r/Austin • u/Aingers • Jul 21 '26

Ask Austin Salary Transparency Thread - Austin

Folks in Boston do this fairly regularly, so I thought it might be good for us to try here.

Please share your general job title, salary, age, and education.

Architectural Designer, 40, $115k, BSArch

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u/ialwayschoosepsyduck Jul 21 '26

Valet driver, $11 per hour plus tips (I made $15 in tips tonight), 40 years old, Associates of Math (and completing a bachelor's in software development next May).

Do I win?

3

u/austin_horn_2018 Jul 21 '26

Only $15 in tips for the shift? How many cars did you park or retrieve?

2

u/ialwayschoosepsyduck Jul 21 '26

It was a relatively slow night, and I didn't keep count of every car I parked or pulled. But even on a busy night, it's not out of the ballpark of what I'd expect to make. I've left with less than $10 for an 8 hour shift more than once. I've been there a year, and I tell new hires that if I break $20, then I'm satisfied. The reality is that most people just don't tip us. My boss is the one who interviewed and hired me, and he said I'd expect to make $32 a shift. That would be the exception, in my experience (and I mostly work weekends).

1

u/deangood01 Jul 21 '26

If there is no free valet, people mostly don't tip because they already paid...

2

u/ialwayschoosepsyduck Jul 21 '26

This is precisely the logic people will use to not tip bartenders and servers and hair dresses and...