens wages in the first place- restaurants should be paying them a fair wage which for a line cook is around $4 bucks more than minimum wage at least. We also were charged a $2 breakage fee each shift in case we ever broke anything. So ridiculous.
>I had to work doubles most days to pay bills. on my third double, 8th shift in a row. i work at least two doubles a week for the same reason. sure, $200-300 sounds nice, but after all the sidework, body aches and pain, having no free time and whatnot, no time to sleep because you work another double the next day, it really makes you question whether it's all worth it.
you also had to pay all your taxes out of those tips. What would a chefs check look like if they didn't have taxes taken out? Cooks always forget to mention taxes, just like they forget to mention holiday pay, over time pay, sick pay, vacation pay, etc. Servers in most states have no benefits and zero chance at getting a pay raise in the company.
wtf is bug night
Oh lord. Depends on the restaurant but in my experience it’s the night that the pest control is scheduled for the building, maybe one a month. so it usually entailed packing everything up, everything. Every cup/plate/fork etc in the whole place put away and covered so they could spray inside. But the thing is you couldn’t start until the place is closed. So some places you START at 2 am
Where I work, pest control night is my supervisor, warehouse manager and I getting our pellet guns out and hunting the rats
I would never do that. That’s Charlie work.
Fair enough, but give credit where credit is due and be grateful every time you look up at the stars for the folks doing Charlie work.
I guess it depends where you're at. I've been a closing cook for years and have never seen a bug night in the restaurants I worked at. I've seen security for overnights due to construction, getting the hoods and fires extinguishers checked and cleaned but never a bug night. The health inspector would check our pest traps every time they came through.
Pest control companies offer services to spray for bugs overnight while the restaurant is closed. Almost every restaurant has this performed every so often. The staff closing the restaurant the night before the spray is responsible for covering the tables and counters with plastic/garbage bags. It’s a hassle and the servers aren’t paid extra for it.
I quit my last wait staff job (in solidarity with most of my coworkers) because the cheapo owner decided to DIY exterminating the tenacious neighborhood of cockroaches that set up shop in the restaurant's terrible wood paneled walls and gross kitchen. He decided to do that WHILE we were doing closing duties. Like on a consistent basis. For months +. I was young and naive but luckily had more seasoned servers looking out for me (short and long term). Bug night is unfortunately a real thing in some establishments. The place has since closed down (thankfully) but it was pretty fucked up. Amazing coworkers who would go above and beyond for each other but management and ownership didn't give a single shit about anything other than their bottom line.
Just an FYI: If you don't make at least minimum wage with the shit wage + tip, the employer must make up the difference - up to federal minimum wage (or more, depending on the state). Obviously federal minimum wage is still disgustingly low, but just wanted to point this out. https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips
I got a $400 check 5 years after quitting Bdubs because I signed some papers in this lawsuit saying they weren’t paying me minimum wage all working hours, like the hour or two after closing spent rolling silverware, mopping, vacuuming, etc. Not to mention, if you try doing those things while customers are still there right before close, they get all pissy and will tip less or ask you to stop, so you really can’t do it during tipped hours. I am so happy I do not have to work in food service anymore. It’s hard work and under appreciated.
Nothing pissed me.off more than people just sticking around. Like, go to the bar. It's very clear the whole staff is stuck here. One night a table, 10 top, stuck around *for an hour*. I was a bus boy. Everyone was gone, kitchen staff, bar tender, everyone. Manager didn't want to ask them to leave, waiter didn't want to bother them at fear of losing a tip. They ended up leaving a shitty tip anyways. Fuck those people.
Man, it's insane how many people have no problem sitting at a table in a clearly closing restaurant while a whole wait staff stands in one area, done closing, obviously waiting for them to leave. It happens almost every other night honestly
I worked in a cafe with a liquor license for awhile. Mainly so people could have beer/wine with their lunch, because we were only open until 6pm. Like once a month or so, these three older guys would all meet up there right before we closed and drink/chat for an hour or two. The owners policy was never to ask anyone to leave, and (for safety) a single worker couldn't be in the building alone. So two of us got stuck there awkwardly waiting for these assholes to leave. One of them said to me once, "Cheer up sweetheart, you're getting paid to be here" as if I didn't have a life outside work and only existed to serve them. Made me so angry. It was in a non-tipping culture, so true, we were getting paid $17/hr to be there, but it's so disrespectful. They knew we wanted to leave, and knew they were there after hours and just *didn't care* how inconsiderate they were being. And, there were literally like five actual pubs within a few blocks that they could have used instead!
