I
have been back in the food serving industry for six months now. I
believe there are some things about this industry that most people do not
realize. Some of these things seem minuscule but added up all together; it can
be quite an eye opener for some.
Minimum
wage for servers in my state is $2.13 per hour. It has been this
rate for as long as I can remember. Servers make their living off of tips –
this should be considered a commission-based industry.
Most
servers do not clock in and hit the floor to make tips. Some servers even have to pay parking where
they work so essentially they paying money to be able to park to work before
getting a dime in tips. After paying to
park, many servers have at least half an hour to an hour of “pre-shift” work to
do (at $2.13 an hour) before they can get on the floor to serve and make tips.
Servers
do not get to keep all of their tips. Most establishments require
tipped servers to “tip out” other employees. This
includes bartenders, food runners, bussers, hostesses and at some places,
kitchen staff. Some places I have worked at has allowed the server to tip what
they deemed appropriate, but most places rely on a percentage of food and
alcohol sales to determine the amount that the server is to “tip out”. This amount is then divided amongst the crews
it gets given to. At my workplace, the tip out is between 2.5 and 4% (depending
on the amount of people working) of my food and alcohol sales (bartenders get
tipped off of alcohol sales, others get tipped of off food sales). This is
non-negotiable. When a table doesn’t tip
me or forgets to leave me the correct credit card receipt with their tip and
signature (which I am required to claim a $0 tip on), I am still required to
pay my tip outs.
Most
diners are unaware of credit card fees. Where I work, we are required to pay 2.5% of
our credit card tips to pay credit card processing fees. This is the only place
I have worked for that has operated this way, but I have been out of the
industry for over a decade so perhaps now this is something standard.
In
order to serve alcohol in Indiana, servers must obtain a Liquor License
and pay a fee. In addition to this, some establishments require additional
training and courses such as Serve Safe and Bar Smarts (many of which time spent
to complete the course is not paid for), some are free and some require
out-of-pocket costs billed immediately and directly to the server. The most recent course I was required to take
was four modules that included reading and videos to watch and tests for each
module, combined with a final exam at the end of the course. The total personal
time invested was 3-4 hours. Most of these modules covered alcohol knowledge
and history, which is extremely knowledgeable for certain servers and
especially bartenders. I usually work breakfast shifts and rarely have anything
ordered other than a Mimosa. I do work lunch shifts but most of my clientele
are having working lunches so I found little use nor do I feel I will remember
much of what I learned six months from now. However, this was a mandatory
course for me to continue to be scheduled to work.
Many
servers enjoy their work.
To some people that have never served before, you might think that we
are all a bunch of college kids working for our nights out. This is not the
case. Most people are serving tables
because they enjoy it and can usually
make decent money in quick amounts of time. I have worked side-by-side with
grad students, graduated students, sales professionals and others. I worked
with one gentleman who graduated law school but is still working in the same restaurant.
Why? Because it provides him a quality of life he enjoys and it usually pays
the bills.
Next
time you go out to eat, remember this blog. Think about the big
picture while you are dining. Put yourself in your servers’ shoes; most of them
are there because they enjoy it and want to make your experience better.
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