Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Margins are really low in restaurants, jobs do not pay well even at the top and most workers get minimum wage. Is it any wonder these hard-workers are struggling?
The median hourly wage in the restaurant industry, including tips, is $10.00, compared with $18.00 outside of the restaurant industry.
The lowest-paid occupation is cashiers/counter attendants, at $8.23 an hour, while the highest paid are managers, at a typical wage of $15.42 per hour—which is still lower than the overall median wage outside the restaurant industry.
One in six restaurant workers, or 16.7 percent, live below the official poverty line. The poverty rate for workers outside the restaurant industry is more than 10 percentage points lower, at 6.3 percent.
Twice the official poverty threshold is commonly used by researchers as a measure of what it takes for a family to make ends meet. More than two in five restaurant workers, or 43.1 percent, live below twice the poverty line—more than twice the 19.9 percent share outside the restaurant industry.
By race/ethnicity and gender, poverty rates in the restaurant industry are highest for women, blacks, and Hispanics. Among workers in the restaurant industry, poverty rates are much lower for workers in a union.
14.4 percent of restaurant workers receive health insurance from their employer, compared with 48.7 percent of other workers.
Margins are really low in restaurants, jobs do not pay well even at the top
and most workers get minimum wage. Is it any wonder these hard-workers are struggling?
Do you consider this to be some sort of new phenomenon?
I always assumed, correctly or not, most restaurant (sit-down type places, cafes mostly) waiters and waitresses fell into a couple basic categories.
One, young ladies (mostly) with jobs during or not terribly long after high school. Possibly part-time, attending college otherwise. I can sense them; the type looking a bit bored who'd probably rather be at a sorority party or discussing Proust and Rousseau over a latte vs. topping up the coffee for some guy like me.
Two, same as one minus the college-part. But in-transition: not staying all that long in any role for any period of time. They seem to be a bit more-focussed, knowing they've made a decision (or had it made for them) that life is hard, they ain't going to college, and they'd better get busy doing (something) to pay rent and put food on the table.
Three, the women in their 30s-40s. They worry me, because sometimes they're there for years. I figure they're single moms trying to hold it together (barely), people with mental problems or on-the-run from something/some one, and/or this is just their lot in life: toiling. I've met all of the above and regretted the conversation every single time. They're not only at a dead end, but the dead end street has their name on it. Watch them fade, as the years pass.
Four, all in the family. Smaller towns, definitely. I'm watching multiple generations run a famous cafe in a small former boom town not terribly far from Seattle metroplex. The older ones look worn out. The younger don't know any better. And so it goes.
Less common are older people. There is an old biddy at one of my favorites restaurants; she's there without fail on Sundays at 7AM when I sometimes turn up. I figure she's working to augment Social Security. She's not a day under 75, pleasant and just a tad absent minded. That $10/hr is probably enough to keep her feeling useful, with extra money too.
I really don't have any feelings one way or another about the prevoius. They've chosen, or had the choice made for them, to do what they're doing. All I can do is tip fairly, if not extravagantly. Given that I'm almost always paying fifteen bucks for breakfast, w/coffee and tip (albeit a good breakfast), "fair" will have to be "good enough."
There will always be people in service jobs that are theoretically easy to get (waitress, e.g.), easy to hold if you work hard, pay poorly, but are equally easy to walk away from when the Law or the boyfriend decides it's time for them to move on/leave town.
Margins are really low in restaurants, jobs do not pay well even at the top and most workers get minimum wage. Is it any wonder these hard-workers are struggling?
It has everything to do with lifestyle. Read the book "Nickled and Dimed". The vast majority of wait staff are young, and unmarried. They spend a LOT of money on drugs, drinking, and P*I*S*S*I*N*G their money away on big screen televisions, etc. I personally know one older lady who is a server who has made a very good life for herself waiting tables because she saves her money and spends it wisely.
I agree with this. However, it's an unpopular stance.
I think everyone is responsible for their own career and earning potential.
You have to put yourself in other's shoes.
You come here from another country and have to work two $8/hr jobs to make ends meet.
When are you going to have time to go back and learn English and crap like that?
Think about all of the people here who won't work a hair over 40 hours or commute over 30 minutes for a measly 70K a year, and you're bagging on people who take the jobs that most people feel way to entitled to take?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
