Waiting staff earnings in USA

[jonah35]

You know how people tip say 15-20% in the USA. Well, let's say an average spend is 50-70 dollars per couple in the usual chain places then that's 7.50 to 14 dollars per couple per waiter. They must look after what 10 or 20 tables per hour.

So that's 100 to 200 dollars per hour in tips.

Even if I'm way out they cannot be earning less than 30 dollars per hour in tips?!

What do you all think? Do they have a Maserati round the corner?

[jonah35]

deckster said:

Not sure what your point is.

Are you asking us to check your maths?
Are you asking us to explain the economics of the restaurant business?
Do you think that waiting staff should in some way be excluded from earning a decent wage?

Please do elucidate.

My point is simply they must be on good money so it's arguably a viable career in the states especially in busy places like Vegas on the strip.

[jonah35]

Condi said:

Your logic is terrible, or you never have worked in a resturant.

A good server might look after 10 maybe 15 tables max. On a Saturday night you might, if you're lucky get them turned over twice. So maybe 20 tables, at maybe $10 - 15 tip per table. So, assuming everything goes well the very best, on the busiest nights, might get $600. In most places, those are split between kitchen staff as well, so lets say take home is $400.

Now, what about the lunchtime shifts? When there are maybe 5 or 10 tables, eating a quick $20 meal, and leaving a small tip. So you've maybe earnt $50 that day in tips, plus your wage.

The restaurants dont pay much wage, maybe $5 an hour. So the tips are everything. Yes, they earn more than UK waitress, but what you do get is professional waiters. Its not always a student on minimum wage who doesnt really care about their job; its people who want to do it, earn a decent wage, and as a result the standard of service is much higher.

Good points. But also there are the places where I go with say 4 of us and the bill is mUch more and we pay say 20% - often can pay a tip of 40 dollars per table of 4, easily and this is just for a chain place

anyway, just an observation more than anything but just find it interesting.

I bet if you worked in Vegas on the strip where it's busy all the time you could earn a reasonable wage so not a bad lifestyle. Especially for say a young British girl or something as they could, perhaps, get more tips if Americans start talking about where you're from etc.

[jonah35]

northwest monkey said:

This is a bit "Plumbers Wages" maths that you see in the papers - i.e. if a plumber gets a call out at night & charges £100 per hour then it stands to reason a plumber makes £800 per day or £160k per annum based on a 200 working day year.

"Outrageous, that's more than the PM" etc.

Apart from you won't get 8 callouts a night every night for 200 days.

Yeah I appreciate that but say for a chain place in a busy American city it must always be busy? So they must always make reasonable tips, no?

I have no knowledge other than what I see and calculate when sat swigging a beer - I may well be wrong but just thought it worthy of consideration and discussion.

I just find it interesting, that's all