WAITING for better wages

I just started a new job this week, and I am elated.

I now work 8-4:30, and I drink lots of coffee, and I wear pencil skirts, and I get healthcare.

I have worked in restaurants since I was 19 (that’s 7 years!), and I know what it’s like to #liveofftips. People say, “Oh, you must have made some bad decisions after college, or, “Well, that’s what you get for the lifestyle you lead”, but I don’t buy that shit. I worked throughout college, and I worked hard. I paid my rent through school and I pay my rent now. I buy my own clothes and my own makeup and my own food and my own drinks, and I did it by working in a restaurant (and some freelancing). This economy sucks, and it’s not easy getting by, but being a waitress or a bartender or a line cook is still honest work, and it pisses me off how often it is disrespected.

• Did you know many states do not pay their servers minimum wage? They make as little as $2.13/hr and people have the AUDACITY to stiff them or pay them 10 percent for SERVING them food and drinks. Women are nearly two-thirds of minimum wage earners nationally, and, they, especially, sometimes endure sexual harassment and off-color jokes in restaurants, both from their co-workers and their guests. Why, you ask? Because, unlike pretty much every other job in the world, they know that a fake laugh at a sexual remark and a low-cut shirt is the difference between making rent this month or not. They know that their cell phone bill and their cable bill and their new outfit is in the hands of the people they serve.

(Note: I am not dismissing shitty wait staff and disrespectful service. If you’re a rude server or bartender and give too much attitude to your guests, you deserve a lousy tip. Guests, too, are hardworking individuals who are out enjoying dinner with the money they earned at work and deserve to have a wonderful dining experience, whether it’s at a diner, Chili’s, a steakhouse, or a beach resort. Do not give your fellow restaurant workers a bad name, or, worse, provide justification and validation to all the ass holes who always tip poorly, no matter how stellar the service.)

• Did you know many servers and bartenders are now on paychecks? The allure of waiting tables is gone, my friends. Serving used to be a thing actors did part-time in New York while they auditioned for roles or what writers would do to supplement income as they wrote novels and freelanced. The credit card you’re swiping? They won’t see that tip for two weeks. And when they do, it will be a mere fraction of what you tipped due to support staff-tip-outs and taxes (YUP!). I’m not saying don’t pay with a credit card (Lord knows as much as I try not, I rarely carry cash with me anymore), but know that the cash you see your waiter carrying may be what he owes the house at the end of the night, not what he is taking home.

• Do you remember that group of ten you ate with last night? You may not remember (you had A LOT to drink), but your server sure as hell does. A few weeks ago, the federal government passed a new law NATIONWIDE that has taken away included gratuity for large parties. You may remember it from the bottom of various menus – “20% gratuity will be added to your party of 6 or more” – or something along those lines. Most servers (especially ones I know) used it as a form of protection, not deceit. They didn’t get lazy with their large parties and still waited on them exceptionally, making sure to inform their guests at the end of the meal that gratuity was, in fact, included in the check. You see, when you’re waiting on tables, large parties are a lot to handle (and I don’t necessarily mean in a bad way). They rarely come in together as a group, they have various eating and drinking habits and sometimes have trouble deciding on group appetizers or bottles of wine, and they usually have different forms of payment at the end of the meal – cash that needs to be broken down and cards that need to be divided. This isn’t even a rant, this is just FACT. Can you imagine working two or three hours (or more!) on a project, doing a fantastic job, tackling all sorts of small and large problems with grace and efficiency, and being told by your boss that you received ZERO or PARTIAL compensation for it?! Not only did all your hard work go unnoticed and unappreciated, but you didn’t make any money so you have to do it again tomorrow and hope it’s different next time around. You see, that’s what wait staff now has to undergo every time they wait on a large party. They have to hope (and pray) that the guests aren’t too inebriated to pay the bill and calculate the tip. They have to hope that the person paying can do basic math OR that he is willing to take out his cell phone calculator. They have to hope that the six tea-drinking ladies that raved about the excellent service can understand that just because they paid half the bill in cash DOES NOT mean the tip has somehow magically been taken from it. (For example, if the bill is $100 and you pay $50 in cash, you still owe $50 for the remainder of the bill and $20 – that’s 20 percent, y’all – for the tip. STOP ONLY TIPPING ON HALF OF THE BILL. You don’t want to tip for your stingy friends? That’s fair. Embarrass them until they tip properly, and never dine with them again.)

Friends, I say all that to say this: take care of your servers and bartenders. They are a blessing to the community, not a burden. They deal with your neuroses and pour your happy hour drinks. They, too, pay taxes and are members of dog parks and have grandmothers and medical problems and have BILLS TO PAY. They have families and cats and Christmas presents to buy and dinner to make. Their living wage is despicable and an injustice, and it needs to be raised.

In fact, yesterday, the Restaurant Opportunities Center of NY (ROC-NY) organized a Twitter rally with the hashtag #LivingOffTipsNY to help raise awareness for restaurant wages and to urge Governor Cuomo to fulfill his promise to convene a Wage Board so that tipped restaurant workers can get a raise. I say, great job, ROC-NY, but let’s rally for all restaurant workers (and all tipped employees) in all cities.

#Career #Economy