Tuesday, July 19, 2011

"Highest and Lowest Paying Restaurant Jobs"

My buddy, Hoots, used to say that servers were the highest paid workers in a restaurant.

In my 30 plus years I would agree. Servers at a cafeteria chain would make a couple hundred dollars per day, and all they did was get drink refills, condiments, napkins, etc., and to go containers. Not a bad gig considering anything over $5.15 per hour was not reported to the IRS. Oh yeah, they had to bus the table. Some thought they had to bust the table, but that's another story.

Here's the article:

More than a decade ago, I took a job as a server at a branch of a steakhouse conglomerate in rural North Carolina, where, for $2.13 an hour plus tips (including some insightful hand-scrawled notes in lieu of dollars), I waited tables and swept up piles of broken peanuts. The steakhouse has seen some changes over the years (eventually, busted peanuts make for busted floors). The pay, it turns out, has not.

The rate of $2.13 an hour — also known as federal subminimum wage, or the standard base pay for waitstaff in many states — hasn’t budged a penny in 20 years. Even if you work full-time, that amount obviously won’t pay the bills. So how much are servers actually able to bring in these days? How do their wages stack up against those of other restaurant employees?....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bailed on the wherehouse, this weeks check the equivelent of 6.43/hr. Old bod cannot stay upright for 8/10 hrs. Not worth it! rock on luby's

vietnamcatfish said...

I don't know which one's worse, Rock. Standing on your feet all day or a session of Chinese water torture.I burned myself out working for dam bums of Piccadilly. Labeling the store where I worked as Hell Whole was no exaggeration.