Recently, I started working as a server for a new company. I have never worked in the restaurant business before. That is to say, I have no prior experience serving, bussing, cooking or hosting. My only experience in the industry is the many times I’ve been a customer.
Since I have started my job, I always tip 20 percent out of courtesy.
In the past, I may have tipped 20 percent because I felt the service was superb (back when the cultural norm was around 15 percent). Or I may have tipped 20 percent because I thought servers did not make much money because I had heard their minimum wage was around $4.
As a new server, I must ask you this: Please tip servers the proper amount.
Twenty percent is the standard amount, and it is not that much. For quick perspective, if you go to a restaurant and pay $20 for yourself, 20 percent of that is $4. You would then be spending $24 for that entire experience. For everything that a server must do for that $4, I think it is appropriate.
Let’s assume this $24 experience was a meal at lunch. Let’s also assume at this lunch, your server was extremely busy. While he or she was taking your order, he or she was also running around making salads, bread baskets and desserts, pre-bussing their own tables, getting drinks and refills, delivering food and taking other tables’ orders. Usually, I serve three tables at a time. During the entire shift, I am sweating to ensure you have a great experience, all to get those $4.
It is hard to explain just how important service can be.
Just the other day, a group of 16 people came into my restaurant and were immediately upset. We told them they had to wait 45 minutes to clear space for their party, but they were seated within 20 minutes. Within that 20 minutes, they had taken the names of both the managers on duty, both hosts, the servers and mine. However, by the time they were out, the party had told us that our service saved their experience. They left the restaurant happy. We were given a 20-percent tip to share and gratification that we could help someone out.
In one hour, I technically made around $25 ($20 for a split tip and $5 from wage). At minimum wage in retail, that would take someone three hours, but the level of work is not the same.
Basically, we don’t make that much money.
On that same day, I had a six-person party that spent exactly $190. For near perfect service, I was tipped $5. For perspective on percentages, 20 percent would have been $38. I was tipped less than 3 percent.
But hey, that’s still $5 that I got to bring home, right? Well, that’s not necessarily true. In the restaurant where I work, we share tips. Two percent of my total sales go to the bussers of the restaurant (they share that total from all servers), and 1 percent of my total sales go to the bartenders.
The party that spent $190 paid me in two $100 dollar bills. I gave them back $10 in change, and received only $5 as tip in return. At the end of the night, I give the restaurant all the money I collect from the sales of the food. I did not keep that $190. That, plus the shared tips, is what I give back to the restaurant at night.
Essentially, I lost money because of that table. Three percent of that $190 is $5.70. I should not lose money for near perfect service.
I beg you, dear reader, please pay your servers the proper amount. They deserve it.
James Hardison is a UF English sophomore. His column appears on Thursdays.
