Servers make, on average, $2.65 an hour. Yes, you read that right! No, it’s not a typo. I imagine a number of you feel really bad about some of the tips you’ve left in the past. Don’t worry, we’ll cut you some slack with the ignorance defense. You just didn’t know. I’ve had to educate some friends and family when we went out to eat. When tipping time came, they would toss a dollar each on the table. “Three dollars is plenty, girl, they make like eight or nine dollars an hour!” No, we don’t. That’s the pizza delivery man. And he gets mileage reimbursement!
But anyways. How, do you ask, can a reputable industry get away with paying so little? Allow me to explain. Technically we have to make minimum wage. Which means that if all of my tips at the end of my two week work week do not add up to minimum wage, my employer will have to contribute the rest to make up the difference. “So they do make eight or nine dollars!” I can hear you all chortling to yourselves. A couple of points. Federal minimum wage is $7.25 as of July 24th of 2009. Secondly, and this one is difficult to explain, so bear with me, our pay checks are rarely worth the trouble it takes to cash them. An average servers paycheck is probably forty or fifty dollars every two weeks. The total amount of hours we work in the two week period is multiplied by $2.65. So if I work 32 hours a week for two weeks, that’s 64 hours times $2.65. That is about $170. Then they add the amount of tips I’ve claimed for two weeks. Lets say I made $150 each week, for a total of $300 in cash tips. They add that to the $170. Then they take taxes, social security and all that for that total amount, which is about $470 out of the $170. When all is said and done, I probably get seventy of those dollars as a check, maybe a hundred. Which means, for two weeks I actually take home $400. For 64 hours of work that’s not a lot of money!
Now let me explain one more industry concept to you. It’s called tip share, and many restaurants employ it. At the end of each shift, my restaurant takes three percent of the amount of food I sold. Not the amount of tips I made, the amount of food I sold to you, the RCs. So, if I sell $500 worth of food, I have to give my restaurant $15. If you people only tipped me a combined total of $40 all night, I’m walking away with $25, which is peanuts for all of the running around a $500 shift entails. Let me put it to you another way. If you and four of your friends come in and eat, drink, and make merry your way into a $200 dinner, my restaurant charges me $6 for the privilege of waiting on you. That money will be redistributed to the host staff, the bussers, and the bartender. If you all then tip me a big whopping dollar each, which is a $5 tip in total, it just cost me a dollar to wait on you for an hour and a half. That’s right, I’m short a dollar now. And i came to work to make money, not give it away to my restaurant!
If your server is friendly, and your food is correct and prompt, there is no reason not to tip 15-20%. Which, on a $200 tab is $35 to $40. These days most of us are too broke to go out, have a nice meal and shell out 15-20% in tips. So what is the proper protocol? Do you just leave a couple dollars along with whatever loose change you can scrounge up and an apologetic smile? No! You go to Mickey D’s, or stay in and order a pizza and give the driver a buck and some change, because chances are he is making $8-10! I’m a server and I haven’t been out to eat in months. Why? Because I can’t afford it, and I’m not going to stiff some hardworking server who has bills like everyone else! I had a salad in front of the television tonight, and so should you if you’re too cheap to tip your server appropriately.
In Oregon, we make $8.40 in hour (thats our min wage) plus tips.
I told my husband that and he was like, that's it! We'removing to Oregon! Lol! God bless.
I should move to Oregon!
I, too, am a waitress who has not been out to eat in months because I can't afford it.
Thats so sad, isn't it? Lol! That's like working at a car wash and not having a car! Lol! God bless.
I'm not sure if it's the same everywhere, but pizza delivery drivers (my boyfriend was one for 4 years) make tip wages as well. They generally only get tipped 5 – 10%, and get, at most $2 "run money" – that's per TRIP, not per order that they take on that trip. That run money is supposed to offset some of the gas used and cover any orders they got stiffed on. The whole time he worked there, he made 1/2 minimum wage + tips & run money. He generally averaged slightly over min wage on good days.
Even pizza drivers that make minimum wage PLUS run money still need decent tips. The greater of $3 (a gallon of gas rounded up to the next dollar) or 10-15% at a minimum. They're selling you their cars by the mile. Compensate them.
Ummm… Sounds like you should blame the restaurunt, not the person dining. Tips should be something extra for good service. Its not my responsibilty to make sure you can pay your bills. I just eat out because I don't like to cook. If it were an option I would have no problem walking to the back to pick up my drinks and food on my own. Hell I'd even clean my own table. Doing these trivial things is worth a couple dollars max. It is not worth 20% of the tab. Too expect more is unreasonable.
wow. your ignorance astounds me. you eat out because you don’t want to cook and the trivial things are worth a couple of dollars max. well, let me enlighten you. while servers are being paid $2.15 an hour (thats what i make) the restaurant can afford to charge you only $8.95 for that sandwich. but since we should “blame the restaurant” then by all means, pay me $8 an hour instead. you will STILL be paying me though!!!!! because your sandwich is now $18.95 to make up the difference. and as for tipping being charity, well, you are just lucky that servers are charitable people to tolerate serving the likes of you. plenty of people serve and bartend their way thru college, to make ends meet or even as an extra side job to make extra money for something special.
oh wow!! To the anonymous person above I pray you never dine in at my job! You are the EXACT reason why I strongly believe gratuity should be included in every bill!