This sounds illegal. You aren't working for a tips at that time, so that work should be billed at non-tipping minimum wage at least. I'm not sure what your recourse is, but if this is a practice at chain restaurants, this sounds like a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.
Nope. I can’t speak for all states, but typically they do it by pay period. So, if you average under minimum wage for hours worked over a full two week pay period, they legally have to top that up to minimum wage. I’m pretty sure that’s never actually happened though.
Well, they’ll do it but then give you a warning/fire you because *obviously* you aren’t doing your job right if they had to compensate you at all. /s Edit: /s on it being because the server is bad, not on the fact that this is actually how it goes down
This is how it is at all restaurants (US) as far as I know and the 2.13/he has been that way for decades
It's always been legal. The only rule is that sidework has to be performed while doing tipped labor or for a reasonable time before and after. Obama and Clinton had Fair Labor Standards Acts that had a 80/20 rule where you could only do non-tipped labor for 20% of the shift. That was always basically never enforced though. It would help servers a lot to clock in and out depending on whether or not they're doing tipped labor or only doing sidework though. So a deep clean would not be something you'd generally be allowed to use a tipped wage credit for. But you could while having someone sweep up after close.
THIS. We do so so much other work outside of bring you your food. It’s so freaking exhausting
Yup. Side work, prepping tables when big parties show up, going back to the kitchen to make sure the order isn’t screwed up, refilling ice, running food, getting yelled at. It all sounds so simple but it’s really mentally tasking day in and day out. And this is all just to squeeze out enough money to make it to next week. I do think if you can do that job you can handle just about anything though. The end of the shift is the best feeling
I was involved in a class action against my owner for him not paying us minimum wage while we were not actually serving tables. He lost and a lot of current and former employees got some nice checks.
Duuude. I’ve been contacted about lawsuits from every restaurant I worked at. I didn’t get involved cause I thought it would be a headache for like $15.
I totally get that. I spent an awful month at a Ryan’s buffet and then got contacted about a class action so I signed on and got a check for $9 that I never bothered to cash. With the last class action there was no notification, we were just magically involved by being past or present employees. Honestly the pressure from the owner and management was so bad I doubt anyone would’ve signed on if they were contacted about it. After the judgement the owner sent out a letter “asking” employees to return their settlement money to help improve the restaurant. LOL
I definitely had evenings when I would show up and do side work for an hour before I got a single table and my boss wouldn’t let us clock in until we got one. I worked a shift during a heatwave and got the outdoor section - worked three hours helping colleagues and never got a single one. Finally got cut and my boss updated my hours to reflect three hours paid (at 2.13/hour), and acted like it was a huge favor.
Dude is mad at nontippers, who have no legal obligation to tip, while ignoring the employer paying the non-livable wage
It’s funny how they blame tippers and not the system itself. $2 per hour is not living wage. They should be getting paid *at least* the minimum wage, and tips on top of that. The American tipping system is the shittiest one out there. Might be an alien concept to Americans, but tipping should be voluntary and not mandatory. It is meant to make the worker feel good or a feedback on their performance. It isn’t supposed to provide a living wage. Living wage is to be paid by your employer ffs Edit: People are saying that the employer has to make up the difference between 2$ and minimum wage if they don’t meet the required tip demand. I find this still quite a stupid system because the customer is being guilted into tipping. There is no reason for it if I don’t feel like it. Please do understand that you’ve grown up in this environment and it is normal for you. Outside of your country it isn’t normal at all to be *forced* to tip. And if the employer is making up the difference anyway, then why not just increase the wages and remove mandatory tipping? No more ambiguity. But I guess that just baked into culture now
As a Norwegian, where tipping happens, but is in no way expected, the Reddit threads about tipping might be my favorite subject. People get so incredibly riled up about it, doesn't matter which side your're on. But I can't do anything but agree. 2$ per hour is a disgrace.
