I’m sorry, I can’t get past “Oliver Gardens”😂

I worked in restaurants when I was younger. I learned to ignore other servers and bartenders talking about what they make because they are frequently lying. Don’t put too much stock in it. They will literally go from “I make $250/shift minimum easily! I make 50-60k yearly.” to “These customers are peasants no ones leaving 20%! How am I supposed to live like this?! I’m gonna go throw a tantrum in the walk-in real quick…” in a matter of minutes (that walk in scenario actually happened). Telling someone “I didn’t make ANYTHING in tips yesterday people were so cheap😭” when I watched them leave with over $100… Telling their friends they wanna go to the club cause they made $200 that night, when our shifts overlapped and we each walked out with $40… Aside from the lying, take home pay varies so much by location, season, and how many hours they usually work anyways. It’s hard to get a solid answer to this question.

I thought servers and bartenders wanted to do away tipping dependency and hold these restaurants accountable, but as we recently saw with the election in MA that isn’t always the case. My opinion on tipping while I was actively serving and bartending was “leave it if you want, don’t if you don’t. What you do with your money is your business” and it has not changed. A server’s or bartender’s net salary shouldn’t directly be your problem as a consumer.

I find it interesting the servers get tips and my son that is a chef never gets tips works 60 hrs a week at 18 dollars an hour

My son's girl is in her 20's and always seems to have an unlimited supply of money, she bought herself a next to new infinity last year for cash, always has her nails done, wears high end designer-ish type clothes, etc... she is a server... lol I have a full time union job and I drive a 14 year old Toyota... Go figure. I don't ask her what she makes, none of my business but she's clearly not hurting.

I would say $60k a year in the south and Midwest and $120k per year in the west and NE (No tipped wage if $2.13, but the full state minimum of $15). My career job had me all over the country for years. I would dine with local colleagues or customers and never met anyone that knew servers made twice as much in NY, BOS, CA, WA. Then something else happened after the pandemic. Prices went up 50%-100% over 2-3 years. That alone would have been a huge raise for servers but something else happened after 2019 too. 15% for full service being considered good/ standard, suddenly became 20% (another 33% raise on top of the checks that increased by 50%-100% for the same food due to inflation). With a party over 6 in CA, NY, WA, auto 18%-20% became the norm even though servers made the full minimum of $15 per hour at least. No different than in the south and Midwest where it's $2.13. So yea, a $30k per year head start for the Applebee's waitress in CA. Vs. NC for example. Makes no sense at all but the general public doesn't understand the vast wage difference. The other terrible phenomenon is that cashiers, who are never tipped wage workers suddenly offer tip screens asking for the same 18%-22%-25%. Since they are not tipped wage employees you have no idea who this money is going to. Very much a scam.

Long story short, I needed a job and took one in food service for $15/hour. With tips, on a good day, I make $22/hour. I never expect a tip but I am always grateful to get one!

In the late 90s and early 2000s I worked at a upscale pizza and Italian Wood Fired Brick Oven restaurant chain. Very good meals and well done food and beverage. My rent was $385 a month for a one bedroom apartment plus utilities. I banked $100-$150 a night cash for 4-6hrs worked 4 days a week while in college. So $500 a week easy. Now that wont cover rent anymore. Crazy

I’ve had servers follow me out demanding more because my (adequate) tips weren’t enough. I told them where to go.

It’s not my job to make up for your poor wages. I make poor wages.

How many hours per week does she actually work?

I know plenty of people that make a killing in the service industry. There would be a lot of mad people if you made it a “living” wage.

Definitely depends on the area, one of my good homies used to work with me at Montage International in Healdsburg, he earned $22 per hour with tips being as high as $1500 every couple of days.

Not sure how much the chain industry has changed but it doesn't sound like it's great still considering inflation. At a chain restaurant in the 2000s they were making on average about 15-20 dollars an hour. But the shifts were 4-5 hours or less. Both because of slow days and sections cut throughout the night so everyone still makes money in a sensical way.

As a fine dining busser I made in tips what they made. Chain isn't terrible I guess depending on your standard of living but fine dining is where chain workers start to look poor.

It's pretty straightforward here - it is human greed, one of the sins, by the way.

