Waitress In Tears Shares Story On TikTok After Being Required To Give Tips To Cooks, Leaving Her With Only $15

"I went home with 15. Do you guys think that’s fair?”

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• March 12, 2023

The recent TikTok video posted by @__heylee_ about her experience with tipping culture went viral and highlighted several issues. It is nice to be able to reward good service with a tip, but it is also unfair to expect someone to live off of tips, particularly when their job pays them very little.

Furthermore, customers are sometimes wrong; they can even be plain stupid. Before criticizing someone for making only $15 in tips, it is important to consider the work it took to earn that amount.

Therefore, before mocking @__heylee_ for her experience with tipping culture, it is important to consider the wider implications. Namely, servers rely on tips to make a living because their wages are extremely low.

Tipping is also expected in other service-based industries, such as hairdressing, taxi rides, and hotel stays. In the case of hairdressing, the tip is usually based on the cost of the service.

For taxis and hotel stays, leaving a flat rate tip is more common. Tipping is a way for customers to show appreciation for good service and is usually appreciated by service providers.

It is not mandatory, however, and customers are not obligated to leave a tip. But, without tips, these workers would struggle to make ends meet and may even face homelessness and hunger.

Unfortunately, service workers rely on tips to make a living.

“You guys wanna hear something messed up? All right”

“Or a little bit more if we made more, you know, whatever. And so, lately, they haven’t been really happy with the amount that I’ve been tipping out ’cause it’s been a small amount. I only work like two or three hours a day”

“I don’t make that much money. So my boss made it mandatory to tip them out 25 on the weekdays and 40 on the weekends.”

“So now it’s Saturday and I only worked two hours and it was slow. So they sent me home early and she still expected me to pay out 40 bucks, but that’s like the exact amount of tips that I made. And so I went to her and I told her about it.”

“She made me tip 25 and I only went home with 15. Do you guys think that’s fair?”

“I work as a waitress and when I first started there we tipped out the cooks 10% of whatever we made.”

Good service should be rewarded

This is what people online had to say about this:

This is illegal

Trick?

She should call the labor board

Where is it written?

Kitchen gets a wage

It is

Not common

It cannot be a fixed amount

Not fair

Bus boys only

Watch the video here:

Here is what people from BOH say:

Never

This girl should find another job

Only

Just the bus boys

Unfortunately, service workers rely on tips to make a living. For example, a 15-20% tip is standard for good restaurant service.

However, customers may leave a larger tip if the service is excellent or the bill is exceptionally high. Conversely, it is also common to leave a smaller tip if the service is poor.

What do you think?

Damjan