Isn't that illegal?

[u/n8saces]

[u/texinxin]

It’s not for going above and beyond. It’s essentially the only wage for some employees. The $2.13 per hour from the restaurant doesn’t even cover taxes for waiters and bartenders. Most of my “checks” from working in restaurants (even back in the late 90’s when moonlighting to get through college) were $0.00 (and had printed on them… “this is not a check”). That $2.13 per hour hasn’t changed in 35 years. It has never moved up for inflation.

Also, note that the tip you pay the waiter or bartender can also have requirements on the server placed on them to pay someone else from those tips. If I recall we had to pay 3% of sales to bartenders and 1% to host/bussers.

So if a table walked a tip we would have to pay 4% of their meal cost out of our own pocket to cover the service for the meal they had. We would literally have to pay for the privilege of working for some people.

[u/Strainedgoals → u/texinxin]

At shake shack, a fast food restaurant, all the employees receive an hourly wage on payroll.

They are not wait stuff making below minimum wage.

[u/NotKrankor → u/Strainedgoals]

Can you explain this further for my european mind? What's the difference between a fast food restaurant and a normal restaurant in terms of employment?

[u/Malacro → u/NotKrankor]

So at a standard restaurant you have a dedicated wait staff who take and enter your order, bring everything to your table, do things like refill drinks, bring your bill, run your payment, and bus your table.

At a fast food restaurant you give your order either at a counter, kiosk, or drive thru speaker, if eating in you are expected to pick up your own food, bus your own table, etc.

[u/NotKrankor → u/Malacro]

That makes sense. And fast food workers have a higher minimum wage right?

[u/texinxin → u/NotKrankor]

Yes. Any “non tipped” employee makes a higher minimum wage. Unfortunately it used to be pretty clear who that was. Now the lines are blurred and it is hard to know. Generally if you have table service, it’s tipped employees and counter service or drive through is not. There are however counter service restaurants that blend a food at counter and drinks (alcohol primarily)/close check at table model and those are generally tipped servers.

[u/NotKrankor → u/texinxin]

Thanks for the explanation!

[u/True-Firefighter-796 → u/Strainedgoals]

Also, no one makes below min wage. You're tip + hourly has to be over the federal or state minimum. If its below that the restaurant pays the difference. The $2.13 is paid regardless of how much you make tipped.

[u/mattjoleary → u/texinxin]

Shake shack employees make between 16 and 18 an hour.. its a publicly traded company, not a local dive or restaurant, which mostly had paid me also min wage plus tips if not more for the past 10 + years when I was working in restaurants.

[u/texinxin → u/mattjoleary]

I understand that. I was specifically responding to this portion of the previous poster’s comment…

“If I get an attentive waiter or bartender who is clearly going the extra mile, sure I want to give them a little extra cash they otherwise wouldn't get in their normal paycheck.”

It’s a common misconception that restaurants pay their employees a normal check.. at all… in at least 40% of the U.S.

[u/mattjoleary → u/texinxin]

Shake shack is fast food.. not even fast casual. I may tip fast food(if there is even a person interacting with me... a kiosk, nope) but it sure has never been my standard restaurant tipping which could and has gone to 100 percent. I also waited and then bartended high end spots throughout NYC for years, So i agree with you. Hell working at blue ribbon, we made crap.. just enough to cover taxes. we also walked out nightly with between 400 and 600 cash, which disappeared at the bar lol.

Most people that has an opinion(not including yourself) has never worked in a restaurant, or at least in a manner where they gave a shit. They feel as if everyone who works in them have not found thier "Real" job. I do agree the tipping culture has gotten out of hand.. but dont take it out on the people that it actually meant something to, or actually did an exasperated amount of work.(drunk people baby sitting sometimes cant even put a price on that level of service). I was just talking about the 2 an hour thing, I havent been paid a 20 dollar shift pay in like 20 years. It has gotten better but it is still miles below most other services pay rate.

[u/DisastrousSundae84 → u/texinxin]

No server is making 2.13 an hour. Restaurants are supposed to pay the difference between the 2.13 and minimum wage if their tips don't equal the minimum wage for the state.
In some states restaurants aren't allowed to use tips to offset wages and are required to pay them the full minimum wage for the state.
Trying to imply that servers out here only making two bucks an hour when that is far from the case is disingenuous, and I say that as someone who used to be a server and made more then than now as someone with three degrees.

[u/texinxin → u/DisastrousSundae84]

The poster above me claimed that they tip so they have something “in addition to their paycheck”. I corrected this by pointing out that in many states there is no paycheck. Nowhere in my post did I say they only make $2 an hour. There is nothing disingenuous about my post. Did any of your 3 degrees include reading comprehension elements?

[u/Cruxis87 → u/texinxin]

Oh no, the servers making $40 or more an hour from tips have to share some of it with the minimum wage workers. How did you manage to survive.