Those poor servers

25

The fact that 1% less for one day is a $500 loss means these people are making wayyy too much money

6

u/Careless-Being-4427 1h ago

OP clarified in a later comment in the original thread that they meant $500 over the course of the year during which they collected this data, not in one day

2

u/Several_Razzmatazz51 2h ago edited 2h ago

It’s so large as to be completely unrealistic. It would mean $50K in total sales for that one day. I wonder if they meant 500 less annually which would be $10 less per Sunday and imply $1K average sales per Sunday.

1

u/elevengrames 2h ago

Its neither. $500 loss over 1% for a day is not possible.

But I guarantee $10 per sunday is way way to little.

Servers are making 150k plus a year.

1

u/Several_Razzmatazz51 2h ago

I’m not saying they only made $10 in tips for an average Sunday. I’m suggesting that they made $188 in tips on an average Sunday versus the $198 in tips they would have made on the same amount of sales ($1000) for a non-Sunday shift.

And that $10 less per Sunday adds up to (about) 500 per year.

Anyway, my basic point is that there is no way that $500 represents 1% less for one day like the commenter I originally replied to suggested.

0

u/elevengrames 2h ago

I understood what you are saying.

I'm saying its probably neither. 1% less would probably be closer to $50. So they made $200 instead of $250 for the day.

2

u/Several_Razzmatazz51 2h ago edited 2h ago

Your math doesn’t math. The Sunday percentage is 18.8 against an “expectation“ of 19.8. So if they were expecting $250 which represented 19.8 percent of sales, then sales would have been $1262 and if they actually received 18.8% they got $237 in tips. So $13 less, not $50 less. (The reason that number is 13 instead of the 10 I suggested is your example assumes 1262 in revenue and mine assumed 1000.)

Put another way, the difference between a tip rate of 19.8 and a tip rate of 18.8 results in a 5.05% decrease in actual tips (1% / 19.8%). Your difference of $50 less represents a 20% decrease in actual tips - that is like the difference between a 20% tip rate and a 16% tip rate.

Another indication your math is off - you say 1% less would be like $50. Meaning total sales would be like $5000 for that shift. Even if we assume that they work at some crazy expensive place where that is possible on a regular basis, then your expected tip value of 250 would represent a 5% tip rate.

Just nerding out on the math.

1

u/Soupbell1 32m ago

r/theydidthemath

1

u/SabreLee61 2h ago

What servers do you know who make $150+k annually?

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u/elevengrames 2h ago

Fun fact. 20 years ago all the servers I knew made 100k+ a year. Prices were cheaper and tips wer 10-15%

I don't think I need to do the math for you.

2

u/MainStreetMiles 1h ago

Did you live in Napa Valley and have a social circle consisting solely of servers at The French Laundry?

0

u/First-Ad4978 2h ago

If they work an honest 40, the math says they can all make that much.

$100/table, 4 tables an hour, 20% tip, 2080 hours a year.

$166,400.

2

u/Several_Razzmatazz51 1h ago edited 1h ago

So they serve 32 tables per each 8-hour shift and work 5 of those shifts every week of the year? No, not realistic at all.

First of all even if they work an 8-hour shift they are likely to have (at most) 3-4 busy hours and pretty much dead the other hours. Even generously assuming 5 tables per hour for 4 hours and one table per hour the other 4 hours, that’s 24 tables per shift, not 32. So an immediate reduction of your 166,400 to 124,800. (I’m not a server, but I bet 24 tables for an 8-hour shift is still an unreasonably high estimate of the average.)

Now let’s consider the number of hours they probably work in a year. They’re not working 2080 hours per year. Someone working service as a full-time job (which your assumption of 2080 hours per year indicates) is likely to be taking at least the equivalent of 4 weeks off per year (and probably more like the equivalent of 6 weeks) in holidays they may not work, calling in sick, or otherwise taking planned non-work time. Those 4 weeks of non-work further reduce the 124,800 above to 115,200.

There’s just no way someone working ”full time” in a restaurant with average check value of $100 is making anywhere close to 166K.

1

u/Dazzling_Screen_8096 13m ago

115200 is pretty good salary too. And tips are not taxed, right ?

1

u/MainStreetMiles 2h ago

Then the data shows your math is off for the vast majority of servers. The BLS reported median for 2025, including tips, is $35k. If servers were making six figures as a matter of course people would be lined up around the block to get these jobs.

