Tip or Stay Home

Part of my series on why we're expected to tip waiters and waitresses when dining in a restaurant. It's a touchy subject, so please read Part 1 & Part 2 before continuing.

While I can't accurately call it a paycheck, here's the
breakdown of my "Earnings Statement" AFTER Federal Taxes 

Okay cue the violin music. Not!

Like I've made clear before, waiters and waitresses have chosen our profession and lifestyle, and I'm not complaining, so much as explaining.

But inquiring minds want to know, so here's how my paycheck works ...

In short, the income taxes due on our tips (the amount we claim at the end of every shift) often exceeds our hourly pay.

Another way of putting it would be that "taxes often eat our paychecks down to nothing."

In long, Restaurants (except for very few cities or states) are not required to pay waiters, waitresses and bartenders even minimum wage. In Florida where I live now, the minimum wage "for tipped employees" is a whopping $4.65 per hour. This may sound paltry to you, but other wait-staff reading this may be jealous! When I waited in New Mexico, my pay-scale was $2.85 an hour. Where I started out, in Tennessee, it was - and still is - $2.13. (See http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm for more.) Yes my redneck friends, you know people who feed their families on $2 an hour, plus whatever you leave behind.

Let's say I have "an okay night." As a result of my great service, you fine folks and others like you tip me a grand total of $100. As my readers already know, this entire amount is not mine to keep. Just like you when you see an auto-grat on your bill, I am forced to mandatorally "tip-out" a portion of my sales to that evening's bussers, food-runners, bartenders and hostesses. Let's call it $25, altho some nights it's closer to one-third.

I go to clock out, and I have to report to the restaurant and the IRS how much I am truly "walking with" so $75 total. I worked from 5:30pm to 10:30pm, or, five hours. 5 x $4.65hr is $23.25 I'd be due in wages, BEFORE TAXES.

Guess what tho?

If Uncle Sam takes out just 20% of my $75 in tips ($15), my wages due (for that shift) would come to eight bucks and change. This might be a typical "average" for waiters across the country. (I personally earn more in tips than this "average" example however. If I consistently averaged only $75 a day, I'd be job-hunting). Hey let's not forget that the $4.65 also gets taxed tho, and knock another $4 out of the equation, leaving four bucks and change.

All told, I'd estimate that the average server across the U.S. might actually take home about $5-10 per shift on their paycheck - IF their payscale is $4.65. For those of us that earn only $2hr... well you can see that they (like myself) clock out actually still owing the government money, because even at $3hr, times 5 hours, minus the $15 owed for taxes, still equals nothing. Less than nothing really.

Some mitigating factors :

Neither Florida nor Tennessee have a State Income Tax, but this is pretty rare anymore, correct? In states that DO also deduct state taxes, your server's check will likely be even smaller than the scenario I've described, even if their hourly wage is higher, and especially if they work in a busy place with high prices and large tips.

As paradoxical as it might possibly be hitting you to realize this for the first time, I'm actually glad when my paycheck is Zero, because that means that I must have "walked with" some pretty good money overall in tips the last couple of weeks. For me to actually receive a paycheck of $100 for two weeks, means that it's our slower season(s) and/or that I'm getting stiffed left and right.

Personally, while I am married, I claim "Single" when I start a job, in hopes of getting more taken out of my check to avoid owing at the end of the year, and maybe getting something back. Also, I DO claim all of my tips each shift, but some servers do not (or so I've heard!) because they're hoping to owe less in taxes and maybe get a paycheck.

When my restaurant is busy and I'm making over $100 per night, I get a paycheck of $0 pretty consistently. Coast-to-coast, I'd say servers who do get something on their paychecks receive between $20 and $80 per week, but only if they are working in a slower place, during a slower time or season, where menu prices are reasonably low (say like Ruby Tuesday or Olive Garden, since I've mentioned my past work experience there so often).

Not exactly a livable wage, is it? So yes, whether we make any money to speak of or not is 95% dependent upon our guests rewarding us appropriate to the service they received.

