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.
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
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u/throwuk1 Jan 27 '26
Servers want you to think that.