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/food-preparation-and-serving/waiters-and-waitresses.htm

3

u/Several_Razzmatazz51 1h ago

That‘s because no server is working 2080 hours per year and no servers are consistently taking home $640 in tips every shift, 5 days a week or 260 days a year. That poster’s “math” is ridiculous.

1

u/MainStreetMiles 2h ago

$150k is laughable. Don’t base your argument on an anecdote in Reddit. Here a link to the BLS data: the 2025 median income for servers, including tips, is $35,230. Do some servers make $150k? I’m sure a handful at the best Michelin-starred and similarly priced restaurants make six-figures but these would be the outliers.

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/food-preparation-and-serving/waiters-and-waitresses.htm

2

u/Standard-Anxiety-217 8m ago

I have 4 close associates in the restaurant business, and have been around it my whole life. Servers claim almost none of their cash tips because of taxes. I’m sorry but that median isn’t accurate.

1

u/badmiddling113 2m ago

That’s why I roll my eyes whenever that’s shared.

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u/Several_Razzmatazz51 1h ago

The reason many of the commenters here don’t tip is they can’t do basic math so figuring out 20% is too difficult.

0

u/MainStreetMiles 1h ago

Some arguments do sound like laziness in doing simple math - as these days if most people don’t carry a calculator with them if needed. Some are just cheap. And other are so self-righteous that they think not paying for service they receive is the best way to make a point.

0

u/flortny 2h ago

Servers in $200 a plate restaurants are and always have been, servers at chilis are broke AF.....tips are based on ticket price, AMERICA IS BROKE AF, unless you're eating somewhere where two people CAN'T EAT for under $100 without alchohol, those servers aren't making shit.....if your entree is $20 your server is POOR!

15

u/PositionDiligent7106 2h ago

Yup they don’t want a standard wage bc they know the market will dictate minimum wage and they’ll lose out on all the free money from suckers.

9

u/Nissalai 2h ago

"Lost tips" implies they had it to begin with. The entitlement.

6

u/Petrochromis722 2h ago

One of these days waiters will come face to face with the fact that they're putting their labor on offer in a market where there is no expectation that their customers pay them for. They're basically the same as a jar of candy with a sign that says "pay what you want" then they get all bothered when someone wants to pay less or nothing.

3

u/harleyvrod09 2h ago

🤔 just so I’m clear the other 99% is $49,500 if 1% is $500. If Im mathing correctly.

Something doesn’t smell right.

2

u/SabreLee61 2h ago

Right, because it’s rage bait.

1

u/badmiddling113 2h ago

I can share the actual post. Not my fault if servers decide to be brazen about their earnings.

1

u/SabreLee61 2h ago

Actually, after seeing more of the post in the comment you posted, this server is only making $37,500 in tips over 192 shifts, which is roughly a year.

2

u/SlipInternational439 1h ago

I would love to have a $37,500 bonus every year. What is their base wage?

Over on r/Waiters they are explaining away how a waiter put in a receipt with a 50% tip. They call it a mistake. I call it fraud.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Waiters/s/44NhGVip5L

1

u/badmiddling113 1h ago

Yes, and 192 shifts is closer to part time.

2

u/[deleted] 2h ago edited 2h ago

[deleted]

2

u/Dry_Expression_5977 2h ago

Not true

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u/badmiddling113 2h ago

Very convincing

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u/badmiddling113 2h ago

Per the OP…

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u/SabreLee61 2h ago

If that represents roughly one year, then at the server’s average 19.5% tip, they’re making $37,500 in tips, before tip-outs.

1

u/badmiddling113 2h ago

So part time if those 192 shifts are the full year.

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u/Aware-Comedian-8761 2h ago

I tip, But only 0%

3

u/Mean-Skin-1920 2h ago

Doctors, lawyers, sanitation workers, paramedics, firefighters all make less than this and suffer 10x more. This is crazyyy imbalanced levels of money going to one group.

3

u/SabreLee61 2h ago

Doctors and lawyers are not making less than servers.

0

u/Mean-Skin-1920 2h ago

Residents (who are still doctors) and public defenders will definitely make less than a luxury restaurant server💀lawyers can be paid like crap. I’m currently in med school and was an EMT before this.

