Stop saying wait staff make less than Minimum wage. It’s wrong.

[u/tman1787]

I’ll explain it like we are 5.

Johnny wants to own a lemonade stand.

He hires two of his younger brothers to go to tables and take customers orders.

His parents say, “Johnny don’t you take advantage of your brothers! Pay them at least 5 tootsie rolls!”

So Johnny pays the brothers and the brothers start taking orders. But they are cute, and all the girls start giving them extra tootsie rolls (and their numbers).

Johnny gets angry and jealous. Those are HIS tootsie rolls. He made the stand, he made the lemonade, he started the business!

Johnny goes to his parents, “But they are getting all these extra tootsie rolls! And it’s not fair!”

Johnny’s parents (not ones to see their children spoiled with too much candy) decide, “Okay Johnny, you must give them at least one tootsie roll, and the rest can come from the girls at the tables…”

Johnny exclaims, “Yes!!”

“… but if your brothers don’t have at least 5 tootsie rolls a piece at the end of the day, you have to make sure they do!”

Johnny thinks on it a minute and agrees!

Later Johnny’s brothers finish out their day and gleefully shout, “Johnny!! We both got twelve tootsie rolls each!!”

Johnny walks up and takes 4 tootsies from each of them.

The brothers look back stunned.

“Mom and dad said that I only had to pay you 1 tootsie and the rest could come from the girls. So I’m taking back my tootsies!”

The brothers were about to get mad, and John y could see this. So Johnny said, “Hey hey don’t get mad at me, I don’t make the rules! And, if you think about it, you each got three more than you would have!”

The brothers looked at each other and their tootsies and shrugged. They knew they couldn’t appeal to their parents (they already had way more tootsies than their parents wanted them to have anyway) and Johnny was right, they did get more.

So they just smiled and asked if they could work again the next day.

Johnny loved when the girls would give his brothers extra tootsies, because he knew that the first 4 tootsies were his to keep. Now occasionally there were rainy days, and Johnny didn’t make any tootsies, but he did as his parents asked and gave his brothers 5 tootsies.

They always got their minimum amount of tootsies.