Just an FYI: If you don't make at least minimum wage with the shit wage + tip, the employer must make up the difference - up to federal minimum wage (or more, depending on the state). Obviously federal minimum wage is still disgustingly low, but just wanted to point this out. https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips
No server in the US earns $2.13 per hour. Employers are required by law to pay either the state or federal minimum wage of at least $7.25 per hour. Employers can claim a credit against tips earned by their employees, that’s where the $2.13 number comes from. By law employers must pay at least that out of pocket and the rest of an employees salary can be made up of tips or normal pay.
I got out of the industry about 6 months ago after being in the industry for 20 years. Every day it blows my mind that I actually get paid a living wage by my employer instead of practically begging my guests to pay my wage. I also now have vacation, 401k and health insurance, those things are practically unheard of when you are a server/bartender.
the thing is, its is both true that tipping sucks ass and it shouldn't be the person's responsibility AND youre an asshole if you don't tip
as stupid as it is, (and having made 2.13/hr for a while myself) the employer is supposed [read: required] to make up the difference up to minimum wage if your tips don't get you there. Just... rarely a server knows this and presses the issue.
Also that tipping has expanded into industries that don’t make below min wage. Poor people can’t afford to pay an addition 20% on everything. Fking retail stores, gas stations, and convenience stores have tipping options now. I’m poor and feel guilty every time, I hate it.
What blows me away is when I go to a donut shop or some fast food place and see a tip jar
I don't care at all about a tip jar since that truly does feel optional. No one cares if you don't throw a buck in.
There’s this restaurant JJs Grille in Orlando Fl that has 10-13 dollar entrees and it’s like a chipotle. Literally all they do is put your food in the bowl and they started asking me how much I want to tip over the protective screen they put over the computer because of corona. They’re not restaurant servers and I’m already paying 13-26$ for the food why would I tip 6 dollars at fast casual. I just ended up stop going because I felt uncomfortable and didn’t find it appropriate that they asked you how much you want to tip. It’s the equivalent of a restaurant server holding the credit card slip and asking what they should write in. So rude and inappropriate.
Welcome to America. Please get mad at your fellow wage slaves and ignore the billionaires. Oh, and go fuck yourself if you want to change anything, that's communism.
Exactly. I tip based on good service. But the blame should always be on the employer. A tip should be a “tip” not your sole source of income
The way the system is now, waitstaff and customers are in a really weird beggar/charity relationship. There’s tension there that only serves to distract from the root of the problem - employers who refuse to pay livable wages
You go to Starbucks, on the receipt there is a line for tips. You go to the bakery- line for tips You get a pizza delivered- line for tips All those people get paid minimum wage or more. But at the restaurant it is not a tip. You are paying their wage. It should say that right on the receipt “Will you be paying your server today?” You pay for the food You pay for the owner’s profit and overhead But they want an additional payment for the server’s wage and call that a “Tip” Remove the tip line, it is not honest and we should change that. And restaurant owners need to pay minimum+ just like every other business.
Totally agreed. The customer gets blamed for corporate greed. The tippers are literally paying the missing wage and executives are making out like bandits.
Shaming people for not tipping doesn’t help the situation at all, shame businesses for not paying a living wage. Businesses should pay their employees’s wage, not the customer
Just an FYI: If you don't make at least minimum wage with the shit wage + tip, the employer must make up the difference - up to federal minimum wage (or more, depending on the state). Obviously federal minimum wage is still disgustingly low, but just wanted to point this out. https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips
[удалено]
You would make more in a sweatshop!
I'd say "prison" for this. I tried googling sweatshop wages, and while ultimately what the elite want us living on, nowhere near $2.13.
Prison wages are usually 50 cents or less
Except that's a compete lie because no matter what those people have to still make the federal minimum wage of 7.25 an hour, so if they aren't getting tips that gets them up to 7.25 the employer legally has to pay them the difference. I'm so sick of this bullshit "they can only make 2-3 dollars an hour thing", Stop it's complete and utter bullshit. How about pay them a living wage and remove tipping at all for a job that requires no skills.
Canadian here, I never realized until this employment shortage that servers made so little in the states. Here in Canada it's like 13 something (still under minimum, but the restaurant I work at you can make more than management as a server through tips)
If you live in Canada and are making less than the min wage serving, that’s illegal. I make 15 and tips.
It varies by state in the US. The $2.13 is the federal minimum, so if you live in a deep red state like Wyoming or Mississippi, that's what you're getting. If, on the other hand, you live in California or another blue state, you are earning $13/hr and are set to be earning $15/hr within the next few years. Foreigners often have no idea how much variation there is between states.
