Below Min. Wage For Food Servers (home, rent, hotel)

[elfyum]

My suggestion to anyone working in the food service industry is to work in a HOTEL!!! Not only do they pay a higher hourly, (where I worked it was 5/hr for room service server, 7/hr in the restaurant - because they were slow alot, but when they weren't,...) but they all have good benefits! Also people usually tip well, especially in an upscale hotel. True in a restaurant too, but in a hotel they're usually on vacation, so...!

Oh - to the person who said, "If you can't advance working in restaurants or retail there is something wrong with you" you should understand that not everyone WANTS to "advance"!!! I would NEVER move into management even though I easily could/should because I will NOT work the 50+ hours a week required to be in management! Money isn't everything you know!
Some people actually value their TIME...Who do you think works when someones calls out? The manager! Who does the work when it's not getting done or done properly? The manager! Uh uh. No WAY! Not doing it!
You can keep your money, I'll keep my piece of mind thank you very much!
But you really shouldn't pass judgement on people like that.
I don't think I'd want you as my manager!

[rcefstsfecr]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Some of these posts imply that wait staff are paid $2.13 per hour rather than the regular $ 5.15. That is slightly misleading. The federal minimum wage law requires that wait staff earn not less than 5.15 per hour. There is a base wage of 2.13 to which tips are added.

Ever wonder why employers encourge generous tipping of their tipped workers. If the tip component is insufficient to reach 5.15 then the employer must cover it. In other words, the customers subsidize the wage and employers cover shortfalls.

While this is true, most resturants/managers would fire a server before they compensate for poor tipping since the server didn't work hard enough to get a good tip.

[bb5745]

I agree with elf, that 'working up' to management is not always desirable. I've worked at several hotels, and frequently saw all the BS that the middle managers and upper management went through. Everything that went wrong, came back on them....Food/beverage directors had to answer to the GM and corporate offices, whenever sales were down, or guest/customer satisfaction wasn't good. Then middle managers had to explain to F/B directors same as the above, PLUS, they had to deal with all the people below them (supervisors/servers), wanting time off/problems with other cooworkers/training them properly. And yes, I saw all of management extremely overworked for what they were paid (50+ hours would be a slow week...try near 80). Plus, all servers have much more flexibility (ex: to take two weeks off work for vacation, just get someone to cover your shifts; managers would be fired if they took two weeks off).

On top of all that, it was very easy for any talented bartenders/servers who worked the better shifts to MAKE MORE THAN management.

rcefstsfecr, I would say in about 95% of instances where a person didn't receive adequets tips (for purposes of this discussion, enough to average $5.15/hr), it would be an instance where they simply did not get any customers. It is nearly impossible to not make somewhere close to decent money, even on a slow night. However, potentially, one could go in to work, wait around for 2 hours, not get a single table/customer, then get cut because they weren't needed that night. In this case, by law, this person is required to be paid $5.15, and if they were fired for not 'working hard enough', could have a pretty good lawsuit on their hands. In the 5% chance that the person was so bad at what they do, then yep, they're probably in the wrong business.....

[jaada]

yeah the pay is so awful here compared to other states. i came from northern nevada and we made 2 yrs ago 5.15 an hour for servers and we got to keep all our tips, here they make 2.15 and get the tips taken out of our checks.

[fromflorida]

In AZ it is very easy for any company here to pay below minimunm wage.
The people here are incredibly easy to take advantage of because of their
lack of even the basics of common sense.

[Jammie]

Originally Posted by jaada

yeah the pay is so awful here compared to other states. i came from northern nevada and we made 2 yrs ago 5.15 an hour for servers and we got to keep all our tips, here they make 2.15 and get the tips taken out of our checks.

Wait staff doesn't exactly get the tips taken out of their checks. They have income tax and social security for tips taken out of their paychecks. I worked in a restaurant years ago and wait staff make much more then minimum wage. The restaurants have no desire to pay more because they'd rather just let the customers pay their hired help. There isn't a person in this country who would wait tables for 5.15 an hour and not be allowed to keep tips. 95% of the people are SO nice, but there are some who are very rude. If they have a bad day, who better to take it out on then your server in the restaurant? Some people can be very cruel and arrogant and they often attack people in the service industry. Guess it gives them a sense of power or something.

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by micrguy

If you can't advance working in restaurants or retail there is something wrong with you.

Really? I beg to differ. I routinely pour 110% effort into my current position as a loader at Lowe's Home Improvement here in the Scranton area, a position I've now held for nearly two years, and I'm not being allowed to "climb the ladder" because I'm quite honestly "the best loader they've ever had" and they "can't replace me if I move up the ladder." I'm 20 and very goal-oriented; I'm the only employee that I know out of the 175 in our store that actually runs back and forth to ensure that I can serve as many of our clientele as humanly-possible (A few still do unfortunately fall through the cracks when I'm alone on busy weekends though).

I love interacting with our customers, and in just two years of working for Lowe's, I've been told by many customers and other employees that I'm the sole reason why they don't head to the Home Depot just a half-mile away, even though they often have better pricing on many items. Just the other day I had a woman stop me at her car after I very patiently followed her loading instructions to a tee, and I listened to her compliment me as being the only employee of the store who went out of his/her way to ask her if she needed assistance. She then said she was going to call the store later to personally compliment my work ethic, but whether or not she truly did so is unclear (Management at our store rarely compliments their employees, which has lead to poor overall morale amongst my co-workers).

Before you start pointing the finger and saying that there's "something wrong with people like me" for being stuck in a two-year retail rut, why don't you consider that certain companies (or at least certain stores within the conglomerate) are downright poorly-managed! My customer-oriented skills would better be utilized inside the store where I could make more money for the store through aggressive sales and marketing vs. just taking out the trash and heaving around top soil all day, but I digress.

