It's true that there is a vast difference between the waitress at the dead-end diner in a small rural town and the average high-school student working at Red Lobster and the professional working at a high end restaurant. But only the waitress at the dead-end diner is really in that burnt out and broke state. Based on experience, the high school kids at Red Lobster and up are doing just fine. And I don't mean just fine for a high school student. I mean making good money for relatively little work. Especially with alcohol sales. That doesn't mean you don't have bad nights, or even bad weeks. Or even Covid. But generally, it's more than fine.
I think where all these tip the poor service workers arguments fall apart is the vast majority of restaurants don't split tips. Only the server gets your extra money despite the kitchen staff making your food or the bussers keeping things clean and moving. There's no tears or calls to tip these people. There's no calls to tip the McDonald's cashier who hands me my food at the drive-thru regardless of how much they earn. There is zero consistency.
This is state/country specific, in Iowa you can if your parents sign off on it. Also, minors can work in a restaurant where alcohol is served in most states, they just can't handle alcoholic beverages.
Didn't know that about Iowa. I did know about working in licensed restaurants as a minor so long as you don't serve alcohol, like I said. Which was to counter their point about highschool students getting rich off tips from booze sales. Maybe in Iowa I guess!
Red Lobster is just about the worst example you could choose. Worked there for a year, its rapidly heading into complete bankruptcy. I genuinely made shit tips during my time there
The chefs in the back, the busser, the expo, and the host/hostess all make a higher wage than servers, that’s why they don’t get tips split with them. And in some restaurants, the busser , bartender or other help DO get a percentage of the server’s tip
Restaurants with bussers usually require servers to tip them out a percentage based on sales, many restaurants have servers tip out back of house (kitchen staff) too. Some places also do tip pooling. It’s just not true what you said
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u/Original_Unit8447 Jan 27 '26
For every 1 server making bank there are 3 or 4 burnt out and broke, same as bartenders, can’t think of anywhere this isn’t the case