Sunday Paper - "Parade" Magazine - Asinine Article

As I was readying myself for work this morning I was sitting on the couch eating my breakfast. I came accross an article in the magazine "Parade", that caught my attention. The final section of the article especially irritated me. It read:

I decided to go to www.parade.com and write the editor in response to this article. I'll paste my letter below:

Dear Editor,

I read Parade fairly regularly. I enjoy most of what I read from the questions on celebrities, to the interesting articles, to the actor biographies near the back.

However, this week I was browsing through the magazine eating my breakfast, before going to work. One particular article caught my eye. "Stretch Your Dining-Out Dollars" by Bryan Miller. You see, today is Sunday, and my job is as a waiter for a well-known steakhouse here in Houston.

Just the title of the article made me cringe. But, as a consumer of restaurants I understand people wanting to get what they pay for when eating out. There were two points in the article that I a problem with:

1. Stick with the tap - In this section the author advises people to drink tap water or soda water over bottled water. Okay, no biggie. If they're gonna drink water anyway, then it doesn't make that much of a difference. But, many restaurants (including mine) will charge a guest for a glass of soda water. It is, after all, made the same way as a Coca-Cola. There is the syrup and the carbonated water, and it's dispensed from either a soda fountain or where ever the soft drinks are made.

2. Check the check - This short four-line, 21-word, section will do more damage for waiters across the country than it ever will do to save consumers money.

The author of the article (mistakenly) thinks a person should only tip on the "pre-tax meal total". Where did he come up with this? A customer of a restaurant will save approximately 1.24 cents per dollar (with 8.25% sales tax) by not tipping on the tax applied to their bill. This is a 1.24% savings. That 1.24% is a saving of only the portion of a consumer's income that is spent dining out. What percent does the average person spend eating out? I'm not sure. But, let's be generous and say 25%. So, the author is telling everyone out there to save 1.24% on 25% of their income. Sounds good. But, if everyone did do this, then waiters would LOSE 1.24% on 100% of their income. Doesn't sound so good now.

Many waiters (and nearly all who work in semi-fine to fine-dining) pay "tip out", or in other words, a percentage of their SALES (not tips) is paid back to the restaurant, where it is then split amongst the bus-boys, hosts, and bartenders. This amount is calculated from SALES... TOTAL SALES. It isn't calculated from PRE-TAX sales, or POST-COUPON, or POST-DISCOUNT sales. If a waiter sells it, then he must pay a percentage (2.5% at my restaurant) of that sale, even if the customers leaves NO TIP! If there's a hair in the food or some other problem due to the way it was prepared, and the management takes that item off the customer's bill (as they should most times), the waiter STILL must pay his "tip pool" on that item that was taken off. This means there is an amount, which a waiter does not receive tips on (98% of the time), AND, he must pay a percentage of the very amount they were not tipped on. It's like double taxation, or in law "double jeopardy".

There are already WAY too many people out there who do not tip well. For the author to give them one more excuse to short a waiter, is asinine.

I would like to see, in the near future, and article in your magazine about what waiters do for their tips. Making drinks, making sure the order is put in correctly, refilling drinks, all the work they do to get a restaurant ready for business before the first customer even arrives, the work they do to clean up after guests, the preparing of salads, the rolling of silverware, and the seemingly unending amount of rudeness they must put up with from customers, the knowledge of the menu, etc. It all culminates into an "experience" for the guest.

When I got to work this morning I made sure every single waiter (and manager) in my restaurant read Mr. Miller's article. And, not one of them were appreciative of his suggestion. I hope every waiter that read your magazine this week writes, emails, calls, or somehow contacts you to express their displeasure. I will also be emailing any and all friends, family, acquaintances, etc that I have about this article in the hopes that they too will respond.

Thank you for your time.

Regards,
Paul Liles

I hope any BBS waiters out there will visit www.parade.com and let them know what you think of Bryan Miller's idea on pre-tax tipping.

 

I work at Saltgrass Steakhouse. But, thankfully, I won't be there much more than a month or two. I graduate at the beginning of December. Woo Hoo!

 

bobrek,

Yes, waiters get paid hourly @ $2.13/hr. But, the percentage they pay out in "tip pool" makes up for more than $2.13 an hour. In some of the more expensive restaurants waiters are tipping out double (or more) what they are paid hourly. At the very least an average waiter would pay for their houry wage with tip out. So, in the instance of "tip out", yes waiters losing 1.24% of 100% of their income is correct, and often that would be a conservative if not low estimate.

Yes, from the time we clock in to the time we clock out, we're getting $2.13 an hour. And, yes I calculated the pre-shift, post-shift and during-the-shift hourly wages into my figures above.

Believe me, I'm a Finance major, so money and numbers are something I'm good at. Also, being a finance major means I'm a business major, which also makes me question alot of practices restaurants use. I still believe "tip out" is a scam.

If you look at if from another perspective, waiters are not truly hourly employees. Because in most cases the waiters pay the company just as much (and many times more) than what the company pays them. What waiters are more like, in this situation, is contract labor, or mini-franchisees.

They're wrong too.

 

Man, I wish I had bad nights of taking home 12%!

You see, all these seemingly small percentages add up. Take a day like today, Sunday. Sundays are usually an overall low percentage-tipping day, for whatever reasons. My last two tables had nothing go wrong, and they got all their food items on time. There were a total of four checks. One table had me split the check three ways. Here's what happened

$20.89 - Left me $23.00 = 10.1% - 2.5% = 7.6% (All for me)
$20.89 - Left me $23.00 = 10.1% - 2.5% = 7.6% (All for me)
$13.64 - Left me $16.00 = 17.3% - 2.5% = 14.8% (All for me)
$33.76 - Left me $37.00 = 9.6% - 2.5% = 7.1% (All for me)

Total $89.18 - Left me $99.00 = 11.0% - 2.5% = 8.5% (All for me)

Okay, so ONE out of four tipped me decently. And, don't give me that crap about the good-tippers evening out with the bad-tippers. Everyone should tip 15% or above for even average service. And, I try to always give much better than average service. I will never complain about someone tipping 15%, but you go a nickle below that and you irritate me.

My total sales for the day (it was very slow today) was $305.97 (No comps or coupons). If you multiply that by 15%, then that gives you $45.90. Take away 2.5% of sales ($7.63), and that leaves you with $38.27.

 

When I go out to eat, my tip always starts at 20% (Afterall, I'm no millionaire), then it goes up or down proportional to the service. I have on rare occasion not left a tip at all, but this was for a combination of unneccessary waiting for food or drink items (with no explanation) and rudeness from the server.

True, but this sort of advice would give them more reason to tip even lower....

While I do not know the entire policy of every restaurant out there, usually in places that are semi-fine dining (From a Bennigan's or so) and up require "tip out". And, I do believe for most waiters in most of the country their wage is $2.13. Of course, in areas such as Alaska or New York where the cost of living is extremely high, it is probably higher, but still most likely half what usual minimum wage earners receive.

Restaurants that do not require "tip out" usually do not have: bartenders, hostesses, or busboys. These are the employees that receive the tip out.