I was in the office kitchen a little while ago – just waiting for my soup in the microwave to go ping, when this poster caught my eye.
It wasn’t so much the minimum wage of $7.25 that struck me – although I am quite sure I earned more than that when I worked in restaurants over twenty years ago (wow now I feel ancient). The piece that shocked me was that employers of people who get tips, eg waiters,can pay them as little as $2.13!
It’s pretty typical in the US to tip between 15-20% in restaurants. Which is a lot if you are British and used to tipping up to 10% if the service has been amazing.
I think that’s the issue -and why Brits are notoriously bad tippers. I’m used to rewarding people who’ve done a bit more than just plonk approximately what I’ve ordered down in front of me. I’d expect serving staff to at least be nice, possibly even friendly…in the good old US of A, the tips are pretty much ALL THEY GET PAID.
Which makes me wonder why some of the servers are so grumpy…how much does a smile cost? I remember one time, I was planning to pay the meal by credit card but leave a tip in cash. The waiter shouted at me for not leaving a tip…so I didn’t.