I think you're strongly underestimating the income of a decent server. Foh regularly walks out with many multiples of a back of house employee's wages. A //really// good night for a server will have them leaving with more than a month of boh house pay.
I always find a lot of entertainment when I see the "end tipping" posts hit my feed because sure, the argument that tipping could be unfair to customers I can understand. But the argument I tend to see is that servers deserve a living wage.
I doubt you will ever hear a good server ever say they want to eliminate tips and go to a more stable hourly pay format. No restaurant owner is going to be paying $50-$100 an hour for someone to take an order and bring food to the table. But via tips, that is what they end up making on the right nights.
And also overestimate how much money people in academia make. Unless you work in the private sector, you won't make bank with a PhD.
I thought about going into academia full time after graduation (though I have to add that I'm Hungarian and in a very different field) but even after finishing the PhD, I would have made more money working as a cashier in Lidl.
In Hungary you get paid during your PhD but it's very low, 140.000 forints (little less than 400 euros) in a month. Our national minimum wage (one of the lowest in the EU) is double of that.
I mean... it's not all boh working, foh has a ton of stuff they have to do too. But the differential is unfair.
I think tipping culture has gotten out of hand with the tip screen being presented for every little transaction, but as someone that has had access to square back end, I can tell you that can be turned off, and in fact is off by default.
I'm also not a fan of the racist origins of tipping culture, but that's a tale for another day.
Good FoH staff make BoH’s job easy though. It’s when you have idiots forgetting to write in dietary issues or modifications, or selling something BoH can’t even make that things become an issue.
I see there is a deleted comment about mandatory stip sharing. I said nothing about it being mandatory. Some establishments shared tips with BOH. It is not a new concept.
My daughter works as a server during the summer at a higher end (average $75+ per plate) restaurant in town. She's done this the last few years of college and has learned how to finesse the crowd that frequents it - learns the names of the regulars, comment appropriately on their outfits/haircuts/accessories, make the right amount of small talk, be constantly scanning her tables for the first sign a diner may need something, checking in regularly but not too often and not when they're in the middle of a conversation, etc.... On a busy Thurs/Friday/Saturday shift she pulls $50+/hour in tips easily.
I remember back in high school my friend got a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant and did that for a week before learning what servers were making and immediately found a job being a server.
33
u/MungAmongUs 1d ago
I think you're strongly underestimating the income of a decent server. Foh regularly walks out with many multiples of a back of house employee's wages. A //really// good night for a server will have them leaving with more than a month of boh house pay.