Hey guys! How we doing? Let me tell you a little bit about how I make my money. I am a minimum wage employee in the state of California. After taxes my hourly wage is effectively 10/hr. On a nightly shift, combining my hourly with tips my payout is typically between $250-400. Typically I walk away with about 10% of the total revenue from my drawer. My effective hourly wage is between $30-50 an hour depending on how much “I get my shit kicked in”(as we affectionately call it) for that evening. Mind you my hourly is $15. My employer would have to double my wage just to match what I make on a slower night.
To me, it’s an asinine suggestion that cost should be increased and that will lead to fair wages for employees. You are putting the money in the hands of the people that are responsible for the unfair wages in the first place. And you expect them to “do the right thing”. Naive. Keep your bill lower, don’t touch my wage, and consider that your tip is actually a commission for the evening to the people that are actually running the business.
So basically what I’m saying is, I want you white knights that think your half thought out, generically vague “wage increase” is going to do anything but hurt the servers and benefit the owners in the service industry; Stay out of our industry and if you don’t like tip culture, just be one of the dirt bags that stiffs me, cause I get plenty of y’all, and I typically know when it’s coming because y’all also act like the most entitled people in the building. You’re not required to tip, but you should expect your service to reflect that.