I don't want to eat in a Restaurant that pays the Wait staff $2.13 per hr

[FreakinDJ]

I need a list of the Cheap Ass Bastards (Restaurant Chains) who only pay the Wait Staff $2.13 per hour because I don't want to patronize any of them

I became enraged when I read this and I REFUSE to spend my money in any establishment that does that to fellow human beings

Even more shocking is the so-called tipped minimum wage (for workers who rely on tips), which has been frozen at $2.13 since 1991.

[redstatebluegirl]

1. Good Luck Finding One...

None of them pay their wait staff a living wage. They are using their national lobbying organization to make sure it doesn't change either.

The other night I saw a table of 5 who ran the wait staff ragged and then joked about not tipping her. I gave them a piece of my mind, they were in their early 30's lots of gucci and coach in full view. Makes me nuts! I tipped her double what I should have to try and make up for those idiots.

[FreakinDJ]

2. I don't think any American should stand for that shitty treatment by owners

I'll just stop eating in restaurants until I find otherwise

[we can do it]

13. You got that right.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. DU doesn't have enough bandwidth for a list like that.

Most of the chain restaurants pay that, or something close to it, and so do most mom-and-pops. When you take a job waiting tables, you expect to get paid a paltry hourly wage. It's usually just enough to cover the taxes on your tips, if it's even that much.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Stick to the States that don't pull that crap, like the entire West Coast where minimum wage is the

same for tipped or non tipped jobs and where those minimums are higher than the Federal minimum wage.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm

[FreakinDJ]

5. Thanks for the link - its safe to eat out in Calif

... stop it - don't even go there ....

[NYC_SKP]

7. As often as I can....

[Bluenorthwest]

10. I thought you were in CA, and yes wage wise safe to eat out

Also safe to tip well, because employers are not allowed a 'tip credit' docking the pay, tips increase the pay as they should. Good eating round your parts if I recall correctly about which parts you are in.

[FreakinDJ]

19. I am and I do

Yep I am in Northern Calif and when I go out I usually leave a good tip - as long as they don't spill catsup on me

[Proud Public Servant]

15. Then why tip?

I'm not cheap -- in fact, I'm a notoriously generous tipper -- but I do wonder why you would tip a server who is making the same wage as someone in a non-tipped job. It's not like a diner waitress is working any harder than a grocery store cashier or that movie theater usher who cleans up all the garbage between shows; if all three potentially make the same salary, why are you only tipping the waitress?

[SoCalNative]

17. Grocery store cashiers and movie theatre ushers

aren't providing a specific service to me, based upon my needs. They're not delivering my groceries directly to me nor are they waiting on me at my seat in the theatre. Same reason I do not tip fast food workers or Starbucks barristas.

[Chan790]

22. I don't like you.

You should be tipping all of those people. They are actually providing you a service. None of them are being well paid.

Cashiers: Tip cashiers anyways. They know the best shit. If the $40 in meat in your cart is going to be marked down 25% in another 5 minutes for end-of-day...the cashier knows. If you make their lives easier, they will help you too.

Ushers may not serve you at your seat but they are making sure your theater isn't a shithole, direct you away from sitting in the previous 5 year old's vomit and improving your viewing pleasure by asking disruptive patrons to leave.

Tip fast-food workers...they work harder than you will ever know or than you will ever work in your life. You get a fresh meal in minutes with a smile and a welcoming attitude. In exchange, they generally get treated like trash by most patrons.

Don't get me started on baristas. Not tipping a barista is like not tipping a bartender. People who stiff their bar-person are the worst people in the world. You don't even have to tip them well. Drop $0.25 in their cup every time you go and you'd be the best customer ever.

[Gormy Cuss]

23. Because it's the expected practice, that's why.

There's nothing stopping you from tipping the theater usher or grocery store cashier unless their bosses don't allow them to accept tips.

[Brickbat]

6. Depending on where you live, there may union restaurants you can eat at.

[ZombieHorde]

8. I live in Montana, and restruants here have to pay at least min wage.

Paying a server $2.13 is illegal in Montana. We have tons of restaurants all over town, and they do just fine.

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. There are a few states (the left coast for example) that have expanded their state

minimum wage to include these tipped positions, but if you don't live in one of those, your waitron is not making even subsistence wages without their customer's largesse.

Theoretically, thanks to Reich-wing tax laws passed in the '80s, even if a waiter got no tips at all, they would be taxed on 8% of their food sales and could end up owing money at the end of the week.

