Quote:
Originally Posted by Swarly
I've known many servers but have never heard of any making more than minimum wage. Min wage is just accepted as even at better/fancier restaurants you will just make up for it with higher tips. Not sure where this place is that was paying servers more than min, doubt its in Calgary, but either way I'd bet they are paying min wage now.
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As a former server and bartender, I always made minimum wage while working the floor. During my last shift it was $5.90 per hour. Whenever I was behind the bar I made the same amount as I did on the floor, except at Moxie's Chinook. Here I made $7.00 per hour. The theory was that bartenders have more opportunities to steal, so the company is going to pay them a higher wage in order to not steal.
I'm not sure you should be hiring people to tend your bar if you think they are going to steal. I completely understand that some do, but you can also steal on the floor if you want to. Also, in an 8 hour shift, I made an extra $8.80. If I was a person that was tempted to steal, I'm not sure that extra $8.80 would stop me from pocketing the money from a beer or two by not ringing it into the POS. They could be paying you more to steal. I thought it was highly unnecessary to pay me more than the servers, but if they wanted to give me more money, I was going to accept it. I made much more as a bartender than I did as a server, with much less work. All of my serving experience was in casual restaurants.
I've discussed it here in the past, but the servers who think declaring 10% of your wages is good for tips is either hilarious, or sad that they don't understand math. If, back in my day, you made $5.90 an hour and worked an 8 hour shift, you'd make $47.20 in wages. If you made $4.72 in tips in 8 hours, you are a terrible server and/or work at a restaurant that is about to go out of business. Each night I aimed to make $100 in tips. If I did that consistently I'd have enough for rent, car payments, tuition, food, etc. Some night were more, and some nights were less, obviously. I never walked out with less money than I started with, but I have had night where I walked with basically nothing. I've also had nights where I made $400 in tips. I'd say it really averaged out to about 300% of my wage. I'd guess if I was a server today my tips would be equal, or slightly higher than my hourly wage.