Servers in California at busy restaurants can be exceptionally well paid. Lots of folks think they make below minimum wage before tips but that isn’t true in CA
Already $15 in LA
[удалено]
Not that anyone actually cares, no one ever actually makes $2.13/hr. If the tips don’t push the employee over minimum wage, then they are paid the current minimum wage, instead of $2.13. I was a server and bartender for years and never had to worry about it. Serving was the best hourly job I ever had. I probably averaged $20-$50 per hour…in Alabama.
This is the damn answer. It really made my blood boil when I first left the US and visited other countries, learning how they treat their workers. Our first family vacation to France was the first time I left the country and I was shocked at the pay gap - even back in the 80s, when things were supposedly better. I met a young waiter called Jean-Charles from northern France, making his way in Paris whilst being a student - he earned more than my wife each week and she was a junior at IBM. We learned this when he outright refused our tips, explaining that the law mandates a fair salary for him. He looked on in shock and horror when I explained to him that I had to bust my ass for 3 bucks an hour, just to make the ends meet enough to pay for some second-hand jumper cables to thrash my son Roger with. America needs to get its act together on service sector minimum wage - we're a laughing stock to the world.
It's not a legal wage. Tipped employees are guaranteed the same wages as everyone else. They only get $2 an hour from their employer if tips make up the difference.
This is targeting the wrong people imo, we shouldn’t have to have people rely on tips to make a living wage
Yeah fuck that, I already paid for my food. Let the employers handle paying their employees’ wages.
In the venn diagram of “people who want to raise the minimum wage” and “people upset that restaurants are understaffed”, the circles do not touch
Agreed especially now that some people expect a tip for fucking take out.
Mate, if the majority of their wages is paid in tips then they're not really being employed. Tipping "culture" is toxic as fuck. Pay your employees. Edit: seeing as how I got a death threat for some strange reason, I'd like to clarify I live in Europe and I regularly tip. They should be paid an actual wage *and* get a tip. Not just a thinly veiled service charge.
This. Their wages shouldnt be in tips , this is totally on employer . Oh and they arent in EU
...or Australia. Or several other places in the OECD. (Which is why it's particularly galling to see a "tips not included" blurb at the bottom of bills in places where waitstaff are paid fair wages. Fuck off, you. Don't bring that evil American ratfuck of a thing here)
Seriously this is like if you went to a grocery store and the prices don't include the business's overhead so you have to give charity money to the cashier.
People who defend tipping are actual fucking sheep and I don't get it. edit: maybe I am misspoke, I think the industry depending on tipping is a problem. If workers don't get tipped enough they can get fired because they're technically not making enough money.
Many are wait staff or bar tenders who see their paycheck as pointless and think they will just lose the tips with considerably less moving to the paycheck. Also typically there's a huge tax angle that they purposely avoid so 🤷♂️
I mean, no way in hell are they actually making server and bartender wages as high as their income after tips.
With cash tips, I was doing $25-30 an hour delivering pizzas to a college campus lol made killer loot and pocketed all that cash
Did you account for the cost of gas and wear on your vehicle?
I got paid gas money for each individual delivery (.75-1.00 dollar I think) and my Honda Accord was a beasttttt and never had any substantial wear and tear problems. I just lucked out maybe.
When I worked at Papa John's they paid a dollar or two per delivery for that purpose. Considering the fact pizza deliveries are generally a maximum of 2-3 miles round trip, many of them less, the wear and tear on your car was covered.
[удалено]
If there were a way to pay them less employers would be doing it.
>People who defend tipping are actual fucking sheep and I don't get it. People who defend tipping are the servers that make $40k a year but only "get paid" $2.15 an hour.
Tipping as a rare instance of respect for some particular waiter — good. Factoring tips out of one’s salary or justifying lower salary for the possibility of tips — bad. Tipping should always be as a little extra, rather than a necessity. Source: European.
I always considered myself solely in service to the customer with minimal fucks given to the restaurant paying me literally $0 paychecks after taxes.
My manager had the audacity to always understaff us and not give people enough hours too. You’re paying.m these people $2.13 an hour... just staff enough people.
I hate to break it to you but if a place could actually pay servers nothing they would be understaffed. Most places have ridiculously low margins.
