Minimum Wage?

That happy, sauce covered little face belongs to grandson CJ enjoying his favorite wings!  He just loves to go to Tropical Flava and have either wings or curried chicken.

This morning my husband and went for our weekly Denny's Breakfast.  We have a favorite waitress there, Sherry.  This morning while we were talking with Sherry she told us her hours were being cut because she was getting too much overtime.  Now, I could understand that if Sherry was making $15.00/hour, but do you know that the wait staff at these restaurants only make $2.15/hour???  Yep, you read that correctly, minimum wage doesn't apply to wait staff.  On top of that, they MUST pay taxes on 13% of the total sales attributable to them whether they actually make that or not! 

I am not sure why this travesty is still allowed, or why many people are still not aware of this fact.   Multiply it out folks, that means that if your waitress works a 40 hour week at $2.15 an hour, they would get a great big $86.00!!! That is for a whole week of work, and hard work it is!  What is even sadder is the fact that MANY people either tip a couple of dollars or fail to tip at all.  C'mon folks, if you can afford to go out to eat you can afford to leave a decent tip.

I personally feel that the laws regarding minimum wage for wait staff need to change!  $4,472.00 a year is a ridiculous amount of money to be paid for working at any type of job.  In addition to the fact that these people live for tips, many of the restaurants bring their staff in early to fold napkins, roll silverware and refill salt shakers, etc. for the same ridiculous $2.15/hour.  No tips there.

I am a generous tipper.  I understand how difficult it is for people to make a living doing this type of work.  Oh, it's not so bad for the guy working at the $100/plate fancy smancy restaurant in Atlanta, but what about all those sweet, helpful people at Denny's where breakfast costs about $5-7?  Total check for my husband and I this morning was $16.00....so 10%  would only be $1.60...15% $2.40... 20% would still be only $3.20.  How many of you spend more than that on a cup of coffee??

Let's be honest folks, if you can afford to eat out you can afford to pay at least a 20% tip...otherwise you better be eating at McDonalds or Burger King where the help is at least making minimum wage!

Also, please remember to be courteous to your wait staff.  If you have never had a job dealing with the public all day, you just can't understand how difficult it is.  I have witnessed abominable abuses of wait staff in restaurants large and small.  It is okay to tell someone if something is unsatisfactory, but remember that the wait staff didn't COOK it!  It doesn't cost anything to be kind.


Come on now, if you can afford to eat out PAY UP!!!