I wonder if it would be impolite to ask a server how much the establishment is paying them.

If less than min. wage, then leave and tell them why.

1/23/2011 7:02:34 PM

You'd be hard pressed to find a restaurant paying $7.25 before tips

1/23/2011 7:06:48 PM

Yeah, that's incredirare. I know some places downtown sometimes pay $2.50-3.50 but that's odd.

1/23/2011 8:17:45 PM

In 2011 minimum wage in AK is up to $8.60 get that plus $15-20 an hour in tips and you're making around 50k a year. Oh yeah don't worry about income tax on that $8.60, alaskans don't pay that shit! God I hate MA's taxes.

1. Move to AK
2. Get a job as a waiter
3....
4. Profit?

1/23/2011 8:46:54 PM

by the way, I am insulted at the sexism displayed in this thread's title. Are women the only ones worth this concern? What about waiters who are also the victims of this discrimination?

1/23/2011 8:51:28 PM

^^ I'm fairly certain MA's income tax is lower than NC's. It's the property tax, and perhaps some others that's sky high.

1/23/2011 8:53:31 PM

^Only job I ever had in NC was as a student at the annual giving call center

All me earnins have come from AK and now MA.

[Edited on January 23, 2011 at 9:08 PM. Reason : .]

1/23/2011 9:07:05 PM

^^ yep. 5.3 vs at least 6

1/23/2011 9:12:28 PM

Quote :

" It's the property tax, and perhaps some others that's sky high."

Truth.

1/24/2011 1:37:06 PM

bttt

2/5/2011 11:30:31 AM

Quote :

"In 2011 minimum wage in AK is up to $8.60 get that plus $15-20 an hour in tips and you're making around 50k a year. Oh yeah don't worry about income tax on that $8.60, alaskans don't pay that shit! God I hate MA's taxes. 1. Move to AK 2. Get a job as a waiter 3.... 4. Profit?"

5. You still live in Alaska.
6. Alaska has a ridiculously high cost of living.

2/5/2011 11:33:53 AM

True. I left bc of reason 5. Cost of living is high but you more than cover costs in the big cities. If you're in a rural area it is far more expensive.

2/5/2011 12:19:44 PM

Quote :

"In 2011 minimum wage in AK is up to $8.60 get that plus $15-20 an hour in tips and you're making around 50k a year. Oh yeah don't worry about income tax on that $8.60, alaskans don't pay that shit! God I hate MA's taxes. 1. Move to AK 2. Get a job as a waiter 3.... 4. Profit?"

Besides that fact that you're basing your income around working a job that relies on an unknown to supplement the income to make it work, you have to back out a lot of benefits that you get with a "normal" job to really start looking at the "salary" in a service business job like that. I'm sure you already realize that though.

2/5/2011 1:03:09 PM

I never worked in the service industry so not really sure what it's like. I do have many female friends who are happy making $50k as full time waitresses. My main point was that it is possible to make a
good living @ $8.60 plus a shitload of tax free money from tips.

2/5/2011 2:36:58 PM

How big was the Alaskan City you were in?


Did they have the same local people come into the same local place that has been in the same spot for 50 or 60 years?

Those are pretty hard to compete with.

2/5/2011 2:44:56 PM

Quote :

"wait staff that makes more than minimum wage off of tips per hour... is getting healthy business!!"

some nights i can have $1200 in sales behind the bar and there be $400 in the tip bucket. That's a 30% tip rate, which would cause people like you to assume that just b/c the other bartender and I made ~$20/hour in tips that it correlates to the business making money. Someone would say well $400 @ 15% tip rate, the business sold $2600 worth of product when that really wasn't the case....

so just because the employees are ballin, doesn't mean the business always are....

2/5/2011 2:52:24 PM

When I delivered pizza, I got minimum wage plus tips. The place I worked at didn't get a high enough volume of deliveries to yield more than 20-40 dollars in tips for a 4 hour evening shift.

The minimum wage is really more of a benefit for established businesses than anyone else. Businesses just starting out might only be able to afford to pay a worker 5 dollars an hour. If someone is willing to work for that wage, they should be allowed to. If no one is willing for that amount, then the business will be forced to raise wages or go out of business. Minimum wage laws hurt both the unskilled laborer and newly created businesses.

2/5/2011 3:10:18 PM

I'd pay everyone similar wage and have the wait staff split the tips with the cook staff.

2/5/2011 3:25:39 PM

Quote :

"When I delivered pizza, I got minimum wage plus tips. The place I worked at didn't get a high enough volume of deliveries to yield more than 20-40 dollars in tips for a 4 hour evening shift. "

Servers get so much more in tips than drivers.

Not only do a lot of people not tip drivers. Drivers have to foot the expensive car repairs, rising fuel price.

If I raise the delivery charge, I'm guaranteed to get even less deliveries. lol

2/5/2011 4:09:55 PM

Quote :

"I never worked in the service industry so not really sure what it's like. I do have many female friends who are happy making $50k as full time waitresses. My main point was that it is possible to make a good living @ $8.60 plus a shitload of tax free money from tips."

well, hell a lot of people would be happy if they lied to the IRS/their employer and didn't pay proper taxes on all their income...

But yes it is definitely possible to make a decent living in the service industry. Just takes the right person/personality to put up with it and not mind the hours and lack of benefits. Some people definitely enjoy that lifestyle(have several friends like that) though and if it makes them happy then more power to them; I certainly have no problem with it.

What I was referring to was that I have several friends who work in the service industry and I worked in restaurants for several years (like many people on here I'm sure) before graduating college and have pretty mixed reports from the people who do it full time.

The ones doing earning a decent salary from it are the ones working the majority of weekend nights during the year and often working 6 days a week to pull up their average tip $/hr worked. They also pay a lot more for health care than someone with a "normal" job, get little if any help from a retirement aspect, don't have paid vacations, and don't get much of a "salary" uplift over their career etc. (Not including raises that's probably all equal to at least $15,000 in benefits annually right now I'd never get working as a waiter).

So, while I certainly wasn't saying someone can't make a decent living, I was just trying to point out that it isn't apples:apples when you throw out a number like $50,000 to someone working a degreed job at a decent company with a salary.

2/5/2011 6:18:16 PM

Quote :

"How big was the Alaskan City you were in? Did they have the same local people come into the same local place that has been in the same spot for 50 or 60 years? Those are pretty hard to compete with."

Around 50K a large portion of the population is military. No most restaurants are pretty successful bc Fairbanks Alaska is starved for variety. It doesn't even have all the main fast-food and chain restaurants so the market is much better for the common resterantuerp

[Edited on February 5, 2011 at 10:04 PM. Reason : .]

2/5/2011 10:02:54 PM