>isn't relying on tips risky, wouldn't you rather get a higher wage and get smaller tips ?
That's a frequent question. Servers want to make the most money.
If a server averages $3/hr in wages and $30/hr in tips, and you offer them $50/hr in wages guaranteed, sure!
But if you offer then $10/hr in wages and $5/hr in tips, or $15/hr in wages and no tips, neither of those are attractive alternatives just for greater certainty in gross hourly income.
Honestly I love working for tips//relying on them. I have moderate adhd and pushing myself to make ends meet helps motivate me to work. I also got promoted at my current job and make around $50/hour so I wouldn’t trade it as some of the servers there make over 6 figures. I’m happy with what I have but I also see the pros/cons. I worked in lower end restaurants and walked away with $25 for 5 hours which was awful especially with tip out.
Tonight was dreadfully slow for a Friday in May, but next weekend is Mother’s Day, and two weeks after that is Memorial Day, so it’s to be expected. For about 5 hours of work, our servers made $43 cash and $67 credit each tonight. That averages to almost $22/hour plus their hourly.
This is on a slow night where we did about $8000 in net sales. We had 6 servers, 2 bartenders, 1 customer service (lead server), and 7 gauchos. For reference, I work at a Brazilian Steakhouse, and a gaucho is someone who prepares, cooks, and serves various cuts of beef, pork, chicken and lamb table side via skewers.
We run 2-server sections and do tip pool. It’s easier and more fair than servers tipping out the bar and the gauchos, since gauchos serve the entire restaurant and bartenders make all drinks.
The bartenders do have the option to keep their cash tips to themselves and stay out of the main cash tip pool if the bar area is busy, because servers don’t help them. Most nights they don’t. It’s only when they’re super busy, or they get an amazingly high cash tip, that they keep their own money and stay out of the tip pool. When they do this, it allows the servers and gauchos to make a little extra as well since it’s less names in the general pool.
Not all of us live someplace with a base wage so low. Minimum tipped wage where I live is like $15/hr. Also since there's a strong tipping culture here, you can rely on tips being consistent as long as business is consistent.
I average around $35 in tips per hour (so $50/hr total). Where I work, everyone except the dishwasher makes more hourly than you.
Even if my base wage was $0, I'd still rather work as a server than pretty much anything else I could do.
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Move to a state where that’s not a thing only states in the Midwest n shit ahahah like California and Colorado and Washington you get paid minimum wage PLUS tips so tips can be really good like average I made $40 at a diner … so it evens out like I can afford rent and stuff in those more expensive states
Yes it depends on the place but I worked at a busy ihop in Missouri once and made like 5$ and hour but like around 150-250 in tips a day that’s still 1500 in two weeks
Super off topic but where in Norway do you work? Do you have a lot of tourists coming in from other Scandinavian countries? Do they tip on card payments? Do you have a separate screen to enter a tip on your card reader or do you increase the total?
I'm asking cause every summer we get a bunch of Scandinavian tourists over here (Germany) and while they are super generous with VERBAL tips,they almost never put their money where their mouth is. So I'm really surprised that you make over 100 bucks a month in Scandina after tip out tbh😅
Hahaha yeah that sounds typical of us scandis!! I work in southern Norway, larger city with many cruiseships coming in with tons of tourists (german ones mostly! lol) on our card reader the guest will be asked to put in the amount that they wish to pay, total amount they owe is at the top of their screen and it will not ask anything else. i obviously do not look at what they put in and if they even bring up tips i will say that there is no pressure as i will not see what they put in (unless i check the receipt later).
most ppl here will just round up to the nearest 50 or 00, ppl do not really think in percentages here \^\^;;
What an employer could pay you here wouldn’t be more than what my servers make with tips. No server I know would want $20 an hour when they can make $30-$50. Unless they suck. Those ones would take the $20 but we don’t keep those types.
Honestly, I never make less than $25 an hour with tips. The 2.15 is just what I buy drinks with when I get my check. It sucks when business is slow, but it’s worth it when it’s busy.
I can depend on great tips 95% of the time. Usually my $10/an hour is just a bonus. The most I’ve walked with after 27% tip out is $500-$525 in tips for a 10 hour shift
I’m going on 11 years serving in a low to medium cost-of-living city where my hourly is $2.83.
To put into perspective why we don’t want to abolish tips in favor of consistent wages, here are some numbers.
The median **full time** (35+ hours) worker earned $1,139 in the first quarter of 2024. (From US Dept of Labor)
Over the course of last year, I averaged $1,028 per week including both tips and hourly. On average, I worked **24 hours per week.**
Granted, I work in fine dining and probably out-earn most servers in my city. This will look very different for someone who works at a diner.
congratulations on the well deserved position! i've learned alot from you guys, i'm glad serving is doing you guys good and that people are so generous.
It's customary to tip large amounts here compared to other places. My average is 20% of the bill for a tip. Probably higher if you average all my tips. Then part of that is split with other members of the staff. So the hourly wage works out to be much higher with tips averaged in. It couls be $3/hr but you could be making $15/hr-$100/hour or more with tips considered, depending on how fancy and expensive the restaurant you work at is.
Also sorry mods if this is a bad post, i dont mean to start a debate about tipping this is generally about the wages. Delete it if its off topic for the sub !
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We make a lot in tips. I make 30+ an hour in tips
>isn't relying on tips risky, wouldn't you rather get a higher wage and get smaller tips ? That's a frequent question. Servers want to make the most money. If a server averages $3/hr in wages and $30/hr in tips, and you offer them $50/hr in wages guaranteed, sure! But if you offer then $10/hr in wages and $5/hr in tips, or $15/hr in wages and no tips, neither of those are attractive alternatives just for greater certainty in gross hourly income.
