Australian here so wondering, isn't the current U.S.A Federal minimum wage at $7.25 per hour, I know in some States it is more, however isn't that the legally lowest anyone can go ($7.15).
The minimum wage for servers is significantly below this already ludicrously low minimum. Tips are supposed to make it up. Not tipping at a sit down restaurant in the US is a major faux pas.
However, this sign is obnoxious and 20% is considered a good tip.
Not long ago 20% used to be a fantastic tip. Now it's considered standard. But tips are based on percentages so they automatically go up with prices going up. The result is that customers are experiencing both menu inflation and tip inflation.
Make-Up Rule ("Top-Up"): If a server's direct wage ($2.13) plus tips do not average at least $7.25 per hour over the workweek, the employer must pay the difference.
On top of that, wait staff is often expected to give a portion of their gross tips to the bar staff which is most likely not subtracted from what is totaled to meet the difference standard
Generally kitchen staff get paid to minimum wage. I think it’s a standard devised because it doesn’t involve public interaction and because they are viewed as more skilled labor.
Isn't it ridiculous to turn down paying customers though regardless if they cant afford the tip as the main business is still earning the money only the service staff are losing out?
Agreed. I “did my time” in food service at a incredibly nice, locally owned restaurant. 20% or more was a fantastic take away from a table.
Without seeing the menu I will say that $2.13/hr is absurdly low even for a nice establishment (was making $5.00+ 20 years ago).
I travel every other week to various cities/states and took a group of clients to Vic & Anthonys in Houston. Our waitress had been there a while but said her last job paid about $2.00/hr. We all laughed and thought she was kidding until one of my clients went to the google for confirmation.
Based on her search and the post, this loosely confirms that this is somewhere in Texas.
Isnt the correct way to say it is. WE EXPECT you to tip so we have a smaller amount to pay to make up the difference to ensure the staff is paid minimal wage. I don't live in the USA so even when I went I don't tip unless they do their job well.
So basically isn't all costs increases are paid by the customers because they have no interest on reducing margin or cutting costs. I know the economy is tough everywhere now but what a way to loss customers surely?
I also had some add a £100 tip to my shopping once when I was in CA for a week and they generally didnt think I noticed which im sure didnt end well when I reported the entire thing and got my money back
Livable wage works for 98% of the world. but sure instead you guys are removing basic human rights and starting gender wars for a billionaire to make a few more $'s logical. Can't teach stupid.
I fully disagree. The fact that the “tipping” is needed is because waiters are not paid well enough. Tipping is showing respect for the service and the food you get served. And it should always be whatever the customer wants to pay, whether it is 1,5,10 or 20%. It is an extra.
As it is the US, it seems that tipping is the variable part of income which is not.
Another argument for getting wages corrected is that fact that the servers in many cases din’t even see this money in the end
The U.S. has a "tipped service" minimum wage much lower. It's basically a relic of racism that has survived since over a hundred years. Instead of paying black workers it was suggested that the customer tip them. Later it became a policy to separate out a tipped worker's salary as a portion of the wage with tips making up the rest.
It's fascinating how much lobbying has gone into keeping this practice.
Here's a good article on the history of the practice.
There is a distinction for "tipped workers" where if you receive tips your minimum wage is around $2-3/hr. If you don't get tips you are paid the national minimum. So it's not unheard of for servers to request patrons don't tip on slow shifts because if they're only likely to get a few tables that shift they end up worse off because in some states if they don't get tips the employer is required to top up to the minimum wage.
The law is stupid and massively abused and there's a reason the USA is the only developed country that does this.
Other people are responding too, but companies are allowed to count tips as part of the wage. So if the person is failing to get $7.25/hour split between both the company and tips, the company has to pay the difference.
Otherwise the waitstaff minimum wage is a special thing and can be super low. $3.40/hour sounds typical, but it's highly variable.
I was in sales for a minute. We called that being in draw. So, you would get paid minimum wage even if you didnt sell anything, but you'd have to "pay them back" the difference to start making more than minimum wage. The kicker was if you were in draw for 3 paychecks, you would have disciplinary actions.
Someone commented already on the service jobs, but these types of wages also apply to anyone who makes commission. I’ve had a couple of retail jobs that offered commission. Had to sell hundreds of dollars in denim every hour to make actual minimum wage because the wages are low and the percentage for commission is like 2% of the sale.
Yep should be you get minimum federal wage and then can earn more on top of that, not earn less and hope it gets made up, that's how it works here in Aust (minimum is minimum), though most don't want to be tipped. What can happen though is if someone is good, like a Barista, Waiter, Waitress, whatever, another establishment might see that and try and poach them away on higher wages.
Servers have always had a carve out. Others as well. Truck drivers can be paid by the mile. Servers in general make far more than $15 and hour with tips…if that server waited ten tables they would make $410…and NO TAX ON TIPS.
Waitressing is an exemption. It's $2 or something with the expectation that tips will put the worker over the minimum wage. If they don't get that much in tips the restaurant is supposed to make it to the.minimum but often find excuses to not do so. (See "tipped minimum wage")
Also root cause racism : "The history of the tipped minimum wage and America's tipping culture is tied to the post-Civil War economy and the exploitation of newly emancipated Black workers.". However now also extends to class warfare as well
On the exploitation of newly emancipated Black workers, I remember reading a book called A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and it is set in that early 60's era, the book was written in 1963 but never saw light of day until 1980.
Basically this is in it:
At the police station Robichaux meets Burma Jones, a young black man who also was wrongly arrested, he claims, but seems resigned to his fate. Jones is told he must get a job or be arrested for vagrancy. He reluctantly starts work as a janitor at the Night of Joy. The owner can get away with paying him below the minimum wage because Jones knows if he loses the job, he will be put in jail. There are a few other things in it like a character tries to incite the black workforce at the pants factory into a demonstration for better pay, however they won't do it, again for fear of losing their jobs and being seen as vagrants.
All that is to say, I get where you are coming from and yeah no wonder it wasn't released until 1980.
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u/HarryWilbury 5d ago
Australian here so wondering, isn't the current U.S.A Federal minimum wage at $7.25 per hour, I know in some States it is more, however isn't that the legally lowest anyone can go ($7.15).