When you go to a restaurant and leave the tip for your waiter or waitress, just know you are also paying for their rent, car bill and living expenses.
While tipping is a system that is completely flawed and cheats workers out of getting a substantial pay, it’s still important to uphold the practice.
According to The Economist, tipping originated in Europe and was practiced in the United States starting in the late 1800s.
Employers would take advantage of this system by underpaying employees, and this practice persists.
Every state in the U.S. has a different minimum wage, but under federal law, minimum wage for tipped employees is about $2.13 per hour.
However, there are some states that are turning against that flawed system and paying tipped employees a full state minimum before tips, which is what California does.
However, tips are taxable income and waiters must report tips, so it makes their paychecks even slimmer.
As a waitress, I rely on my tips to compensate for the money I spend in the two weeks in between paychecks.
As a college student, I fortunately only have to pay the bill for my sorority and other outside expenses for myself.
However, many servers rely on their income to pay for their groceries, electricity bills and other living essentials.
When you add your tip through a card transaction or put cash down on the table before you leave a restaurant, be aware that the whole amount is not going to your waiter directly.
Many restaurants split tips between cooks, dishwashers, bartenders and bussers.
One Fair Wage is a campaign that is working toward getting a full minimum wage for restaurant workers.
According to its website, restaurant industry jobs rank No. 7 out of 10 of the lowest paying jobs in the country.
It is very difficult for waiters and waitresses to live off of their regular paychecks, especially when it is not sufficient to start.
Not only that, but the amount of work and harassment servers deal with on a shift-to-shift basis can be hard to endure.
Contrary to popular belief, tips are no longer an extravagance or a supplement to a waiter’s income.
According to The Atlantic, tips make up as much as 40 percent of the income of all waiters and waitresses.
So if you think waiters have nothing to lose if you don’t tip, you’re actually inadvertently robbing them of a sizeable chunk of their income.
Waiters and waitresses are aware they have to work toward getting a greater tip at the end of a customer’s meal, and that oftentimes includes dealing with unbearable or racially discriminatory customers.
According to One Fair Wage, 70 percent of people who work in restaurants are women.
As a woman working in the industry, there are times we have to put up with sexual harassment from customers or even management.
The amount of work that goes into a server’s job is extensive, and all of that is not reflected in their pay.
When people decline to tip, it tends to indicate that the server did not do anything during their time in the restaurant, which is often an untrue narrative.
A full-service restaurant, or a sit-down eatery, tasks waiters and waitresses with many duties.
Not only do they physically have to be on their feet for their whole shift, but they have to be sociable and interpersonal in order to gain the respect of the customer.
Dining patrons should show their servers some respect and gratitude for providing a decent dining experience.
We need to recognize the hard work that servers go through for a less-than-average living wage.