I never had a problem not tipping waiters. They didn't study their way to a sustainable lifestyle like I did, they signed a lousy contract with their employers, and they want to make it my problem. Call it what it is, tipping is charity.
Gotta love the confidence behind negative Anonymous comments! It's like, "I have an opinion, and I'm not afraid to share it, just afraid to have anyone know that I'm the person who said it"!
In response I will say that (a)a lot of servers are students paying their own way through school (b)I worked with a lady a few years ago who was a psychologist and waited tables on the weekends, because, as she herself said "I can always use 3 or 4 hundred dollars in cash every week"! (c)4 of the people I work with have purchased homes since working at our restaurant. Servers in New York City can make more money than a lot of "educated professionals" do. I myself do quite well or I certainly wouldn't continue for over ten years now, in fact I've turned down restaurant management twice now, because I could make more money in tips then they could on a fixed salary.
So, in conclusion, (d) when servers complain about bad tippers, we're really only talking about the cheap, ignorant, stingy 7 or 8% out there who use their snotty, pedantic, self-serving outlook on life to justify not tipping a person who is rendering a service to them. Most people are generous and fair-minded, which is why restaurants can pay $2.65, and why servers continue to work as servers. It's a good job, you just have to take the good (93% who tip 15% or more) with the bad (malicious minded 7%).
People like that idiot are what's wrong with the world, not just a restaurant issue. You could safely bet anything in your lunchbox this person's nasty attitude is not just confined to servers. The funny part is that he high-flying CEOs this person so idolizes seem to agree the way people treat waiters says a lot about a person's character in general. So much so, in fact, that you can base decisions on whether to hire or do business with someone based on it.
[read about that here:
"CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character" http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2006-04-14-ceos-waiter-rule_x.htm
Anyway, Idiot would probably also be surprised to discover how many servers and bartenders have advanced degrees — and do this job because they are now tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and can't find jobs that pay enough to handle that burden and still live like human beings. Why are they so far in debt? Because people who think like that are in charge of the education system. Why can't they find a good job with their Masters' and Ph.D.s? Because people who think like that are in charge of defining the term "living wage".
In fact, if people who think like that were in charge of everything, the economy would be in shambles, the job market would suck for everyone, people would be getting thrown out of their homes left and right, and sick people would just be left on the street to die for noo reason better than not having enough money — all just so some sanctimonious fatcat could pillage the country with impunity and pad his office with golden plumbing at taxpayers' expense. Oh, wait ….
Vandervecken: Lol! That was the best! Such an awesome comment!! You should have your own political tv show!! God bless.
I have to say first, as a server, I take pride in my service. If you are in my section and feel as if you received un-tip worthy service, please don't tip me. I don't want your money if you aren't leaving satisfied. Why would I? I'm not here to collect a paycheck, I've chosen to earn my living by giving you an experience you feel like you should pay for. I have not settled for a status quo existence, instead I've chosen to challenge myself daily to impress you. That said…
"They didn't study their way to a sustainable lifestyle like I did…" How do you figure that exactly? Seems to me that I've spent years not only sustaining my life, but studying human behavior in order to do so. Trust that I have spent many years cultivating and finely tuning my sunshine and bullshit skills so to deal with your well studied lot. You, sir anonymous, are the type RC I would tip to go away. Seriously, you keep your $3 and I'll give you $20 to just move along. You prove all the studying in the world doesn't necessarily make you smart. It's a pity you studied so hard to end up so shallow.
To the other anonymous creep who decreed tipping charity- why don't you try something new in 2010? Try tipping the server and keeping a record. At the end of the year claim the tips you paid servers on your taxes as charity. In the meantime I'll declare myself a charity and stop paying taxes. Win-Win, we'll all let the IRS settle the debate. It's a pity your education didn't provide the definition of charity.
To a Veteran from a Veteran, you provide a valuable service with this venue. I fear the customers you are trying to reach are most likely the hopelessly unreachable, but thank you for the chance to vent a bit. I'll be a better server tomorrow for it.
Another Veteran: What an awesome comment! You are such a clever, insightful person and clearly an awesome server and expert on human nature! Bravo! To every sentence! Yay!! Thank you so much for enriching my blog with your insight! God bless!