Why do waiters act like they are underpaid?

Question

Why do waiters sulk about being underpaid when they earn more than many full-time employees like teachers when you account for their tips. Full-time servers typicaly earn 30-40K on average per year and the ones in nice restaurants in metropolitan cities can earn close to 100K.

My question to servers is if it pays so little as you claim, then why don't you work for fast food restaurant since they are always hiring and pay a lot more?

Answer 1

Oh dear God!! Not hating just stating here..

I am a waitress first of all. I work in a greasy pervert filled wing restaurant. I make 3.65 an hour and get paid every 2 weeks. so my last check was roughly 140 bucks. That being said this past week I worked 5 days sun- Thurs. I have made about 260 dollars plus 70 for this weeks hourly that I will receive on next weeks check. That is less than 360 dollars.. Now take into mind that most of us have to pay for walk outs at least 50% if not 75-100% of the bill we have to pick up all those ity bity paper balls people make with their straw wrapper. We have to sweep up all the crumbs and pull out the tables and get all the cracks clean. Everything on the table down to the pepper and salt is filled by us. Lets not even get into rolling 150 pieces of silver ware or sidework pulling out soda machines and scrubbing toilets?? You really think waitress' have it made in the shade. Think about this saturday and a football game is on you are working a lunch shift a night girl calls out so you have to work a double any where from 10 to 16 hours depending on the place you work. My resturaunt is about 11 hours on a double maybe 13 hours. you deal with drunk guys grabbing you. Rude old ladies screaming and rolling their eyes because you served them american chese instead of provologne (even though you made sure to tell the kitchen) The drunk guys walk out on a $60 dollar check which you have to pay ( thats all of your money from the first shift you worked plus some form the second) Miss priss pot cheese lady decides it is your fault that the cheese isnt correct stiffs you or even better she leaves you 57 cents but her screaming twins left you a 15 minute mess to clean up while a party of 30 is waiting for you to clean that table so they can use it among 3 other tables.. They may leave you $40 but they stayed for 2.5 hours and took up 4 tables so you probably lost about 10 dollars in the meantime. Now you tell me who is underpaid at the end of the night when I go home to my family with 27 dollars after working 10 hours because someone decided it would be funny to not tip their waitress or dine n dash with out paying the check. I can't say much for teachers I am not a teacher unfortunately I am a waitress...

Answer 2

Because being a good server in a good restaurant is HARD WORK, you have to put up with a lot of bull**** from your customers, and you're not guaranteed a good wage for your efforts - if you live off your tips and get a bunch of cheap tables, you might not even make enough money to make your being at work worthwhile to begin with! Not every state ensures that servers make a living wage like Oregon. A teacher knows they're going to get paid for all the work they do, a server has to rely upon their skills, the mood/generosity of their tables, and sometimes just luck. You're comparing apples to oranges.

Answer 3

I wish I could use the term double shift to describe my job. SInce I work in the morning, afternoon and evening, does that mean I work a "triple shift"?

All of you are embellishing and providing the very worst scenarious. Any one of us could embellish the very worst part of our jobs and suggest that is the norm, and that's exactly what you are doing. It's pretty obvious you are exaggerating. Dine n dash does not occur routinely nor does a group of people sit at a table for 2.5 hours.  None of that is routine. It just seems like you are getting defensive and offering exaggerated tales as some form of retribution. Please, stick to reality.

Again, if the pay is so low and fast food workers supposedly make more than you, why aren't you guys working for Burger King. Why are you still waiting tables. Go work at McDonalds for 9 dollars and hour.  If you are job is so terrible then why are you still there? If other jobs are so much easier and pay better then why don't you work those jobs?  It's not like you are nurses or teachers that work in spite of the bad conditions because they are trying to make a difference. You have every reason to leave that job but you choose to stay.

