<p>I have never been a waitress. I assume this is how it works: If all my tables are full and everyone tips the expected amount, I receive the best pay possible for that day. If half the tables are full because half the customers got take-out and there were lower or no tips, my pay is less. Am I wrong?</p>
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But your pay will also be less if half the customers go to McDonald’s instead of your restaurant. I don’t see the difference. Why should you get paid for a service you didn’t deliver?</p>
<p>Because my employer is setting up a situation where my pay depends on whether customers choose take-out or seating? And that is out of my control? What is the pay at McDonalds (where we don’t tip) vs the pizza place?</p>
<p>“Takeout is a bit of a murky situation.” That’s why I mentioned that most people who have worked in restaurants or have kids who have worked in restaurants tip for take out. For them—it’s not such a murky situation. They know what goes on behind the counter.</p>
<p>“Yet another reason for me to want to move to WA lol”</p>
<p>Come on over, romani! You can even wear your sweats and no one will give you funny looks. I have noted that some of the restaurant workers at places I’ve gone to for years are still there, very little turnover. A base pay of $9.19/hour, not including tips, pays more than many unskilled jobs around here. Then again, I consider hard working restaurant workers as skilled labor. Even being an extremely efficient and helpful busperson does take plenty of energy, skill and stamina. That was the only time I ever had serious abs, so well worth the effort.</p>
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Of course. Your employer offers several different products–one is seated service, and the other is takeout. They shouldn’t cost the same, because they aren’t the same. If takeout overtakes seated service enough, the owner will reduce the size of the wait staff. This would be a rational economic decision. What’s wrong with it?</p>
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But takeout has greater customer turnover; therefore, greater potential for revenue. For seated meals, the owner can’t accept another customer until a present seated customer vacates the table.</p>
<p>Probably you are right Hunt. Rational economic decisions. And the economy. It will all work out okay in the end for everyone.</p>
<p>“I have never been a waitress. I assume this is how it works: If all my tables are full and everyone tips the expected amount, I receive the best pay possible for that day. If half the tables are full because half the customers got take-out and there were lower or no tips, my pay is less. Am I wrong?”</p>
<p>Possibly. If your tables are full, and they are all seated at the same time, you could be swamped and unable to give good service. Therefore making you work very hard, but getting very low tips for each table. If you have less tables, you might be able to give better service, not work as hard and get better tips.</p>
<p>It also depends upon the shift, and the day. Sunday afternoons were a day that everyone hated to work at my restaurant. The reason? Cheap church ladies. They would come in large groups, ask for separate checks, be very demanding, completely fill up your section, and leave…nothing. Since I was just a college student and not surviving on my money like some of the other women, it didn’t bother me so much, and I made it a challenge. I would give these ladies the best service possible, be as nice as I could be, even though I knew they wouldn’t leave me a dime. And lo and behold, every now and then that group of ten would leave me a dollar! Even sometimes, two dollars! Now that was a victory.</p>
<p>Anyways, as a customer, you don’t tip based upon how much you think the person is getting paid, how many customers they might or might not have, etc. There is no way that is your responsibility. Though sometimes I do feel sorry for a person who has no customers and tip them up a lot. The problem I find more often, is that if I’m the only person in the restaurant, they forget about you and you get the worst service possible. So I don’t sit too long, I walk up to the table where they’re chatting, braiding each others hair, or texting, and say, “Hello”.</p>
<p>Here’s how it works in restaurants that I or my daughter have worked at. Each server is assigned a station. If you were assigned the dreaded station that was usually at the front of the house–you were responsible for assembling the to-go orders. Bags, condiments, submitting the order, making sure that the kitchen has correctly fulfilled the order, etc. Sounds like a piece of cake, but believe me…NO ONE ever wants that duty in a busy restaurant. I have more than one reason why I tip. . The first being that I tend to patronize the same good local places over and over again,these people know me and I do not want a resentful person coming between my mouth and my food.</p>
<p>I worked as a seating hostess at an upscale restaurant in a theme park while in college and received minimum wage and no tips. The kids who worked as waitresses and bus boys easily made twice as much as I did because of the tips so I find it odd that I’m supposed to feel pity for how little money they get. Of course, different sorts of restaurants may be structured differently but usually those receiving tips do not declare the full amount on their taxes so those workers are not always as downtrodden as you may think.</p>
<p>MOST hostesses in restaurants are highly resentful of wait staff. It goes with the territory. And no one on wait staff expects pity from a hostess. Just don’t seat their section all at once. That’s all they ask.</p>
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<p>Congratulations! That has to be the dumbest, most pointedly asinine juvenile post I have ever read. </p>
<p>PS: (1) I never said I would tip $10 for a $50 order. (2) I am very far from rich. But (3) you are correct about one thing - I am not too bright if Ive bothered to respond to your post.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t tip the To-Go line at Chili’s, so, no.</p>
<p>" most people who have worked in restaurants or have kids who have worked in restaurants tip for take out. For them—it’s not such a murky situation. They know what goes on behind the counter."</p>
<p>Exactly. Someone is still cooking the food, making sure it is prepared right, packaging it up, making sure condiments, disposable silverware and napkins are in the bag. Inside, you might have several people doing all of those things-one cook, one server, one waitperson, one busser. Take out is done by one person for EVERYTHING, save for the cooking. They might be even busier, especially in bad weather, than inside staff. </p>
<p>At D’s restaurant, the take-out person is NOT the hostess. At her place, the hostess also has to clean the restrooms. Take out is done by either an assigned person who also waits tables if it’s busy or it’s done by someone also “expediting” orders in the kitchen. </p>
<p>I don’t believe I’ve ever HAD a $50 take out order. But I DO tip 20%, which I was taught years ago, in economics class, of all places, in a discussion about hourly pay and how tips figured into the overall wages for restaurant and other service workers. I guess I’m stupid too.</p>
<p>Back in the day I worked at a family coffee shop style restaurant across from Disneyland, Disney families were already horrible tippers, but then sometimes one was assigned the section with the counter. Counter sitters were even worse than families. The worst thing about the counter was having to do take out orders. The orders are complicated and time consuming, with all the flatware, salt & peppers, etc., nothing was really set up well for it, so one had to scrounge around to find the needed extras, it took time away from the rest of the station and rarely were tips given. I do tip on take out now, because of that experience.</p>
<p>somemom…I wonder if we worked at the same place…(Hamburger House) ??? Sounds like. As shifts came on and staff checked what station they had been assigned, you could hear the groans all the way in the front when they realized that they had been given the counter.</p>
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I don’t think you’re stupid, but I don’t think you’re recognizing the distinction between different things. If wait staff is taking care of the takeout orders, I think they should be tipped–but I still don’t think that the average takeout order takes up nearly as much of a server’s time as waiting on people seated at a table. If the person taking care of take-out isn’t part of the wait staff, that person has a non-tipping job. That may be hard on them, and some people may choose to tip them, but it’s actually the restaurant’s obligation to pay that person an appropriate wage. I guess the problem is that it’s hard for a customer to know who’s doing what, so maybe it’s nicest just to tip–but still, I think, less than for table service.</p>
<p>Somemom mentioned not getting tipped at the counter. Cheap people are adept at rationalizing their tipping habits. Counter people: “it’s not like I’m sitting at an ACTUAL TABLE!” Seriously…that’s what they thought.</p>
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I certainly don’t agree with this–they are getting as much of a server’s time as somebody at a table does.</p>