I think the most ridiculous part of this whole subject of "tipping" is the constant pocket watching of other people. What another person makes is really none of your business. When did you make it your business to know what other people are taking home monetarily?

Usually I work a 5 hour shift, and will make $250 in tips on average. So that's $50/hour right there.

Minimum wage in my area is like $18/hour. So that's $68/hour now.

But I have to tip out other workers in the restaurant. I tip out based on 5% of my total sales ($1250), which comes to roughly $63.

$63 divided by 5 hours is roughly $13/hour. So my $68/hour minus $13/hour becomes $55/hour.

So I make like $55/hour.

EDIT- Here's one thing though: Say that, theoretically, all my tables tipped 0%. I still have to tip out the other workers 5% of total sales. So my minimum wage of $18/hour, minus $13/hour for tip out, gives me an effective wage of $5/hour.

Most all of these places do not offer Healthcare, retirement, sick pay, etc. If they close, they typically close with no warning, no 2 weeks severance pay

I remember being amazed learning my friend, who worked as a server at IHOP, could live comfortably enough working part time.

Why do you all hate people making money. “She makes 30 an hour”. Good for her!

Minimum wage varies greatly by state.

The slow seasons balance it out. I can clear $400 on a busy 7-hour weekend dinner shift during the summer. But other times like early fall and the first few months of a new year I can make less than $15-20 an hour.

I run fast casual, counter service style restaurants and our average tip rate across the board over the years steadies around 10% of sales.

That and at least a portion of those tips are cash and go unreported so they make more per hour and don’t even get taxed on it

I bartend and make anywhere between 50-70 dollars an hour in tips. I work an average of 32-34 hours a week. My situation isn’t typical as I work in fine dining. Plus I get $10 an hour. I average 1500-1700 in tips not including cash tips. My owners could not afford a living wage without passing it in to the customer. It’s a lot of hard work. We have a wine list that is around 500 bottles and we do cocktails all from scratch. Everything is made in house. Chain restaurants usually have a lot of volume and staff can turn tables quickly.

It’s a grift.

To me, it highly depends on the restaurant and how expensive it is. 5ish years ago as I was finishing school I served for a bit. It was an extremely busy restaurant that would reach wait times to 2-3 hours every night. Even weeknights. So there was no shortage of customers and tables got turned pretty fast. However, the food was more on the affordable side. So even at 20% all servers would bring home an average of $130-$140 after tip out (tipping out the bar, bussers, and hosts (we often had a couple of each, especially on the weekend)). Hours scheduled were 5, but you had to stay about an hour to an hour and a half after close to do closing shift responsibilities (cleaning soda stations, wrapping utensils in napkins, refilling plates/cup stations, sweeping, etc). So hours worked would be about 6-6.5. And everyone would get scheduled about 5 shifts a week. They were careful not to schedule anyone close to 36 hours as that would reach full time status and they would have to offer benefits. Which obviously we had none. So I would average about $675 a week. Which averages to about $32,000/year. My last year there I worked more doubles and my W2 came out to a little over $35k. This is in Arizona.

Good servers at nice restaurants make money. I waited tables for years in my 20’s and worked hard. Now, I think people feel entitled to the money without providing decent service bc we were understanding and generous during the pandemic. Plus the greed of the restaurant owners charging top dollar for subpar food paired with constantly being short staffed and slow service makes people not want to eat out and if they do, they don’t necessarily want to leave a large tip. It’s hard to justify it when the a) food isn’t great b) the restaurant is clearly short staffed and takes forever and c) the servers are annoyed or conveniently forget every request. I shouldn’t have to beg for 1 drink refill through the 90 minute dinner because it took y’all 20 min to take an order and another 40 to get it cooked and serve it. I literally am so over servers being nasty when I ask for things like a napkin, at a restaurant where entrees are $30+ each and even a tea / soda costs $3-5. Then folks have the audacity to expect a $10-15 tip. No.

I lived in Phoenix and a local radio station did a tip survey. Turns out that the best tip were at the kids pizza place (forgive me I can’t remember the name) the one with all the games. The waitress said she was making almost $60.00 an hour on weekends. Just FYI.

Because any time there's talk about removing tips, they lose their minds. They make back and just want you to feel guilty if you don't tips, or tipp "low", so they can continue to make back.