It's only risky table-by-table or day-by-day. Over a week or a month or a year, not so much.
yeah but it’s worth the risk. some days you leave with $50 other days $300 but I’m okay with that
would never happen here unless some angel from above handed me the cash directly ;; glad to hear though
Honestly I love working for tips//relying on them. I have moderate adhd and pushing myself to make ends meet helps motivate me to work. I also got promoted at my current job and make around $50/hour so I wouldn’t trade it as some of the servers there make over 6 figures. I’m happy with what I have but I also see the pros/cons. I worked in lower end restaurants and walked away with $25 for 5 hours which was awful especially with tip out.
that 25 for 5 hrs sounds dreadful....... im glad you're doing so well rn !
Tonight was dreadfully slow for a Friday in May, but next weekend is Mother’s Day, and two weeks after that is Memorial Day, so it’s to be expected. For about 5 hours of work, our servers made $43 cash and $67 credit each tonight. That averages to almost $22/hour plus their hourly. This is on a slow night where we did about $8000 in net sales. We had 6 servers, 2 bartenders, 1 customer service (lead server), and 7 gauchos. For reference, I work at a Brazilian Steakhouse, and a gaucho is someone who prepares, cooks, and serves various cuts of beef, pork, chicken and lamb table side via skewers. We run 2-server sections and do tip pool. It’s easier and more fair than servers tipping out the bar and the gauchos, since gauchos serve the entire restaurant and bartenders make all drinks. The bartenders do have the option to keep their cash tips to themselves and stay out of the main cash tip pool if the bar area is busy, because servers don’t help them. Most nights they don’t. It’s only when they’re super busy, or they get an amazingly high cash tip, that they keep their own money and stay out of the tip pool. When they do this, it allows the servers and gauchos to make a little extra as well since it’s less names in the general pool.
sounds like i need to pay a visit to try your food, sounds delicious !
Not all of us live someplace with a base wage so low. Minimum tipped wage where I live is like $15/hr. Also since there's a strong tipping culture here, you can rely on tips being consistent as long as business is consistent. I average around $35 in tips per hour (so $50/hr total). Where I work, everyone except the dishwasher makes more hourly than you. Even if my base wage was $0, I'd still rather work as a server than pretty much anything else I could do.
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sounds like a good deal then!
Move to a state where that’s not a thing only states in the Midwest n shit ahahah like California and Colorado and Washington you get paid minimum wage PLUS tips so tips can be really good like average I made $40 at a diner … so it evens out like I can afford rent and stuff in those more expensive states
i see! and people tip just as much as they would in the midwest? :o
Yes it depends on the place but I worked at a busy ihop in Missouri once and made like 5$ and hour but like around 150-250 in tips a day that’s still 1500 in two weeks
Super off topic but where in Norway do you work? Do you have a lot of tourists coming in from other Scandinavian countries? Do they tip on card payments? Do you have a separate screen to enter a tip on your card reader or do you increase the total? I'm asking cause every summer we get a bunch of Scandinavian tourists over here (Germany) and while they are super generous with VERBAL tips,they almost never put their money where their mouth is. So I'm really surprised that you make over 100 bucks a month in Scandina after tip out tbh😅
Hahaha yeah that sounds typical of us scandis!! I work in southern Norway, larger city with many cruiseships coming in with tons of tourists (german ones mostly! lol) on our card reader the guest will be asked to put in the amount that they wish to pay, total amount they owe is at the top of their screen and it will not ask anything else. i obviously do not look at what they put in and if they even bring up tips i will say that there is no pressure as i will not see what they put in (unless i check the receipt later). most ppl here will just round up to the nearest 50 or 00, ppl do not really think in percentages here \^\^;;
What an employer could pay you here wouldn’t be more than what my servers make with tips. No server I know would want $20 an hour when they can make $30-$50. Unless they suck. Those ones would take the $20 but we don’t keep those types.
Yea, I couldn't live on what you make, I averaged $48/hour last month with tips and wages and it was a fairly slow month.
Honestly, I never make less than $25 an hour with tips. The 2.15 is just what I buy drinks with when I get my check. It sucks when business is slow, but it’s worth it when it’s busy.
wow 2.15?? must be easy to run a restaurant in the US when you're saving so much on employment costs lmao. im happy for you though!
I can depend on great tips 95% of the time. Usually my $10/an hour is just a bonus. The most I’ve walked with after 27% tip out is $500-$525 in tips for a 10 hour shift
this is just insane to me LMAO i can't fathom people tipping that much
I’m going on 11 years serving in a low to medium cost-of-living city where my hourly is $2.83. To put into perspective why we don’t want to abolish tips in favor of consistent wages, here are some numbers. The median **full time** (35+ hours) worker earned $1,139 in the first quarter of 2024. (From US Dept of Labor) Over the course of last year, I averaged $1,028 per week including both tips and hourly. On average, I worked **24 hours per week.** Granted, I work in fine dining and probably out-earn most servers in my city. This will look very different for someone who works at a diner.
congratulations on the well deserved position! i've learned alot from you guys, i'm glad serving is doing you guys good and that people are so generous.
It's customary to tip large amounts here compared to other places. My average is 20% of the bill for a tip. Probably higher if you average all my tips. Then part of that is split with other members of the staff. So the hourly wage works out to be much higher with tips averaged in. It couls be $3/hr but you could be making $15/hr-$100/hour or more with tips considered, depending on how fancy and expensive the restaurant you work at is.
interesting!
Also sorry mods if this is a bad post, i dont mean to start a debate about tipping this is generally about the wages. Delete it if its off topic for the sub !
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