Many thanks to the people who pointed out that wait staff and bartenders (in the U.S., anyway) are paid less than minimum wage -- it's $2.13 per hour. With tips, our income usually comes out to more than minimum wage. If it doesn't, your employer is required to pay you the difference. On a good night I'll make over $20 per hour, but I've worked in places where it was a lot less than that. The disparity seems huge when compared to, say, Australia, but isn't the cost of living much higher there?
And we do have to claim our tips as income, which is taxed. All of those taxes come out of that $2.13/hour paycheck, which means our paychecks are pretty much nonexistent. Mine for this week was for about six dollars.
So there's a reason that wait staff in America has a sense of entitlement when it comes to tips: tips constitute our entire income. That sense of entitlement does bother me (you should take pride in your job, dammit, even if it sucks), but I do understand the cynicism that comes with the job, especially if you've been doing it for a long period of time. Customers -- not most of them, of course, but you'll get several of them in any given shift -- are incredibly rude, make outrageous/impossible requests, and will make bogus complaints in an effort to get free food or avoid leaving a tip. I can't tell you how many times I've had someone complain that their order was incorrect or cooked improperly
after they've already eaten it, even though they'd tell me it was "fine" when I checked on them while they were eating. If the kitchen messes something up or takes a long time, my tips are affected even if I had nothing to do with the screw-up. I've been insulted, sworn at, and had men ask, "Are
you on the menu?" I've been accused of being racist and unprofessional for making a joke about silverware.
If we were paid decently, your food/drinks would cost a lot more, but you wouldn't have to tip. It all evens out, I guess. And I realize I'm making waiting tables and bartending sound like slave labor when it isn't; I actually like my job, and I have a lot of great regular customers. But when I have a bad day, it's baaaaaad. The day that I get my degree and find a decently-paying job cannot come soon enough.
As for hairdressers, I usually leave around 20%, mainly because the girl who colors my hair does a fantastic job and partly because I know how badly it sucks to work for tips. And also because Revlon discontinued the one fail-safe haircolor-in-a-box that looked great on me, those bastards.
GibsonGirl: that taxi driver is an ass.