Big Mo, primitives, discuss restaurant wages

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025495612

Oh my.

mopinko (42,018 posts)    Sat Sep 6, 2014, 01:12 AM

so, theoretically, restaurants COULD pay servers

anything. yet afaik, they only, ever pay the paltry tipped wage.

even for the best tipped servers, there are UNTIPPED hours. setting up, breaking down, cleaning.

why the heck nobody i know ever got a raise, a little something for years of service, is quite the mystery to me.
 
anybody ever heard of a tipped wage earner that got any more than minimum?

unblock (25,685 posts)    Sat Sep 6, 2014, 01:22 AM

1. technically they're supposed to get the full, non-tipped wage for non-tipped work hours

but in practice i'm guessing they only get that when the entire shift is non-tipped work.

mopinko (42,018 posts)    Sat Sep 6, 2014, 04:20 PM

6. i have never, ever seen it happen.

plus nights when i made $5, because i had an empty section. that happened pretty routinely, and it would have been easy to make a slight adjustment for shifts in that section. instead, they just rotated the servers. pacified them.
 
my daughter drove a hansom cab. same shit. 2 hours in the barn, heavy work, zip.

with a little tax fraud on the side. independent contractor scam.

LadyHawkAZ (5,807 posts)    Sat Sep 6, 2014, 01:39 AM

2. yes, but 1) we were union and 2) it was bar, not restaurant. unions matter

mopinko (42,018 posts)    Sat Sep 6, 2014, 04:17 PM

5. the union i was in as a cook

which was back in the day, was just a mob sinkhole. they fought for your right to make something like a dollar over minimum wage.
 
bars, i have seen. bartenders usually make more here, even tho they are tipped. the rational being that they are pouring for someone who is getting tips, when they could be getting people drunk and chatting them up.

and bars have the additional issue of moral hazard. lots of cash changing hands. lots of ways to pretend it's your money. lots of ways to short the till. or drain the inventory.

Bluenorthwest (32,044 posts)    Sat Sep 6, 2014, 09:58 AM

3. Here in Oregon, tipped employees get the full minimum wage in addition to tips and yes, some get

paid above the minimum wage of 9.10 an hour as well. No such thing as a 'tipped wage' here.

mopinko (42,018 posts)    Sat Sep 6, 2014, 04:13 PM

4. ^^this. there is something about it.

restaurants feel like it's not their job to pay the servers. if they made as much as the dishwasher, they would be actually paying them.

which might actually lead to the idea of paying them MORE.

Laelth (20,720 posts)    Sat Sep 6, 2014, 04:31 PM

7. I am shocked but very pleased to read that, Bluenorthwest.

Good for Oregon.

[Carl]

Ask a good waitperson if they would rather work for tips or a wage.
Most will opt for tips.

[Dori]

mopinko (42,018 posts)    Sat Sep 6, 2014, 04:20 PM

6. i have never, ever seen it happen.

plus nights when i made $5, because i had an empty section.

You must have been a lousy waitress if all you made was $5, or that was back in 1940.

[Carl]

You must have been a lousy waitress if all you made was $5, or that was back in 1940.

Can you imagine that grotesque thing bringing a meal to you?

[I_B_Perky]

Ask a good waitperson if they would rather work for tips or a wage.
Most will opt for tips.

Yep. Especially if they are cute, young ladies. 

[thundley4]

It's a good thing most fast food workers don't work for tips. Most of them would be paying their employers to work there.

[FiddyBeowulf]

Yep. Especially if they are cute, young ladies. 

I rather have a good but plain looking waitress be my server than a cute one that ****s up my order but that is just me.

[Dori]

I rather have a good but plain looking waitress be my server than a cute one that ****s up my order but that is just me.

The best waitress I worked with was neither cute nor young.  She just knew what she was doing, made huge tips and even had her own clientele who would only sit in her section. 

As most things go in life, it's all what you make out of it. 

[JohnnyReb]

When wages get so high that we all quit eating out, where will DUmmies go DUmpster diving for food scraps?