But even if you think you got "bad" or "not good" service (and I mean opposed to "awful") to my mind "stiffing a server" or leaving nothing at all is 100% out of the question.

Why?

While Wikipedia starts with the standard definition
that "tip" or "gratuity" is optional, it also notes (below)
that tipping is "expected" in the United States.
(Above : For those of you still living in the 1950's
I just wanted you to see that your lame joke
or assumption was wrong. T.I.P.S does not
stand for anything, much less Promptness,
Proper, Performance, Preferential, etc 

Well, did you get lousy service, or no service at all? Did you stand in line to order and wait there, only to carry your own food to your table - or to your car? Did you make, serve, or re-fill all of your drinks yourself? Did you call in your order and just pick it up and leave?

Or, did someone come TO you, bring you some drinks, and maybe answer a question for you or make recommendations? And then write down your order, communicate with the kitchen staff on your behalf, and did someone bring you your food - eventually? Whether they seemed congenial and genuinely happy about it, or whether he or she managed to also stroke your ego or not in the process is partly irrelevant.

What I'm specifically asking is did you or did you not get something to eat brought to you from that worker while you sat on your tush and talked with your family, friends, or business associates?

Finally, did you clean up after yourself, take your dirty dishes to the kitchen, then wipe down the table leaving it set and suitable for someone else to sit there?

Are you getting my drift?

Even if you didn't get what you or I would honestly deem as "great service" in almost all cases where you dine out at a sit-down establishment, you got "some service" and you owe somebody some money for doing all those things you didn't do for yourself. If you don't feel you should leave a great tip, leave an adequate one and call it a convenience fee - like when you pay more for groceries at a convenience store for the "service" of not having to park your car 500 feet from the entrance, and fight through the generally higher body count of a real grocery store.

Just like you pay a convenience store more for the same item(s) - in our line of work, you don't pay the restaurant a dime for all the convenient "services" you receive (compared to a fast-food drive-thru). The restaurants typically don't pay us (much) for for the work either, so it's all up to you.

The bottom-line reality is that someone (a human being) did something - many things probably - for you, that you did not have to do for yourself. You owe that person some money, in American culture at least.

I say, if you got LOUSY service then maybe leave a lousy tip (10% perhaps, if your honest goal is to insult the server) ... but no tip at all makes you a thief and a total louse in my book. That server is still likely paying other staff members a percentage of your bill, and stiffing them means that waiting on you cost them money out their pocket. You're treating someone as human scum if you stiff them, and you're acting like you honestly expect other people in this world to cater to you and receive nothing in return.

Good service, leave a good tip (15% at the absolute minimum, if the server met the minimum requirements of the position, but had a bad attitude or made you feel less than special). Great service, leave a great tip (20% or more). Exceptional, above and beyond, knocked your socks off service ...? To Infinity, and Beyond!

Well, if you're a first time reader, you probably think I'm a jerk now, or that I think you owe me a living somehow. That's not the case. I've known the ins-and-outs of serving for over two decades, and I'm still doing it. The bad apples haven't ruined the bunch, for me at least.

For my regular readers, I feel more like I'm speaking to my friends. Speaking rather directly that is (!) but only about something you wanted to know about, from someone you trust. And if you're still with me, it's only because you really wanted a straight answer, so I'm giving it to you.

Believe me, I know you're still finding it hard to even believe most of us servers get $0 paychecks frequently, and are hearing all of this for the first time. You can see now why those of us in the restaurant business have this mantra "If you've never worked in a restaurant, then you shouldn't be allowed to eat in one!"

Still, those without this knowledge out-number those who do have it. And the jerks in this world out-number my friends by a pretty large margin!

And for them, just to keep waiters and waitresses from following you out to your cars by the thousands with violent intent.. or just to keep us from walking out the doors in the middle of our shifts never to return, some people out there just need for the tip to be added to their check.

It's for the overall good of society, trust me.

Why paying servers more per hour won't work, and auto-grat pros and cons still to come...

On Guy's Work Blog ;)