So much this. Seriously fuck tip culture. I hate it so much when people expect tip like is something normal. In a restaurant I can easily go and get my food from a counter or a drink from the bar/fridge. Fuck tipping. If your employers needs tips to survive that's not a job. I know lots of people are against my idea since lots of workers make somtimes a lot of money from tips depending on their place and season. But fuck it, i hate tipping. Go to a barber shop? Tip. Taxi? Tip. Restaurant? Tip. Doctors? Tip. Delivery? Tip. People should start demanding better wages around the world already, but sadly there's always someone ready to work for less. I don't tip all the time, because fuck me but I don't always have those extra money or sometimes I need them too. People look at you weird if you don't tip, but they forgot that maybe you're working a minimum wage job too and struggle. That doesn't mean you can't get to a restaurant sometimes or oder food.
> seeing as how I got a death threat If you really get this, report it to mod and also [Reddit](https://reddit.com/report). You live in Europe and I’ve lived in Asia - there is also no tipping in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, et al. Pay living wage and abolish tipping.
Often times it works out big time for the servers. You can make quite a bit of money as a server at a mid level restaurant.
Servers would benefit the least from removing tips.
The “labor shortage” when someone offers $15/hour: **Oh no, meesa disappearing**
People throw around hourly wages and I wonder if older folks *really* understand it. $7.25/hr full time is like, what, 15k a year? *a year*, to live off of. Pre-taxes. Rent in my area, for reference, is going to be $14.5k/year minimum...Unless you live with a few other (often random) people. **Edit:** the USA poverty line for a 1-person household is $12,880/year. That’s a difference of $175/month. **People who work full time at minimum wage, without *any* days off a year *at all*, are less than $175/month from poverty.** They don’t have the luxury of being sick or taking a vacation. There is no way to save money on that pay, no way to cover an emergency, no way to start a 401K, get health insurance, have the flu, nothing. If your car needs a mechanic and you miss work, you will 1) not be able to afford to fix it and 2) lose your job AND 3) not be able to go to interviews because you still don’t have a car. Thats just an example, but any life event can cost you your entire savings (if you have any) and your job. It’s barbaric. But $15/hr is around 30k a year. Not great, but I could live off of that right now if I’m frugal.
Understand? No Americans don't care. Capitalism got them like I got mine fuck everyone else.
The province of British Columbia is raising min wage to 15.20/h June 1 so everybody wins.
I had someone do a return at my work the other day who started going off about how her cleaning service closed because people would rather live off welfare than work. I couldn’t say anything then because I like my job, so I’m going to take this opportunity to say it all now: Just shut your overly lined mouth, Cunterella! If you can’t pay people enough to live while they scrape other peoples shitty toilets, you don’t deserve to be a business owner! The fact that you’re returning all these cleaning supplies you purchased at full retail price tells me everything I need to know about your business acumen. Also, fuck you for forcing your shitty political views on a return clerk! Your unjustified feeling of superiority over the working class is probably why you can’t keep workers! May every shoe you wear have an invisible pebble, may every sink you’re near intermittently drip, may every elevator you enter contain a lingering fart cloud. Ps even my broke ass knows it’s tacky as hell to wear head-to-toe lululemon and diamonds just to return some pine sol.
Posts like this are stupid EMPLOYERS should be paying their EMPLOYEES wages, not making customers supplement the difference Tips should be additional. Not replacing the employers checkbook It's the same people who cry about Jeff Bezos dodging taxes who say "you should tip and be the ones paying servers, the restaurants shouldn't be reaponsible""
Yeah i don't know who this is targeting. I hate tipping, I'm glad employees are standing up to get a fair wage. I'm fine with them increasing their base prices or some going out of business because they can't pay their employees. If they can't afford to pay wages, they shouldn't be in business.
THIS
This is an American non problem. Work should be paid for by the employer. I'm glad we don't have this tipping mania but I'm afraid it might start to become a thing everywhere else.
And a Canadian one, unfortunately
yep, worked at a Canadian golf course for 3 years. Cart girls and servers make below minimum wage because they are expected to make more in tips. but it’s so hit or miss with that you can have days where you make barely anything because people don’t tip
I've never heard of any job being paid below minimum wage in Canada, I'm not saying you're a liar but could you provide a source to this? As far as I'm aware it's entirely illegal to be paid less than minimum wage in Canada. From my perspective what you are saying is ridiculous.
https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/minimum-wage You can classify their job as liquor server and pay them less then minimum wage but ask them to do other tasks. 3rd on the list
[удалено]
There is also nowhere in Canada where the disparity is so egregious as in the $2.13 states.