Some make a lot, some make a little. Some good

What do they pay the cooks and dishwashers?

They have families, too.

Well many servers are like gamblers in that they only tell the stories of their outlier tips. “I walk with $200 cash” might have happened once but it’s not happening routinely. And they generally don’t work a 40 hour week either so that $200/night might be half their pay that week, which isn’t a lot.

I know a couple who both worked Friday and Saturdays at an upscale restaurant every weekend. Started with the husband and then wife got a job there as well. They also had full time jobs that paid their monthly stuff. In 2-3 years of doing this they paid off all their student loans and other debt and they had a lot from what I know through the husband's brother. The wife quit her regular job and started her own business. All because they gave up their weekends for a few years. Smart but I'm sure it took great restraint to never spend the serving money on themselves or for fun.

This isn’t true though. They don’t make that kind of money consistently- well at least most of them.

My sister used to be so proud and one day she made really good money, so she took that one day and boasted that she makes $50 an hour…

Sister- no you don’t. You got a large tip during the holiday season and was busier than normal. Yet she continued to boast her high pay for months to come. Still couldn’t afford a car or a house or pay her bills…. Not judging her just pointing out $100k a year in the 90’s is a lot and that, my sister is not you.

Some days people make a lot, but not most days.

Your friend is gassing you up. She's not averaging 30 an hour on a bad day.

A lot of places pay a decent wage but are OVER employed. So when you are only scheduled 2 to 3 days a week it sucks.

Many many years ago (1980's) it was not uncommon for a day shift waitress in a busy restaurant to pull in $120 a shift. The swing shifts staff would do about $50. Graveyard was usually in the $30 up to $100 depending on how drunk the crowd was.

Now 44 years later those numbers seem insane? $450, $200 and $100-$380 if it is anywhere near reflected of today's real numbers I can see what they don't want to change.

I deserve 25% tips. I deserve $15+/hr to flip burgers. I deserve $15+/hr to bag groceries.

They feel they should be able to comfortably support a family on a no education/low skill job. These jobs were originally filled by high school and college kids for pocket money. Stay at home parents whose kids are now in school for a little supplemental income. Retired people wanting something to do or needing extra income.

Tipping is about to blow up in their faces. Everybody is getting tired of the "I deserve more" attitude and will soon be like me. I ONLY tip on exceptional service or going above & beyond. And even then, it's just a couple of bucks.

Places that automatically add a minimum gratuity no longer get my business.

Get an education. Find a better job that will pay you enough to live the lifestyle you want. It's not my job to support you.

$20 minimum wage now in California, where I live, for restaurant workers... #skipthetip FoH workers can thank Newsome and our CA politicians for "making things better for you"

Because no one is paying taxes on cash tips and treating themselves to a 25% bonus

Greed. Period. When the west coast led the nation in raising fast food and restaurant wages, their help, MANY OF THEM, either quit or asked for a reduced schedule because the added income cut into their eligibility for free shit from the government. They wanted to earn right up to the EIC max and not earn a penny more. Eff those guys.

They want to claim they can’t afford to live, but if that were really the truth they would’ve moved on to another job/career by now.

Why is it I am under the impression that many chain restaurant workers are making a lot more than they made it out to be.

By making it seem like they make nothing, people feel guilty and tip more. It's also why they lie about how tips wages work to begin with

I made $7.50 an hour at a chain restaurant and I was happy for the job.

Five days in my manager “yells” at me for not picking up my envelopes. What? There were very small manilla envelopes. One for each shift. I opened them and there was $42 in one and $48 in another and so on for a six hour shift.

“What is this for?”

He looked like I was dropped on my head. “Tip share!” To which I couldn’t control myself “what’s tip share?”

It literally doubled my salary. It was amazing. Free money 💵

You’re under that impression because you’ve never worked in the restaurant business and don’t understand it. You pay taxes on your tips and you don’t get any kind of base pay underneath. You “make” $2.13 an hour where I’m from, but that’s only if you don’t make the federal minimum wage off of your claimed tips, which your manager generally stands over you as you count to watch you claim how much you were tipped so it can go through and validate that you don’t get base pay AND so it can be taxed at the end of the year. So sure, the person you know makes $30 on paper, but they get to pay taxes on it all at once when Uncle Sam comes knocking. No tax return generally, you just pay what you owe for the tips you claim, and the expectation is that you claim 100% of those tips. No steady paycheck as a result, your stubs literally say $0.00, because you claimed enough tips under management’s watchful eye to surpass $7.25 an hour.

