My First Waitress SCs

[MrSunshineState]

Not trying to start a flamewar, but over here we don't actually tip, do all you americans really expect to be paid more then you agreed to when you got the job?

Here in the USA, servers work for tips. We have a minimum wage and servers' hourly pay is lower than the minimum wage. They make the tips to compensate for it. It's a lot more complicated than that, this is just a brief rundown.

[napoleana]

Quote the good waitress at my ex-job: "THREE CENTS! THEY LEFT ME THREE FRIGGIN' CENTS!!! IT WOULD'VE BEEN LESS OF AN INSULT TO JUST STIFF ME!"

She shouted this in the middle of the small restaurant. Everyone heard her. In fact, much of the staff came rushing forth to see if it was true. Those people don't know how lucky they are that they left before she discovered that.

[BaristaGirl]

Not trying to start a flamewar, but over here we don't actually tip, do all you americans really expect to be paid more then you agreed to when you got the job?

Changing the way we do things here would involve a complete change to the entire infrastructure of how our restaurants work and that won't happen, so no matter if I'd like to receive a paycheck instead of nightly tips or not, this is how it is and how it shall stay. And I'm not, again, not, working for $2.6whatever an hour. It's too much work. Tips can make or break a night for me. Tonight? Broke it. The Saturday before yesterday? Made it. That is just the way it is...

[starla671]

It's sad but true in this business. You'll get stiffed or get barely anything. The tips I get at my new job have been pretty good for the most part, but since Friday, they have been horrible!

I guess the Christmas season brings out the cheap sc in some people!

[qaxons]

If I'm going out to a sit-down restaurant, I always make sure to bring "extra" money with me. I default at 15%, with a sliding scale based on the waitstaff's ( I do mean waiters and waitresses here) attractiveness, attitude, attention to detail, speed, knowledge, patience, and understanding. Wait time, food quality, and general cleanliness of the restaurant play in very little. Usually it goes up, sometimes down.

It's kind of like Iron Chef judging, a point system, with certain factors worth more points than others. Then again, sometimes I'm just generous and I have before paid 10 dollars even on a five dollar bill.

My entire family are crazy tippers though... They usually tip like 20-30% and sometimes up to 60% if they know the wait-person and/or feel like she deserves it (oft-times for dealing with other SCs eating around us, but on her "tab"). I've seen my Grandfather more than once drop a $5 bill on a table after someone left without tipping.

[starla671]

Quoth solemnwarning View Post
Not trying to start a flamewar, but over here we don't actually tip, do all you americans really expect to be paid more then you agreed to when you got the job?

When I get a job that pays $2.13 an hour and I wait on people hand and foot with a smile, of course I expect it! Why don't I get another job, you ask? Well, I happen to live in an area where good paying jobs are hard to come by. It's also very dependent on tourism. You take what you can get, esp when you've got mouths to feed and bills to pay.

If I got paid more per hour it wouldn't be so bad. Aren't the servers in Europe paid more?

[Saydrah]

Solemnwarning-

In America, the only reason servers CAN be paid less than minimum wage is because the employer expects tips to make up at LEAST minimum wage each hour. In fact, if this consistently does not happen, the employer can lose their tip credit (their right to pay less than minimum wage because employees make tips) or an employee can sue for the difference between actual earnings and federal/state minimum wage. The amount a server contracts for is a minimum of that state's minimum wage with tips, not the amount they are paid hourly by the actual employer.

Many employers hiring waitstaff will actually TELL applicants, 'all our servers average $15/hour with tips' or something like that. So, a new waitress probably thinks she will make $13/hour in tips on average, and when the job was misrepresented that way, some real nastiness can happen- I've had friends that were 'guaranteed' though of course not in writing a certain amount in waitressing jobs and made nothing near that, later realizing that the employer made those 'guarantees' because the job was so lousy nobody would have taken it otherwise.

[Aggravated Associate]

Not trying to start a flamewar, but over here we don't actually tip, do all you americans really expect to be paid more then you agreed to when you got the job?

I'm not trying to perpetuate a flame war, but I just want to point out that with the way our system works, our wages are entirely dependent on tips. I made $2.13 an hour, and my paychecks took into account the tips that I made. Basically, I was taxed on my tips, and I have kept a stack of paychecks that were made out as "$0.00 Non-negotiable" to prove it. More often than not, I literally didn't even get a paycheck. What you're expected to be paid with when you take the job are the tips. Not getting a tip from someone who either doesn't understand or disagrees with that feels like being smacked across the face.

[blas]

I will never waitress again because I will never bend over backwards again to get a penny tip stuck underneath an upside down glass of water or milkshake, and I will never be stiffed again because I didn't give a frat boy my number or sit on a trucker's lap

[marty]

Yeah. Solemnwarning, min. wage here is $6.15/hour (I think), but waiters and waitresses get 2.13/hour plus tip, which is supposed to make up for that other $4.12/hour but really never does. Sigh.

[zzapp the witch]

I'd work cleaning out porta potties on construction sites before I'd ever work as a waitress. Waitress' get treated like dirt by a great lot of people, and not just monetarily, as blas pointed out.

[Sliceanddice]

I feel so sorry the wait staff in arizona and ill explain in a second after i make you love me alittle.

I tip about 18% for delivery
15-10 for resturants (depends on some service when its really bad, and when its really bad its cause some server was well sucky squared and there fore its maybe 5% maybe i hate not to tip)
about 8-5% for buffets, when the server just brings me a drink.

now heres why im sorry area servers.
After a little research i have discovered that aparently some individuals of mexican desent dont believe in tipping.. infact surveying my moms class revealed 100 of them didnt believe in tippiing... im in arizona.. you do the math.

[solemnwarning]

Yeah. Solemnwarning, min. wage here is $6.15/hour (I think), but waiters and waitresses get 2.13/hour plus tip, which is supposed to make up for that other $4.12/hour but really never does. Sigh.

It's legal to pay below "minimum" wage? What the hell does the US govt. smoke?

[ImadeYouACookie]

If I got paid more per hour it wouldn't be so bad. Aren't the servers in Europe paid more?

Obviously I cannot tell for all of Europe, but here in Denmark, minimum wage is around $17 or so. We are not used to tipping at all.

When I went on holiday in Las Vegas, I had read about the tipping system, thus not standing out. We tipped 20-25% depending on service level. At one restaurant, we did not tip 20% though. It was a very expensive place, and my bf (who had the money) didn't feel like tipping 60 bucks. I think we tipped 30 or so..

[BaristaGirl]

It's legal to pay below "minimum" wage? What the hell does the US govt. smoke?

Only for waitressing and jobs that are tip-heavy, pretty much. Yeah, it's kind of a weird and sucky system that leaves us completely powerless against those assholes who leave no tip because they're cheap, or the people who order the cheap-o food off the kids menu or whatever... The $2 an hour we do make usually goes directly into taxes, so I literally get checks for $0.00 and my pay comes from how I do as a server. Usually I do okay, so no matter how messed up the system is I think I could do worse. Except for those jerks who, for example, tip $2 on a $30 check.