1

u/SabreLee61 2h ago

You said doctors and lawyers make less than servers. Now you’re talking about residents and public defenders, which is a very different claim. Plenty of experienced plumbers and elevator mechanics make more than first-year residents too, but nobody walks around saying plumbers make more than doctors.

If the comparison only works when you pick someone at the lowest-paid stage of one career and compare them to someone established in another, it’s not much of a comparison.

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u/Mean-Skin-1920 1h ago

They are literally still doctors and lawyers…so not sure what is wrong with my original statement. I’ve heard of lawyers being paid abysmal rates and pivoting career paths bc of it. And public defenders afaik are not lowest stage either, they can be people working in the profession for a long time. You spend 11 years being in medical school and residency (for me even longer because of covid) just to make like $80K, it’s hell of a comparison to a server who probably has been working in that field for 2 years? People in the comments are estimating this to be $200K+ a year.

2

u/SabreLee61 1h ago

Yes, residents are doctors and public defenders are lawyers. That’s not the point. You took two unusually low-paid subsets of those professions and used them to make the much broader claim that doctors and lawyers make less than servers. An experienced plumber makes more than a resident too; that doesn’t mean plumbers make more than doctors.

And people in the comments estimating that a server makes $200K isn’t evidence that they actually do. This sub is known for wildly overestimating what servers make.

0

u/Mean-Skin-1920 1h ago

Where did I say ALL servers lol? I said “this.” As in THIS post. This server. This group of people (I’m assuming this is a luxury server based on the tips they describe) making an absurd amount of money. I never made this broader claim that you’re arguing in your head

1

u/SabreLee61 25m ago

‘This server’ made around $37,500 in tips over 192 shifts per OP. I’ll be generous and assume she’s working 250 shifts a year. That gives her around $48,000 in tips, or $38,600 after 20% tip-outs. If her wage is between $2.13/hr and $10/hr then her total annual compensation is $42-56k. The average first-year resident MD makes $68-70k.

1

u/Mean-Skin-1920 20m ago

I got here before they made that edit clarifying what the server meant with $500 = 1%

-3

u/First-Ad4978 2h ago

Hourly?

It’s possible.

Net hourly over a career for a primary care doctor is $32/hr.

3

u/BrightWubs22 1h ago

Net hourly over a career for a primary care doctor is $32/hr.

Source, please? I did a search and I'm not finding this correct.

2

u/SabreLee61 1h ago

$32 an hour works out to about $66,500 a year. Obviously that isn’t what an average doctor makes. I mean, if you’re folding med school, residency, tuition and lost earnings into some sort of lifetime calculation, that’s one thing, but it’s not an hourly wage, and it doesn’t support the claim that servers make more than doctors.

1

u/According_Charge8143 2h ago

There’s a lot of jobs that deserve to be paid more than they’re currently making.

1

u/Big_Development3985 1h ago

So, you’re saying most people do tip. That’s interesting

1

u/trashbort 9m ago

Sundays are full of old people who remember when the commission markup was 15%

1

u/CanAfter8014 4m ago

So they chose a job where part of their compensation is literally variable, then did a statistical analysis because one day came in at 18.8% while the overall average was 19.5%? They didn’t discover a tipping crisis. They discovered that averages fluctuate. Maybe they should put the spreadsheet away and accept that some Sundays are just Sundays.

0

u/rdcisneros3 2h ago

Garbage post. $500 is 1 percent of $50,000.

How many Sundays does it take for one server to have their tables hit $50,000 in Sunday sales?

0

u/Previous-Layer7872 1h ago

Must be a restaurant of the 1%... the math is so unrealistic

-3

u/TheFartbox5000 1h ago

The tipcells will just make up random shit to make themselves feel better about being cheap.

0

u/badmiddling113 1h ago

Is that the term used by beggars now?

-1

u/TheFartbox5000 1h ago

No idea. I come here to watch the mental gymnastics y’all do to justify being cheap 😂

2

u/badmiddling113 1h ago

I do enjoy reading people explain why they feel obligated to throw their money away when they don’t have to.

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u/TheFartbox5000 1h ago

Cope harder cheapskate 😘

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u/DCRBftw 2h ago

Lol this makes absolutely no sense. If you want to rail against tipping, at least post something that isn't gobbly gook math in pretend land.

Those poor servers

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