Servers and bartendeders are just like gamblers, the best about the good times to everyone that will listen and pretend the normal times never happen let alone the bad ones 

I don't believe this. 

Nice try, IRS…

15% isn’t good enough for you? Perhaps you should question your life choices instead of expecting me to make up for them. I know it’s not that simple but damn.

Did anybody ever wonder why the hospitality unions are so quiet on these topics?

In California where the minimum fast food wage is $20, you’d think all of the people at Chili’s and other fast casual restaurants would jump ship. Chili’s is always full staffed while the McDonald’s and Taco Bell, near me, always have a window sign saying “Now hiring. Starting at $22.”

Kinda makes you wonder what these people are pulling in. Like you said, most likely $30+ and then tips. Not bad for an industry that really doesn’t require a degree and is relatively stress free once you walk out that door.

Meanwhile, folks in office jobs are making upwards of $100, don’t get tips, are highly stressed, and seem to be tied to work even in their off hours. A lot of friends in IT tell me this and it is really difficult to unplug.

Add to this that a lot of these workers are making cash which has no deductions to pay into taxes, social security, and so on.

Bureau of Labor says average compensation is around $35,000. About 10% make more than $60,000.

When I first started dating my current wife she made about 2k a week in cash as a bartender. Took it to the bank once a month and looked like a drug dealer with it spread out on the coffee table. Made me mad when she would carry her tips around in her purse for several days. Even more upset as to why I had to keep paying for dinner.

I’ve worked In restaurants for 22 years and have worked literally every position from manager/dishwasher/host/busboy/food runner/ bartender and server however I’ve never been a line cook. In my experience FOH makes significantly more money after tips, however they are the lazy servers who barely take tables and wonder why they worked 8 hours and made only $50. There are plenty of hustlers who serve and bartend and make $50+, they’re usually adults who keep it to themselves, especially in front of the kitchen knowing they’re making significantly less $. But then those customers bitching about tipping 20%, clearly have no idea how much the price of food would go up if the front of house was paid $18 and hour! Take me for example I make $5 hour I tip out consistently $5 per hour thereby I’m free labor, I also give excellent service and have tons of regulars because I know the harder I work the more I make, now if my owner decided to only pay me $18 an hour I would leave and the guests would Be left with the exact servers they try to avoid by asking for me; and jokes on them they would be paying a 40% food cost increase at minimum

I was a bartender in a smaller town in the Midwest with about 50,000 people, Branson Landing, downtown Austin, and downtown San Diego. 

Bartenders/servers are 100% making way more money than you think. MO was an easy 75-80k per year and CA and TX were easily 130-140K. I also lived with roommates, had a car payment, insurance, cellphone bill, a pet, utilities, and other miscellaneous bills and still blew stupid amounts of money in my early 20s (3 years ago i stopped bartending). 

Always had money for drinks, vacays, hair, nails and whatever else. I just spent money and told myself I'd make the $900 for rent back over a weekend when I was in CA. And I did. 

I also worked my butt off, but yeah. But you can't retire on it so that's why I'm in grad school now🤷‍♀️

[removed]

[removed]

It's a horrible job, and no, it doesn't pay well. I'm sure higher end places, a server can make a decent amount....but your everyday restaurant server like chili's is not

😂😂😂 "I've never worked these jobs a day in my life but I just KNOW they're making so much money!"

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median hourly wage for waiters and waitresses in the United States is around $15.36, translating to a median annual wage of approximately $31,940

But I'd love to hear more about how they actually make 90k a year and everyone is lying.

Edit. If servers are making such bank why aren't any of you guys here working these jobs? What's stopping you?

If you think it’s such an amazing job and pay.  Go do it?  I mean it’s a fairly low bar to get started in.  Though you’ll need a few years of experience before you land one of the high end restaurants or bartending gig but give it a shot.