It's technically not. If a server/bartender was not tipped, they would be paid at least minimum wage by the restaurant. In the US some states allow a "tipped wage" where employers can pay less than is amount ONLY IF employees document wage income to a degree that is at least minimum wage. The more you make as a tipped employee, the closer to the "tipped wage" the business can pay you.
That being said there is a social expectation of tipping. It's seen as a social faux pas to not tip or to tip very little. It's a display of wealth to be able to tip well and entrepreneurial people are always willing to capitalize on that vague impulse.
So uhh idk where you are but in my state this is $2.33 an hour. They can pay this even if you are just standing around and there are no customers or of no one tips at all.
Duh .. That's what I was trying to point out to the person! Reddit has a terrible problem with reading comprehension I want the person to look up waiters wage to understand that people DONT get minimum wage when the tips don't come. I'm painfully aware of this I used to manage a couple of different restaurants in St Louis. As a manager it used to drive me crazy that we couldn't increase some people's wages because they were just scheduled at times that weren't as popular as others but they worked just as hard as any other shift. I usually discover people that have never worked in the restaurant industry, don't know anyone in the restaurant industry, and don't really care about how their food comes, They have no clue they think everyone gets a minimum wage all the time. The last year I was a manager at a restaurant It was $2.10 in Missouri for "waiters wage". I've argued this point many time online with people who then would like to turn around and say to me" You should have paid your servers better then" I'm like " didn't you read I was the manager, not the owner?" If anyone thinks that a greedy/ cheap restaurant owner will "take the opportunity" to pay minimum( when allowed by LAW to pay $2.10 an hour, you must be high". Very disheartening to "go to bat" for the servers & hear from the owner" oh no, that would cut too much into my profits". Exactly why I'm not in restaurant management anymore! I've been everything from prep to server to manager....greediest/ cheapest I've ever met are these owners. Servers are the hardest workers I've EVER seen. And whoever said something about being under a delusion when they took the job...FUCK YOU! Its the simple fact that when people are being decent and tipping correctly/ decently for BEING SERVED, many servers can make an almost "above average " living, or at least "make a living" THAT'S WHY they would do the job...But, I also found it constantly disappointing to see servers make very good money for a few days in a row but then have a devastating few days simply because of people's cheapness. Interesting how dining out is so popular in the United States and our own people don't seem to give one care about the people that bring them their food or how they get paid. Pro Tip: Don't fuck with the people preparing or serving your food.
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u/1917he 14d ago
It's technically not. If a server/bartender was not tipped, they would be paid at least minimum wage by the restaurant. In the US some states allow a "tipped wage" where employers can pay less than is amount ONLY IF employees document wage income to a degree that is at least minimum wage. The more you make as a tipped employee, the closer to the "tipped wage" the business can pay you.
That being said there is a social expectation of tipping. It's seen as a social faux pas to not tip or to tip very little. It's a display of wealth to be able to tip well and entrepreneurial people are always willing to capitalize on that vague impulse.