Answer 4

WELL I AM A SERVER AT A STEAK HOUSE IN WISCONSIN AND I MAKE 2.33 AN HOUR PLUS TIPS ... SO MY HOURLY WAGES USUALLY COVERS MY TAXES AND THE MONEY I MAKE COMES FROM MY TIPS .. AND SERVING IS HARD WORK.. MY WAGES ALL DEPEND ON WHAT KID OF TIPS I AM LEFT.. NOT TO MENTION 3% OF MY SALES FROM THE NIGHT GO TO A TIP SHARE FUND THAT IS SPLIT  BETWEEN BARTENDERS, HOSTS, AND BUSSERS.. SO IF YOU LEAVE A 15% TIP ON A TABLE .. I REALLY ONLY MAKE 12% OFF OF IT.. AND TO MAKE THE KIND OF MONEY YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT YOU NEED TO WORK ALOT OF DOUBLES AND WEEKENDS BUT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT AREA YOU LIVE IN AND WHERE YOU GOT YOUR INFO..NOT TO MENTION THAT WHERE I WORK YOU ONLY GET 3 TABLES SO IF PEOPLE  SIT FOR A WHILE THEY TAKE AWAY ONE OF YOUR TABLES.. SO THE MONEY CAN BE GOOD BUT IT ALL DEPENEDS ON WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE YOU GET A YOUR TABLES...

I SUGGEST YOU TRY IT YOURSELF FOR A WHILE

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW THIS IS NOT MY FULL TIME JOB .. I  DO IT PART TIME BUT SOMETIMES IT IS HARDER WORK THEN MY  FULL TIME JOB NOT TO MENTION YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH ALL TYPES OF PEOPLE



SORRY TO SOUND LIKE A BROKEN RECORD SHAIMIA

Answer 5

1. you have to work 6 days a week double shifts( lunch and dinner to make that money

2. the restaurant HAS to be a very busy one with a great location

3. servers get paid 2 dollars and 60 cents an hour. and when they get thier tips they have to claim it at the end of every shift. than the tax for that gets taken out of that 2 dollar an hour from the check, since the check will not cover the tax then the server end up paying thier tax at the end of year which is few thousands of dollares, unlike the rest  when they get a refund

4. ppl are supposed to pay 15-20percents depending on the service, only few ones do that. ppl who don't do it are:

old people

international guests

teenagers and young adults

white trash and ppl from the hoods

5. then don't forget that servers have to tip out the helplike bartenders, bussers, food runners, and some restaurants they tip out the hosts stand

6. many many many restaurant guests camp out which means that instead of turning your table 2 or 3 times a shift you get stuck with a half  *ss turn and if they're lucky they get tipped that lousy 15-20 percent of the bill where the server could have gotten 3 times that. and the people who camp in restaurants are:

older ppl /they eat slowly

bussiness ppl with thier laptops and paper work that never ends

ppl on dates/ specially when they decide to sit next to each other and make out all night long

30-50 year old women when they go on girls night out, there is no way that they're leaving with out getting loud and drunk.

6. some ppl  come to a restaurant and demand the BOOTH, so if you are a server with no booths in your section or your section is too close to the kitchen, right under the fan, or you happen to have a family with kids in one of your table thenyou are doomed for the rest of your shift

7. some pple don't tip on alcohole

8. if food takes long time or it did not taste ok, or you were over quoted on the wait by the hostess then ppl always say the service was bad even though the server was not to blame for these errors and yet he doesn't get tipped, and even if the meal gets comped and paid for by the manager

9. some ppl come with a gift cert. or a gift card and they don't tip on that for some reason

10.some ppl recieve coupons in the mail and they use it to tip( yeah, thank you for the free soup with any purchase coupon tip, where do I cash that)

11. a lot of ppl use credit cards now and some take both coppies of the recipt after they fill it out, if the server doesn't have the signed copy with the tip on it then he can olny close it out to the bill without the tip

there are many more but I don't have enough time or energy

Answer 6

I dont know where you live, but here they dont get hardly anything unless youre in the right place, plus waitressing sucks, some people can't pretend to be happy!

Answer 7

it look to me that waiters don't like their jobs,but they keep working which means the only reason they keep working is because the money,and besides if u want a good tip u need to be nice to the customer and do your job well, stop complaining or find yourself another profession.

Answer 8

wow, douchebag haven here.....

everyone complains about there jobs.

why pick on the servers??

and ive never heard of servers making close to 100k. maybe if they worked in a 5 star restaurant in NYC. but not many ppl do. and if there pd that good, im sure the turn over rate is extraordinarily slow. and that type of possition you usually need at least 5 yrs of fine dining exp to get into, they arent just goin to hire some 16 yr old thats never waited a table before to wait on millionaires ordering 500$ bottles of wine....

last yr i made around 14k. working full time at a decent restaurant. so where you heard this 30-100k is a mystery, but tell me where to apply....

and...i have worked fast food, around here you get 7.15, the yr i worked fast food, i made 10k...woopty.

Answer 9

I agree! maybe they should go to college and work for a better job! geez, that's why America's called the 'land of opportunity'