It's nice to hear that people like you had your strong work ethic rightfully-recognized and were rewarded for it---As for me, my annual raise last year was $0.18, nothing but a slap in the face for my efforts, especially since the cost-of-living in Scranton is just now starting to skyrocket with the influx of New Yorkers! I'm very happy that you're gainfully-employed; don't you dare belittle others for not being so fortunate though!

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by micrguy

This is a free country, if you do not like what your employers want to pay you, go get a different job. The unemployment rate is very, very low, so if you want to switch jobs and make more money now is the time to do it.

Really? So if every person who was miserable in their current positions suddenly quit and applied to work at better companies to improve their pay scales, then who would serve you at McDonald's, ring you out at Costco, or help you load that refrigerator into the back of your Range Rover at Lowe's? I don't know if you've been to Scranton lately, but for a 20-year-old college student, I don't have many other options besides big-box retail or fast food! In a few years, I'll be walking out of Lowe's with a huge smile on my face, bound for an Accounting position in NJ, and that point will be the happiest day in my life!

By the way, a lot of these jobs wouldn't be so unbearable if the working conditions would improve. Try trading jobs with me on Black Friday. I'll sit here in front of a PC and tell people to "get a different job", and you can run back and forth across the parking lot for nine hours straight with no breaks and an abbreviated lunch to try to help people simultaneously load drywall, appliances, top soil, etc., try to corral as many errant shopping carts as possible, keep the corridors cleared of cigarette butts (a pandemic littering problem in Scranton), hop onto registers, empty the trash, etc. all ALONE may I add, and then realize that you're really only being paid for about six of those nine hours thanks to PA's ridiculous taxes! If Lowe's would just hire ONE other person to give me some assistance on busy days, then I'd be pacified; I've already inquired about this, and I was just given the old "not enough room on the payroll" excuse from management (even though three other loaders just quit).

Don't blame we underlings for the mistakes of corrupt management looking to skim as much off the top in annual bonuses as they possibly can for keeping payroll costs to a minimum! Basically, management told me that a few extra dollars in their bonuses was more important than ensuring that our customers are adequately-attended to, which is why I can't wait until I have my degree and can kiss this corrupt corporation good-bye! If you truly want to make a difference in the lives of mistreated employees, then why don't you lemmings stop hopping in your Range Rovers and Hummers and clogging roads to get to Lowe's, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, etc. and instead head to the corner store for a few conveniences? I can't tell you how many people I see leaving our stores with just one or two purchases that could have been made at a mom-and-pop store somewhere in Scranton, but for some reason or other people around here feel the need to drive around in their gas-guzzlers and waste our precious, limited supply of fuel when they could just as easily WALK down the street to a neighborhood store for the SAME PURCHASE! When is this "Mall Mentality" going to stop in America?

[JenM]

I don't live in Az, but I HAD to comment!

Originally Posted by micrguy
If you can't advance working in restaurants or retail there is something wrong with you.

In the restaurant that I've worked at for 11 years, never ever has a waitress ever, moved up... ever!! The only people at this particular company that ever get promoted are the cooks ( men). I can't wait to graduate so I can get out of that hole. The only reason I continue to work here is because they give me a very flexible schedule; which I need being a mom of 3 and in school!!!
Oh yeah, our wage here is 2.65 since like, um 1997! And it's very rare that I ever make more than $60 a shift!

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by JenM

I don't live in Az, but I HAD to comment!



In the restaurant that I've worked at for 11 years, never ever has a waitress ever, moved up... ever!! The only people at this particular company that ever get promoted are the cooks ( men). I can't wait to graduate so I can get out of that hole. The only reason I continue to work here is because they give me a very flexible schedule; which I need being a mom of 3 and in school!!!
Oh yeah, our wage here is 2.65 since like, um 1997! And it's very rare that I ever make more than $60 a shift!

It's okay; I don't live in Arizona either---I'm 2,500 miles away in PA! LOL! I didn't mean to sound so combative and defensive in my replies; I'm just tiring of everyone acting as if working in retail or the food service industry is a cakewalk when they truly have NO CLUE what it's like to be trapped under inept management! Personally, I'll never understand why the Lowe's customers here in Scranton will do the following:
1.) Complain about the long lines
2.) I hop onto a register to cut down the lines to ease their waits
3.) They then complain that there's nobody outside to help them to load their purchases!
4.) I ponder daily whether to listen to people when they whine about lengthy checkout lines or listen to people when they whine about not having loading assistance because the LOADER is the same person who hopped onto a register to ease their complaints five minutes earlier about the long lines!
5.) I wonder why people in Scranton blame ME for their troubles instead of placing the blame solely upon management for their intentional understaffing in order to boost their bonuses through avarice.

In general, I'm just tiring of bearing the brunt of customer complaints for problems that are solely the fault of management. They know that we're functioning with a skeleton crew, but they refuse to rectify the situation. Basically, they thought they could get away with this intentional understaffing because the home improvement industry usually quiets down in Scranton in November on account of the snowfalls; however, THIS November has been extremely mild, which has lead to our store continuing to be busier than normal. When you combine this busier environment with fewer employees, the end result can NEVER be good!

P.S. It must be frustrating for you, as a woman, to suffer as men dominate over you in the industry. Personally, as a male, I'm infuriated that my fellow men are treating women in such an inferior fashion, and I wouldn't stand for it if I were working beside you! Keep your chin up; you and I both know we won't have these horrific working conditions forever!