Speaking of wages, do waitresses get paid a fair wage?

Sadly, nobody ever tipped me for showing a bit of butt cleavage.

 

They must love your quarter tips

 

I usually stay as far away from situations where tips are expected as I can. I'm not a fan of restaurants where the server introduces himself and my wife keeps kicking me for fidgeting and looking less than perfectly relaxed. I don't use those taxi services like uber, so I almost never tip to begin with.

I used to be normal and had no problem with tipping until I realized that it's just a scam. Restaurants can get away with paying their staff almost nothing because people tip, so they don't have to include that in the price of whatever they're selling.

Tipping is bullshit! It doesn't ensure prompt service, and the people who expect to be tipped are working that scam. There's nothing particularly arduous about their job, and expecting a tip from me for not pissing in my soup is just another way of telling me to stay away from that particular business.

 

I used to have alot of sympathy for wait staff. Now, not so much. Not after engaging in a discussion with a few over tips. So many fall into the mindset that I MUST tip 18, 20 or 25% or i should not go out to eat. My answer is always the same. 1. If I and people like me stop going out to eat, sooner or later they would be out of a job. 2. Tip is meant to be a bonus for good service and I get to decide how much I tip, not some fool sitting somewhere some asinine number I need to follow. 3. They should demand better pay from the owners.

In the end waitstaff almost always defend the owners with high food cost fearmongering.

 

I actually agree with this. Hell doeth freezes over.

 

I've had the same conversation. They basically tell me either tip 20 or 25% or don't go out to eat. I can appreciate the idea of understanding that there are going to be secret charges added, and all that's needed from me is a bit of math to figure it all out, but I don't see the point.

Sometimes, I admit, I will break down and go to ihop for breakfast because I'm a huge fan. When I do, the food is worth it. I'll even budget the 20% in when ordering, and that gets paid regardless of the service. Ihop is just good enough to get away with it.

Tipping is something that I hate doing because I know the scam. It's like buying a car with an advertised price of 30k and knowing that I'm not driving it off the lot for less than 35k. I do it because I need a car, but if there was some way to avoid it, I would.

 

I asked a waitress once how did the number 20% or 25% arrived at, and she didn't know. I asked who came up with such a figure and she didn't know. I then ask why should I pay such a number and she started to chew me out. Seriously, some restaurants slapped on a "service fee" of 18% and they said that ISN'T....Tip. W-T-F.

 

I believe minimum wage at the time was around $8/hour, so that was pretty good for a single young person.

 

Life is hard

 

It's a really weird mindset where you think that people want to spend more than they have to, but that's where servers are at. When you sit down at a table in a restaurant, they don't see you as a guy who wants to eat. They look at you as a person who wants to pay them money, which I don't mind and completely understand. It's just from their perspective, they see you as somebody who should really really want to be that good guy, and if you're not, then why are you darkening their door?

Their problem with me is I've been to Japan where there are no tips, and they couldn't possibly rise to the level of service that the Japanese provide. It's not in the American DNA to really bend that far over backwards for simply being a customer. So they don't compare, I know they don't, so... to hell with them. Their food better be so damn good that I go despite those vultures waiting to feed off of whatever I have in my wallet.

American servers? lol They think they know what service is, but really don't.

 

market wage = fair wage

If anyone thinks some government bureaucrat should set the wage rate for each occupation, they're beyond stupid.

 

I think the way the system is set up they should be guaranteed some wage above minimum.
That's why they like cash tips better than adding it to the card.

 

What is so special that they should receive a wage above minimum? Are you talking about the federal mandated minimum wage for everyone or the one the other NRA (National Restaurants Association) was able to bribed Congress into agreeing with them?

 

Actually I don't know which one. I don't think they are getting rich either way.
Besides their jobs are being replaced by automation.

 

If that’s such a wonderful system, why hasn’t it been expanded to every other public-facing job? Tipping only came about because so many jobs were grossly underpaid and has only continued in the restaurant industry because the big restaurant owners want it to continue.

 

You consider $16K per YEAR to be decent pay?

 

Because they would much prefer that the customers subsidize the restaurant owners workforce directly.

Tipping in Europe is almost non-existent because restaurant owners pay decent wages to their staff

 

People with that attitude DESERVE it when wait staff spit in their food

 

For a lower skill set job you learn largely on the job that is good money, there are people with college degrees getting less than that in some cases. For many people who might learn a lot better doing the job and not book learning that is excellent money. And remember one can pocket cash tips and not report them all its likely a very common thing in such work I back in the day worked as a cook in a diner and it seemed the reported tips was not what they took in but that was before debit cards so now it is likely harder to do that of course.

 

Almost every one thinks they are underpaid. Nothing new.

 

Both our daughters waitressed while in HS and College. They made better money than they would have checking people out at a store, but they also worked harder. College was important to both, as they did not want to rely on tips as their support system.

 

No. The MW was around $8/hour at the time when my daughter waitressed. With tips, she was making $20/hour. She wasn't working full time, and she was living at home still. But $20/hour equates to $41,000/year if it had been full time.

Now, the MW is $10.75/hour in my state. If you add $12/hour in tips and extrapolate that out to full time pay, that's $22.75/hour or $47,320/year.

In today's economic reality, that's not a lot of money, but it's a helluva lot better than MW.

 

That's federal law. If a server doesn't make the standard minimum wage with tips, the employer is required to make up the difference. The minimum wage for servers is lower than it is for other workers.

 

That's about what a new teacher makes these days.

 

If you have kids, but not if you are single.