Will restaurant tips be enough to live off of?

Question

If i need to bring home around 2500 a month for my family, is this possible to do with tips at a restaurant like outback, johnny carinos, olive garden, or ruby river steakhouse?

Answer 1

No...you need to get a job in a high end, expensive restaurant to make that kind of money.

Answer 2

I worked at Outback 4 nights a week for five years.  I worked Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and averaged about $350.00 a week.  And that was at a top-ten company wide in sales restaurant.

Answer 3

It depends on where you live. Here in New Mexico I make $2.17 an hour. That is barely enough to cover my taxes alone. Which means I get zero dollar pay checks and live off of tips only. I work at a very nice restaurant and make pretty good money, but with out that hourly wage there is no way I could make 2500 a month.

Answer 4

Not in the current climate. Eating out is way way down.

Under normal conditions I'd say yes.

Answer 5

i don't think you can make that much money ...you might need to get a second job...

Answer 6

Unfortuntely not! Goodluck! I would go to a a high end restaurant.

Answer 7

ive seen people live off of it but not for a family. just for themselves living with roommates.  when i was waiting tables (about a year and a 1/2 ago) i   was also living with my hubby who actually has a good career. sorry but i dont think you can support more than yourself off of it!

and for the girl who said 15% is a good tip...S*it! does she not know its 20% or higher as in 20% minimum. that girl better not go out to eat ever again to the same restaurant if she doesnt want spit in her food

Answer 8

Here in California, minimum wage is $8 hour so for a month at 40 hours a week, that would be about $1300.   Let's say the average price paid per table is $50.  If you're a good waiter & get 15% tips, you would only need to wait on 8 tables per day ($50 each table @15% tip) to make up the remaining $1200 per month to get you to the $2500 you're looking at.   I would think that you would wait on more than 8 tables a day & that many of them would end up with more than a $50 bill, especially during the evening shift when people are ordering drinks from the bar & bringing in more than just two people per party.

Answer 9

sure if you figure out what your doing.  You can't take the tips daily and use them you have to make them part of your income.. best wishes.

Answer 10

I work at Outback 4-5 nights a week and bring home about $500 a week. That's what I claim... I always keep a few bucks to myself...

Answer 11

I guess that depends on where you live. In Raleigh, NC, you'd have to work about 50-60 hours a week in those type of establishments. I work in fine dining and would make that much if I could work 40 hours, but we just aren't open that many hours.

Answer 12

La Ti Da...You're math is terrible.  Well, not so much your math as your knowledge of how the restaurant business works.

No server in America makes minimum wage.  No server anywhere I ever worked ever got a raise in salary.  

Servers make 2.15/ hr., so, if you figure 40 hour weeks (which rarely happen, anyway), that's a maximum of 86/week, of which, you can bet, $100 goes to the government.  Most waitstaff wind up owning more than they get paid, because the government has figured out how much they make in tips, and now simply withholds that amount.

to make 2500/month, one would have to be raking in about $3000/month (to cover taxes, too), and that's about $150/night in tips...about 8-15 tables a night, using La Ti Da's formula of $50/bill.  It actually sounds kind of reasonable, when figured that way, but it's such an iffy business.  If there isn't enough business, you could be sent home, if there's a lot of business, you could be asked to stay and then you have to pay daycare extra (assuming your children are that young), and if you ever need extra, who knows if you can make that much?

I think waiting tables is a great job for young unencumbered people who don't have to worry about things like insurance and such (rarely available to waitstaff and restaurant workers, though with those big chains, I don't know...).

Good luck.

P.S.  I'm assuming these places don't involve tip-out to other employees.  If you have to tip the bartender, busperson and hostess, you need to make about twice as much.

Answer 13

That would be about 625 a week, I do not think that it can be done.

Answer 14

Depends on how much cleavage you show.

Answer 15

i don't think so... sorry

Answer 16

As a server at a fine dining steak restaurant, that would be questionable.  Especially now with the economy and taxes, people arn't going out as much especially to higher end meals.

Answer 17

As a new server, no, you will probably not make that much money at those places. You will probably have the worst shifts when you're starting out, plus people don't tip a lot at corporate places like that.

I have earned up to $900 a week in the service industry, but that was at busy bars and 4 star restaurants. The good thing about restaurants though, is that you're not taxed as much.