Serving people can be very tiring and extremely stressful. While taking care of multiple tables and remembering the specificity of each customer, waiting on tables is something many teenagers still do. However, relying on tips is not something that they should have to worry about. Many servers perform at their peak all throughout the rough hours of the day, handling all the stress and complications thrown at them, but many customers won’t tip because they simply don’t feel like it.

What many people don’t know, tips are not always all for them to keep. They have to split them throughout many people in the restaurant. About 20% of tips are taken out and split between taxes and other tip out procedures. At the end of the day, they are most likely leaving with little money. With all the problems they endure, the servers are very underpaid. Many restaurants do not even pay servers minimum wage.

I think that if you cannot afford to tip well then you should not go out to eat. It is not fair for your server to wait on you and receive no tips because those tips are the only money that they make. Aside from the restaurant business, other corporations also have their employees rely on tips. Many golf courses have their caddy boys rely on tips from the customers. More than half the time however, they receive no tips and receive under minimum wage. 

According to the Washington Post, “Waiters aren’t paid like everyone else… servers are instead compensated based on the assumption that they are going to earn some extra money on the side. Restaurants are required to pay their waitstaff what is known as the tipped-minimum wage, which is $2.13 per hour.”

Some things that many people don’t know is that the to-go specialists at restaurants also work off of tips. They do a lot more than people think, but many people don’t know that tipping them is even an option. They have to package the orders and enter them into the system, along with handling the other 20 to-go orders, they also have to make sure that they don’t mix them up with other orders. 

The food industry is extremely underpaid and many people have other expenses they need to pay like gas and insurance and other bills. Why don’t they get another job you may wonder? While most days may be off days, some days you may receive many generous people who have sympathy for you and receive a large amount of tips.