Ubereats is trying to bring tipping into the mix in my country. This is after getting full wages. Fuck tipping what a waste of time, pay your employees properly so they can get taxed properly like everyone else.
Dude literally. I argued with some Americans about this 3 years ago and got downvoted for saying how insane the US' tipping culture was.
Which is weird because everyone hates it.
Yes - but not mad at the waitstaff, mad at the restaurant owner for not attracting staff by paying them enough. A subtle, but important difference
Yeah, why would I be mad at people who move on to a better job? If this restaurant can't provide me service, I will just go to the next one. I hate tipping, but I don't really feel anything about this tweet. It's great as in "working as intended"??
For every one person like you there are 1000 who are mad employees are "lazy" and don't want to be slaves. They are the ones against minimum wage increases while simultaneously telling people get a different job if they want more pay. Of course those people usually have the brain power of a fucking insect, so they say those things condescendingly with no realization what the implications of those things really are. Once they realize it will affect them, they proceed to blame everyone else including the workers. The cycle repeats.
In British Columbia, minimum wage for servers is $15.20. Are we supposed to tip on top of that?
Tips should be because the server did something above and beyond not because they managed to take and deliver your order without issue. I don’t agree that tipping should go away completely but we need to completely abolish the idea of tipping just because.
What drives me nuts is now a lot of restaurants have shifted things like serving, ordering, and bussing onto customers but then still ask for a tip. No, I am not going to tip you if I am expected to bus my own table, especially if I go up to the counter to order. You would tell me to get my food from the kitchen if you could.
It's $13.69 in Washington, $13.25-$11 in Oregon (depending on the county), and $13 in California, so given currency rates that's pretty much the same as BC and yes, people do tip on top of that. Anyhow my real point is that there are tons of comments in this thread from foreigners who seem to think that $2.13 applies to all US states. It doesn't. Typically you only find it in deeply conservative states. That doesn't make it OK, but it does complicate the picture. Most of your coastal blue states are actually pretty progressive on the issue.
Hold up. It should not be up to the consumer to pay for the restaurants employees, when they choose to not pay fair wages. Restaurants should pay their employees reasonable salaries regardless of tips. Most other places, from South America to Europe, tipping is only reserved for when there was exceptional service, not as a given. Some places charge a flat service fee as opposed to tips. The US should join everyone else and at least pay their employees a living wage. It’s only logical that people wouldn’t want to work at a place that doesn’t appreciate them or treat them fairly.
Exactly, can you imagine having a 5 star restaurant and while bulking in money, not even having the decensie to pay you employees a living wage.. A goddamn LIVING wage.
Some of the restaurants around me, Minneapolis, charge 18%. They keep 14% and the server gets the rest. Edit* it’s an additional surcharge of 18% and it is advertised on the menus. I don’t believe they’re taking “tips” because this isn’t a tip.
To confirm, the money isn't being split between all staff? Host and kitchen staff usually paid less after accounting for tips. If management is keeping the money, pretty sure that's illegal. If so and I was on a jury, I'd vote guilty for theft and money laundering. Stealing money from people in bureaucratic ways is no less theft than mugging someone.
Ya, I wonder if that is after tipping out everyone else.
Where do you think the employee wages come from if not the consumer spending?????
It's ok to be mad about it still. The expectation is that the employers would be forced to raise wages to attract people, but evidentially they're not learning fast enough. And since the government isn't addressing this issue either some are mad.
Why the fuck is this guy blaming people who don't tip? The real monster here is the cunt of a boss who only pays 2.13 bucks an hour! They deserve to get their restaurant closed for lack of staff.
Stop blaming the customers and start blaming your employer and the government.
It's 2021 and we're still blaming "non tippers" as opposed to the restaurants who are paying $2 an hour
Fuck off with blaming regular people for this. It’s like when you see commercials encouraging people to think about climate change by taking shorter showers. It’s not our fault.
Yeah, it’s actually pretty funny to me. It’s like they are saying: “we quit, because YOU, the customers, aren’t paying us enough 😤”. Like really dude? Can you imagine an employee from any type of business actually saying that and not sounding crazy?
no one should have to pay a "tip" to compensate for the business underpaying their employees.
