On a day-to-day basis servers probably don’t make as much money as you think they do. Yes, they get to take cash home every night and make hundreds of dollars some days, but a server’s salary is never guaranteed. Most of their pay depends on tips from their tables.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, employers are allowed to pay servers in Nebraska as little as $2.13 an hour, in accordance with “minimum wage for tipped employees,” lowering the hourly wage of some jobs. As a server in Lincoln myself I can tell you that most weeks I don’t receive a paycheck for my hourly wage, as it all goes towards taxes. Most of a server’s wages only consist of the tips that they make, which is why it is necessary to tip them.
A server’s pay is never concrete, which can interfere with their daily lives. How much a server is going to make in tips depends on many factors, such as what day of the week it is, what time it is, if there are any events happening close to the restaurant, what type of people are going to the event and more.
In the span of one week a server can make $30 on a Monday if it’s slow and then $300 the Saturday of the same week. You can estimate and average your weekly wages all you want, but you can never really know. This may interfere with a server’s daily life when they have to pay rent and other bills, yet they don’t know exactly how much they will make each month. Seeing that servers rely mainly on their tips, it is courteous to tip your server whenever you dine in a restaurant.
Another reason why you should tip your server is because some people don’t. Whether the kitchen took too long to make the food, the server forgot something from a meal or a customer already comes in moody, something may lead to bad service, leading to a bad tip. Other people simply don’t tip because they either don’t know or don’t care that a server’s main source of income is tips. According to Eater, the amount you should tip is understood to be 20% of the total bill. Some people may choose to tip lower because of the service, but 20% follows the etiquette.
It is very discouraging for a server to spend an hour or more serving people only to be left with nothing as compensation at the end of the meal. It is a waste of time and space for a server to have a table they are serving occupied for the length of a meal if the table doesn’t tip them, as a different group of people that would tip could have been served instead.
Servers are paid minimum wage for tipped employees because of the specific work that they do, as well as the style of service. Food service is very individually based. Yes, servers work for a restaurant and with other employees, but the tips they make serving their tables are made solely by the server and the service or experience they provide for the customers.
Because every server makes their own money, everyone works on their own and must have many responsibilities, such as serving multiple groups of people at once, taking orders, bringing out plates, utensils, condiments, checking people out and more. Most of the time all of these tasks are being done repeatedly and at different times throughout a shift. In my personal experience servers do help each other if possible, but oftentimes when the restaurant is busy, everyone must fend for themselves.
Some people use the fact that servers “get what they work for” in this individually based industry as a reason not to tip. Some people believe that if they pay for their food, it is not necessary to tip—simply because they don’t think it’s fair.
In reality it is unfair to not tip your server when they make $2.13 an hour and spend their time properly serving you. If you go out to eat at a sit down restaurant and intend to pay for your meal, you should also intend to tip your server.
Servers do know what they’re getting themselves into when they start a job that depends mainly on tips. Yet, they still deserve the grace of getting tipped after having successfully served you for the duration of your meal.
Servers work hard and are constantly on the go while getting paid less than the average minimum wage. Going out to eat comes with the experience of being served, and tipping your server comes with that experience.
Rukhshona Islamova is a sophom*ore journalism and advertising and public relations major. Reach her at [email protected].
