| TIPS LEAD TO OVERPAY- LETS PUT AN END TO ITMarch 25 2004 at 2:28 PM
No score for this post | AN ENLIGHTENED INDIVIDUAL (no login)
from IP address 66.124.173.58 |
| Have you ever done the math?
The average server working at an average restaurant (i.e. Applebees, TGIF, Chili’s, etc.) makes roughly $90,000.00 a year.
Do the math with me:
Average bill at one of these restaurants for two people is $50.00 (appetizers, two main courses and a few drinks)
Average dine time is 1 hour
Average number of tables a single server tends to is 5
Now lets calculate. 15% of $50.00 is $7.50 (the expected tip). Now multiply this by 5 and you get $37.50. Now add the server’s hourly wage of $6.00 an hour and that equals $42.50 an hour.
If this server works full time (40 hours a week) they make 40 x $42.50 or $1,700.00 a week. Now take that number and multiply it by the number of weeks in a year, which is 52, and you get an annual income potential of $88,400.00. This figure is not even for an upscale restaurant where I would bet they make twice if not three times that amount. All that money for doing nothing more than taking your order, making sure your glass is filled, bringing your food and offering you desert. What makes matters worse is that these servers EXPECT this money and if you don’t tip you are considered cheap- I have actually been chased out of a restaurant by an incompetent server and told I had forgotten to leave a tip.
I would like to start a revolution! These people are overpaid and we should not contribute to their unjust enrichment. It is my belief that people tip simply because they feel it is what they are expected to do; I doubt they ever stop to think about how ridiculous the custom really is. This travesty is made worse when even the most inept server expects 15% while one that simply manages to get through your meal without spilling soup on you expects 20% or more. Also, it seems that everybody everywhere now has their hand out expecting you to “take care of them”- Even Starbucks has a tip jar by the cash register. I would like to see changes to this custom and I think this is the best place to start. I dream of a world where tips are actually earned and not expected; that servers are grateful for a tip and not angry that they did not get one; that it falls out of favor to tip simply because a person puts their hand out; and that tipping recedes to a reasonable percentage (5-10%). This is a future I think is possible as people start waking up and asking “why am I giving you money for simply doing your job?” and “that sure seems like a lot of money considering there are 5 other tables I’m sharing you with.”.
Let this be known. Copy this and e-mail it to everybody on your e-mail list. Lets get the word out there so this dream can one day come true.
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| | Author | Reply | Ed
(no login)
141.157.7.19 | $90,000-Where's this restaurant so I can apply?No score for this post | May 9 2004, 4:12 PM |
You must be insane if you think that your calculations are in anyway accurate. For one, most servers do not earn an hourly wage of $6.00 a hour; their wage is usually around $2.38 an hour which they rarely see due to taxes. Second, most servers do not work 40 hours a week. And as for how you calculated an average check for two people, sorry, you are grossly mistaken. A more accurate estimation would probably be, if they are lucky, an average check of $30, usually about 20 tables average per shift, resulting in $600 total sales, or $120 in tips. Subtract from that bussers' and bartenders' cuts leaves you $96 per shift. Average 4 shifts a week, for 52 weeks, results in an average salary of $19,968. So, in terms of a full-time (40 hour) job, an average server would make approximately $12 an hour (9.60 + 2.38). Does that seem so ludicrous. I think not.
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| Jay
(no login)
205.206.19.70 | First things FirstNo score for this post | June 22 2004, 5:34 PM |
If your rebuttle is in fact true then whether a server receives a tip or not becomes very important.....However. Why is it so important?
Tipping has become a substitution for the wage that you should have been paid for a job well done. The owner of a restaurant gets away with paying you that miserly wage because he knows that, for the most part, the paying public will make up the money that he should have paid you.
I never tip. I have had many enjoyable restaurant meals. I'm sorry you make so little money per hour. Have you and your cohorts thought of approaching your boss for more money? If anyone needs a raise it appears you do. I know for sure that not all restaurants pay so very little. I know that when I am not paid what I believe I'm worth I begin looking for
another job.
Customers pay for the food, beverages, overhead, and service in the price on the menu. Restaurant Owners pay their employees. Why should it be any other way?
I would prefer every restaurant to be buffet style.
I go to a restaurant to
A) try food that I can't or won't cook myself.
B) Socialize with friends
C) Enjoy the benefit of having someone cook for me.
I could honestly care less whether someone serves me the food. I've got legs I can get up and get it and bring it to the table myself.
Think of what would happen if we could do that at every restaurant. We could...
1) Ensure our order is correct by telling the cook directly what we want.
2) Ensure the order is accurate before it gets to the table.
3) Make sure the food is hot, by bugging the cook until we get the food and we wouldn't leave it on the passbar while we attend to other tables.
4) Ask ourselves whether we want desert and actually listen to ourselves when we say no!
5) Being able to pay and leave when we want to pay and leave.
6) Tip ourselves (unless we didn't do what we wanted.)
While it's not quite nirvana it is an intriguing proposition.
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| forenzi
(no login)
161.40.14.178 | to the person that "never tips"Score 1.0 (1 person) | September 14 2004, 4:10 PM |
I work as a waiter in a upper scale restaurant and there are lots of customers who think the same way you do. " i never tip and i enjoy my meal...." I am sorry to say but i have worked with many of waiters that have waited on returning customers that dont tip and they tend to add personal body fluids to people who dont tip. i have seen this happen in 4 out of the 6 restaurants that i have worked in. I personally wouldnt do this but it happens a lot. so think about returning to a place where you didnt tip for they will remember you
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| Someone
(no login)
142.173.133.163 | Re: $90,000-Where's this restaurant so I can apply?Score 5.0 (1 person) | August 11 2004, 6:55 AM |
Stop bitching and find a better job you idiot. No one is forcing you to work there.
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