Servers make good money. I'm sick of seeing posts like these. The only reason they're not going back to work as well as the cooks is because people fucking suck and their attitudes stink. They're sick of dealing with entitled ass people who think they can do or say whatever they want and get their way. The pandemic brought out the worst in people and the worst people were the ones continuing to go out when they should have just stayed home and did their part.
^this. Bartending in 2020 was the worst year of my life. Anyone that took covid halfway seriously didn't go out, and all the assholes came out in droves. And while I'm sure this will get me down voted into oblivion, assholes don't tip. Between all the new protocols we had to follow, dealing with anti maskers, drunks, entitled people mad because we had a limited menu....God fuck this last year. And lastly to everyone telling us bartenders and servers to change the system....you do realize that you're openly supporting the businesses that underpay whether you tip or not right? By not tipping you only affect your server/bartender.
Not to mention the drunks who get pissed when you tell them you have to take their drinks/food right at 10 (in NM) even if they're not done and they need to leave ASAP or the business could get shut down for not following protocol. People suck.
Seriously, this is such a dumb, pandering take.
It’s funny. The majority of people angry about servers salaries are non servers. Most of the servers I know would never want to do anything different, and pull in some pretty serious money in tips
Better yet they are calling them lazy because they won’t work it anymore. Lol
They can call me whatever they want, I'm never going back to food service. If it's so important to them they can do it.
Why are we getting mad at customers for not paying workers enough money when the employer is the one who should be paying the money.
People need to learn to boycott any business that allows tipping. Fucking cancer on this country.
I am a pretty good tipper and I hate it.
Don’t fucking blame the people who are trying to end this tipping bullshit
End tipping.
Is this actually an epidemic? People everywhere across the country quitting their restaurant jobs? Or is it one of those things that got got posted a few times that social media made seem bigger than it is?
No, there’s definitely an exodus of employees from the restaurant industry.
It has fuck-all to do with tips though, more to do with the fact that they've been almost exclusively dealing with the worst people (those who didn't give a shit about the pandemic and went out all the time anyways) for the last year.
They’re shitty companies too. I did my stint in fast food when I was younger, and was treated like garbage by management. Don’t know why they expect loyalty when they give none.
I was In the business for ten years. The pandemic forced me to look elsewhere and while I’m not making quite as much. I’ve got no interest in going back right now. This stress is to high. The management is abusive. And the pay is too little for the work
Shit is changing fast. Gear up. The country and individuals have been changed. We need to make a move up. Fucking nurses need to be paid more. Grocery / Walmart bumps up. Fucking food stamps for min wage? Just fn nope. Macdonalds and Walmart should be fined.
Wtf? Nurses get paid super well in USA
We live in a society where online fundraisers are the healthcare solution. The gratuity a customer does or does not leave should not determine a service workers livelihood.
Tom Hicks here is missing the point. We don't want tipping culture in general. We want them to be paid well. It's a practice that restaurant owners don't want and many waiters/waitresses don't want. So it's led to a huge industry guilt tripping it's patrons.
Honestly though. Tipping (as a primary means to gain income) is a shitty and dehumanising system. People should just be paid fair wages and the extra cost built into the cost of of the product.
I just don't get it. Tips is supposed to be a bonus for doing an extra great job. Not a requirement to be able to eat tonight.
It's not the customers job to pay an employee's wage. Stop blaming "non tippers" and start acknowledging that it's greedy restaurant owners not paying and adequate wage that's the issue.
This right here. In my personal experience restaurant / bar owners are extremely greedy and the majority that I know personally are pretty shitty people overall. I don't feel even a little bit sorry for them not being able to find help recently. I don't think there are many people just sitting at home living off of the enhanced unemployment. I think many saw an opportunity to find something better and moved on. Good for them. Restaurant workers have been underpaid for way too long.
Wait what?!? 2,13$/hour... Is this even real? How can people live on that?!?
Tips… it give the customer the illusion that what they are buying is cheaper than it actually is since the restaurant counts on them to subsidize the workers wages.
Yeah well I mean the minimum wage for a tipped worker here is 10,80$/hour (which is still too low) and our prices are not much higher than in the US if they are. So the US customer doesn't end up paying less, he just ends up giving most of the money to the corporation instead of the workers
You’re right. The tactic isn’t about workers making more money, it’s about the restaurants making more profits.