[Bluenorthwest]

11. the list, just for fun

http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm

[pipi_k]

12. Part of the trouble

with boycotts is that they often end up hurting the people on the bottom, who are hurting enough already.

OK, so say we all boycott restaurants who financially mistreat their employees. The restaurants lose business and end up having to fire some people.

People who HAD jobs now do NOT have jobs.

Do you really believe that people who work in restaurants for shitty pay do it because they want to? No. I would bet most of them do it because they can't find a better paying job.

So, by refusing to patronize the places where those people work, boycotters have effectively made those peoples' lives worse.


That is the double edged sword.

I have no good answer for the problem, but it seems to me that lots of people get themselves all fired up with good intent to change things without stopping to think of what the consequences could be in the end.

[Gormy Cuss]

24. A change in Federal law to eliminate the sub-minimum would be the best way to handle it.

Barring that though, remaining silent and patronizing restaurants that treat their staff this way does nothing to address the inherent stupidity of a subminimum wage for servers. What will make a difference is an organized effort to effect change, especially if a tool like a boycott is used to target large chains. It wouldn't kill the Darden group to pay all of its staff at least the Federal minimum wage and it could even be a good marketing too to say that no tips are accepted. Now, they'd have to pay their best servers more than the minimum to keep them, but again that is a business decision that would be made.

The argument that people will lose jobs is ALWAYS there when workers or consumers push back. Yes, it's a risk. Yes, such a risk should not be ignored. That doesn't mean that the risk outweighs the reasons for the action.

[lancer78]

14. The pizza Inn

I worked at back in 2000 paid all workers at least $5.25 an hour, even the ones who earned tips.

[Sgent]

16. Other than in states

where its illegal, I've never even heard of a restaurant that pays more than 2.13 to a "regular" waiter -- often they will pay bartenders, or those who close / open shifts slightly more.

[Glassunion]

18. I've never been a fan of sub-minimum wage.

Having worked for the same rate of 2.13 back in the early 90's. It really depends on the restaurant and what they choose to do with the server's tips.

One place I worked, us waitstaff had to cover a lot with our tips. Working there sucked. We had to cover the following. I'll use a nice round $50 with a 15% ($7.50)tip to explain.

CC fees:
Every time a customer used a credit card, they would require the server to pay for the CC fees. The average (from what I recall was about 4.6%'ish) so the server would have to cover $2.65 of the customers total. - Tip is now: $4.85

Bar Tender:
$20 a night required tip out. At 5 tables with 2 turns a night (15 total table services), this would work out to $1.34 per table. Tip is now: $3.51

Busser:
$20 a night required tip out. The owner of the restaurant never paid a penny out of pocket for the bussers. This was covered 100% by the server's tip out at the end of the night. Another $1.34 per table. Tip is now: $2.17

So, by the end of the night (if you did not have any cheap fuck'o ass holes), you could expect to take home about $32 to $33 in tips on top of the hourly wage. At the time, this would squeak you in at about .43 cents an hour above the regular minimum wage at the time ($5.10hr). If you fell short of the minimum wage of $5.10 the restaurant would have to make up the difference. Even though your wages are 2.13, you still cannot make less than the regular minimum wage.

At another place I worked, it was a tad (huge) different. The same tab, and tip out of $50 and $7.50 tip, would leave me walking out the door making about $13 an hour. Back in the early 90's this was a decent wage, and a lot easier work than roofing (a story for another time). It was then my discretion on what to tip the bar tender and busser.

[Chan790]

20. I'm in favor of going to full-pay no-tips for restaurants.

The owner and not the customer should be obligated to pay the servers a wage.

I'd rather pay $10 for a burger and fries than pay $8.50 with a hidden cost in tips of another $1.28-$1.70. If the service is rare and exceptional, I may slip the server something extra from time-to-time with the expectation that occurs no more than 5-10% of the time.

One of my favorite restaurants (a foreign-cuisine) ever had a sign that said "we operate on the guiding principles of fine-cuisine restaurants in (country). It is considered an insult in (country) to tip, to both servers and restaurant as it implies that the restaurant is too cheap/low-quality to compensate their servers respectfully. Please do not tip. Servers will not accept gratuity. All received tips are donated to charity."

True to their word, they started servers at $13.50/hr F/T with benefits (and vacation and liberal sick-leave) and the waitress would not accept a dime from me. If I ever open a restaurant, that will be my policy.

[sinkingfeeling]

21. You'd probably better learn to cook. The majority of restaurants

fail to meet the law that requires them to make up the difference between $2.13 and $7.25 an hour if the employee fails to receive enough tip money to do it.