Posted on 04/25/2013 9:01:40 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
(Newser) – Many waiters are still waiting for their minimum wage to rise—which it hasn't in more than two decades. The federal minimum for servers is set at $2.13 an hour, though if they don't make at least the regular minimum of $7.25 when tips are added in, employers are supposed to make up the difference. That doesn't always happen, a waitress tells Bloomberg. She saw her wages plummet when she moved from California, which has a state minimum of $6.75, to New Mexico, which is one of 13 states to use the federal minimum.
President Obama has called for an increase in the tipped minimum, and things could change if Congress takes action on legislation this year. A bill introduced last month would boost the figure to $3 and eventually to 70% of the full minimum wage, which itself would rise to $10.10 by 2015. But some business owners and economists fear a wage boost could prompt cuts to jobs and hours, and House Republicans aren't likely to support the idea, says a former Bush administration official.
This woman may be the worst waitress in the United States.
I can see her waiting on tables right now.
1) Throws menu at customers
2) Smells and has a big bugger in her nose
3) Smoking a cigarette while taking orders
4) Takes a phone call while food is prepared and serves it cold to the wrong customers.
5) Passes gas when taking the plates away
Then complains she didn’t get a tip.
90% of what they make is on tips, and tips have gone up as food prices have gone up. The notion that waiters and waitresses and bartenders etc make the same thing they did 22 years ago is absurd. In a good restaurant, they make very good money, and the good restaurants rarely have problems getting staff because the money is so good.
This is not an issue for the government to solve.
3 daughters currently are servers. They make about $10/hr when you combine tips and base pay, and work hard for it. Since it all goes into the bank for school and they have no bills to pay, it’s not a bad job.
There are two groups who fail to tip them nearly 100% of the time: bratty high school kids and Mormon elders.
That is why I tip in cash, even if I use a credit card to pay for the meal. Screw the Government, I already paid taxes on that money.
With Helicopter Ben pumping up the money supply, I expect that when I'm old that sentence will be "they’re stuck in the days when 25 dollars was considered a decent tip".
And the place that doesn't produce good tipping income will not get, or retain, good waitresses with experience. So the progression would be that people with no waitressing experience go to work for such a place, get experience, then move on to a better-paying place.
Glad to hear that I heard wrong about that, then, or that it’s not universal. Leave it to the IRS to decide that redistribution of people’s personal property is an OK price to pay to ensure nobody’s getting anything untaxed.
So did her cost of living.
Waitressing (at Perkins Restaurant) was the absolute BEST money I’ve ever made!
This is between employer and employee. Anyone in America who is stupid enough to work for two bucks an hour deserves exactly what they get. Demand higher salary, and if it isn’t granted, go find a job that gives it. Stop whining about some minimum wage, and actually treat this like the free economy it is.
I remember watching a waitress dump an order of french fries into the lap of one of her customers, and she couldn’t even manage an apology.
I wonder if she any conception of why she didn’t get a tip?
Hell, that gal should not only not get a tip, the customer should get five minutes with his hands in the tips she got earlier in the day.
Spreading the wealth at it’s finest. It always bothers me to know the tips are pooled and divided amongst the servers. Kind of a crappy way for the weaklings to get the same as the outstanding ones. Ah, ya gotta love the commie way. Not sure if it’s an irs thing. If so, just more govt intrusion into our daily lives.
Are you adopting currently? LOL!
Well, some posted and informed me that it’s not universal. I knew some restaurants were doing it, and I knew the IRS had been hot on tip income for years, and it would make things more convenient for them, AND be unfair, so I assumed the two were connected.
My niece lasted one pay period serving at an IHOP in a lousy location. Her entire paycheck was 0.00.after funny deductions, and when she complained, she was told she had her tips, which she didn’t because they were really lousy tippers in that neighborhood.
I love IHOP, but I’ll never be at that one.
We used to be on an honor system. We were to take 10% of our total tips and turn it over to the bartenders. They would take a % and then turn the rest over to the bus staff to split up. We were always loaded up on wait staff, so our tips weren’t spectacular.
They paid us $2. something an hour 25 years ago. Then the company started to “factor” 10% of our total sales for the night (we ordered and were tracked through a computer) and enter that as our tip total for taxes. Everyone was PISSED.
I’m surprised that the pay for wait staff is still the same as it was 25 years ago.
Haha...I like that...may I borrow it ?
When they ask me where I would like to sit, I say "the eating section, please"......good for a laugh too...
Good waiters in good restaurants make boucoupe bucks.
It falls well below the gov't maximum for tax-free gifting. I almost never leave a tip on a credit card, I leave cash on the table. I worked hard for my money all my life, and know what it is like. If the service is good, I always tip over 20%, even if the food leaves something to be desired.
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