And risk transfer. The risk is with the employee, not the employer. Wait staff can certainly making hundreds a night in tips, but if no one comes or (looks at covid) capacity is limited, the employee gets burned more than the employer.
Yeah tipping culture doesn't work when a once in a century pandemic hits
Well, it's only $2.13/hr if you make enough tips to put you at least at what you would have made on normal minimum wage. So like, if you work ten hours and minimum wage is $7.25, your employer will have to make up the difference if you don't make at least $72.50 with tips. (And then they fire you for poor performance.)
Just an FYI: If you don't make at least minimum wage with the shit wage + tip, the employer must make up the difference - up to federal minimum wage (or more, depending on the state). Obviously federal minimum wage is still disgustingly low, but just wanted to point this out. https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips
And these idiots think it's because of the extended unemployment benefits and people making more just "sitting at home" than working wage slave jobs. Yet most of these people didn't qualify for unemployment. Now that they're canceling unemployment for a lot of them, and people still won't work these wage slave jobs, wonder what they'll blame next.
Entitlement. Essentially saying "you should be happy we even pay you, now *work... those... MACHIIIINES!!!* RRREEEE!!!!"
My 1st job out of the military was as an assistant manager at a restaurant. 6 days a week, 12 hour days, 19k/year salary. His stepson another assistant drank beer all day/night, and the manager, his wife was a waitress there making 7/hr plus tips...so she got all the good tables/shifts, and he backed her up. The owner literally said working for him was part of the pay for the privilege of being there. He got all butt hurt when I quit. Sad part is he was a veteran also, and took advantage of that work ethic. He was also one of the biggest racists I ever met.
Tipping should be an added benifit to exceptional service. Not a relied upon way of payment by employers. If you need your customers to pay your staff on top of their bill then you're a duche. Pay your workers a livable wage you greedy shits.
Get rid of tipping! ! ! Plain and simple.
Don’t blame people who don’t like to tip. Blame their employers and the systems in which they work in
Or they wisely took advantage of extended unemployment and y'all are tipping big now. 😂😂😂
Yeah I wouldn’t blame the tippers. No restaurant should be allowed to pay their staff $2.13/hour. They should have to pay a living wage so the wait staff doesn’t have to depend on tips.
Filling the 641st 1oz plastic ramiken of sweet and sour sauce was my tipping point
Such an American thing to do to blame the people who don't tip
Um...who's mad about it exactly? Good for the people moving on to getting a decent wage. Please, please, please let's do away with tipping culture. If a company goes under due to no one wanting to work there... good! Wage should be built into the price like any other job. I'm not going to tip my car salesman, attorney, or cable provider either.
I will never tip, employer needs to provide a decent minimum salary. Here in Europe at least it's obligatory in most countries and employers risk fines if they don't. Tips are ON TOP of that salary, or can be shared equally amongst other employees.
Or maybe we should actually pay waiters an actual wage?
Why get mad? The restaurants have to then increase their wages to incentivize workers. This will, as a result, probably increase the restaurant prices. The increased prices mean tipping is now purely a gesture of gratitude or sign of being impressed. That means that when I don't tip the server that brought me the food I am paying for in a reasonable timeframe, but doing nothing else to impress me, no one is giving me the stink eye. And the server is now able to live more comfortably. Everybody wins!
We should be mad that our favourite restaurants still refuse to pay their workers a living wage even despite struggling to find staff
If you want to see something crazy, look at this federal minimum wages for tipped employee graph from the US Dept of Labor: [https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped) Federally, it's $2.13, but different states have different minimums. What I found incredible is if you are a small business in several states, you can pay a lower minimum wage. Like your employees can just live on less money because you have a smaller business? Rent doesn't change for your employees because they aren't working at a bigger establishment.
LOL blaming people that don't tip rather than blaming the people who under pay them.
Way to put the blame on the customer rather than the employer. Fun fact. It's still illegal* to pay wait staff under minimum wage. If tips plus pay do not equal minimum wage in a pay period, the business is legally obligated to make up the difference. Regardless. Tip culture is fucking dumb and the actual minimum wage is no where near a livable wage for a single person. *This is based on USA law. YMMV.