Panhandling, is it or is it not a job?

My actual pay is $2.13 an hour, which is half of minimum wage.

The rest is tips.

In fact there have been two pay periods where I got a paycheck for 0 dollars because they tax you based on total sales, not on your total tips. They also ask you to declare your total cash tips at the end of the day, but you enter it into a computer, so everyone always put 0 because they tax your credit card tips already anyway. But basically its all pretty fucked up and annoying.

 

That's kind of what I meant. I got 0 every week, and so I saw my pay as just there to take care of tips.

BTW, minimum wage is not 4.26/hr. It was $6.40 when I left the states 2.5 yrs ago. Probably the same now. One third of minimum wage. Bartenders, at 3.20, make half minimum. Putting 0 for everything CAN get you audited. Happened to a few people I know. I always put 10%, including credit cards, and left it at that.

 

The federal minimum wage is $5.15/hr. Many states have their own minimum wage laws however, in which case the higher wage applies. Here in California it's $6.75/hr.

Sleek, do you get the impression that your dad just wants you the fuck out of his house? :/

 

OK, you're right. I was working in Mass. That's 6.75 now, too. I think it was 6.40 when I left, but I guess I'm no longer sure.

Just checked on the gov websit. In Santa Fe (only), it's 10.50!

 

Canis.
--->According to him he wants to know what my "plan" is, as if I'm supposed to know exactly what it is I'm going to do with the rest of my life at this exact point in time. I guess he thinks hes making some kind of point by charging me money. Its not like I've really done anything to make him want me out of his house, not that I don't have a sudden urge to get as far away as possible, but I guess it just wasnt really in my plans to move out at 19 you know? It just seems a little young to me.

 

Sleek, move to Washington, rent an apartment, and work as a banquet waiter at a golf-course or two. My sister does that, and it isn't nightly work (but it's pretty much every weekend), but she can pull in around $500-800 a night. Wearing nothing slinky at all. Oh, and if nothing else, we've got a spare bedroom we'd let you stay in for no charge... except maybe if you eat alot. It's a rather small bedroom, but yea...

 

...

Thats QUITE alright, I'd prefer to stay in school, and I'd hate to be a waiter my entire life. Not that theres anything wrong with doing that, but i hated my job.

 

You know, I can explain why this is - tipping is simply not part of our culture/society. I've never tipped anyone in a restaurant, and I've never seen anyone tip in a restaurant. You know why? Because minimum wage here actually is minimum wage, and employers have to pay it. None of this being paid a third of minimum wage with the rest of it being made up by tips.

Tipping just isn't done here, and while you may find that weird and unusual, it saves customers money, waiters get paid the same, and the only losers are the restaurant owners .

 

Like hell waiters get paid the same on minimum wage. I've had nights where i make 150 dollars in 6-8 hours. Trust me, you're a bunch of cheap bastards. If you're already spending 40 dollars on a meal why does it matter if you leave another 5 for my outstanding service?

Of course 150 dollars in one day is rare, but on an average friday night i'll leave with 100, it makes it actually worth going to work. If I got paid minimum wage to do that job I'd quit. Even cashiers dont get paid minimum wage in Virginia cause it sucks here, its only 5.25 i think.

 

I'd rather go into the kitchen and get my food directly from the cooks than pay an extra 5$.

 

Wolf, why not just cook at home and save more money?

Jar, the reason it bugged me is that lots of cultures don't have tipping, but when they are in the states, they know Americans tip, and so they tip. When in Rome and all that. They usually don't tip as well as americans, but at least they get the point. It seems only Australians refuse to adapt to the new culture by tipping.

Also, one of the reasons for tipping is to keep actual food prices down. With severely reduced overhead, you can charge less. Most mid-level restaurants in the US do NOT actually have a large margin on food, except for crap like french fries. At a place where I worked, we had a steak that cost us 14 to buy and 16 to sell. If you factor in overhead, we were pulling a loss on that steak. But it kept up the reputation of the restaurant, and people were more comfortable buying beer and stuff, where the real money is. If they had had to pay the waiters more, the price of the food would have gone up enough to obviate the lack of tip.

One more thing. Tips ensure good service. They are the best incentive to ensure the waiter gives a shit about you. There's not a single country, including France, that has better waiters, on average, than the US. Canada is about equal, but look, they tip. Another way that tips ensure good service goes back to the last point. Less overhead per waiter means the owner can afford more waiters to cover the area, so that each waiter has more time. This has a limit, of course, but if you employ 20% more waiters than in Europe or Australia, your overhead does not increase dramatically and the waiters still have enough tables to provide a good tip income. And since they have more time per table, each table gets such wonderful things as fewer mistakes, on time food, and a new drink as soon as they empty their last one.

So to recap: 1. tips do not actually increase the price of a night out, as the food price is lower.
2. tips improve service, because a) they are incentive, and b) the waiters has more time for each table. and 3. Aussies are theonly nationality that refuse to afapt to tipping, and therefore suck.

QED

 

Minimum wage is minimum wage here. It's paid according to age and duties, and doesn't depend on you going the extra mile for the customer.

No, we just don't throw cash around.

Put it this way - if all you do is take my order, bring the meal from the kitchen and then take the plates away, then why should I pay you for it? It's your job, which your employer is paying you to do. Otherwise, everyone would have their own personal waiters that they take with them when they go to a restaurant.

There's also no way I'd spend US$40 on a meal. US$20 at most for just me, more if there are other people.

As Sleek Jeek pointed out, Aussies are cheap bastards. Or as I prefer to say, we hate paying excessive amounts for food. Restaurants are only just beginning to charge $40AUD (equal to about US$30 at the moment) for a main course, and people expect the highest quality food for it.

I was also under the impression that tips were paid after the customer was finished, not before they sat down. Would it not be possible to promise a huge tip, not live up to said promise, and get the same level of service (provided you never went back to that restaurant)?

For more arguments against tipping, watch the intro to Reservoir Dogs. Many good points made by Mr Pink, aka Steve Buscemi.

 

Nobody promises to tip a waiter. The point is that the waiter works hard, because he knows that hard work increases the likelihood of a good tip.

So uh Jar, did you read my post or just look for one sentence you could take issue with?

On Mr. Pink -- he was supposed to look like a moronic asshole in that scene.

Aussies can do whatever they want in Australia, but when they travel they should learn to adapt to cultural variances. Do you think it's a good thing that many waiters I know spit in the food of Australians just in anticipation of a stiff? I never did that. I just ignored them. No drink? I can't see it. Not enough sauce? Ho hum, I've got some silverware to polish.

Tips are the livelihood of American waiters.

Finally, you won't pay a lot for food because you don't have class. Well presented, delicately flavored, flawlessly cooked food costs money. Most steaknbeer places in the US do not cost $40, unless you drink a lot. They cost 10-15. For 40, you get a nice meal with good ambience. For 100, you get top notch fine dining. There's nothing really wrong with being a gauche philistine of a bloke, or even being a nation thereof. Just own up to it, instead of arguing that Aussies are pleasantly, rationally thrifty. They just don't really care about quality past the point of good enough, and refuse to pay to get exceptional things when the regualr thing is cheaper.

Truly, Americans have the same problem of non-adaption when they travel. The difference is that Americans are generous at home, and so they are generous abroad. And that generosity goes a long way towards not pissing off the locals. With all the stories of ugly Americans, I found it kind of funny and surprising that, after Canadians and kiwis, Americans are the best liked English speakers in all the European countries I've been to. The English and Aussies are tied for last, mostly for rowdiness and cheapness.

 

$40 was just an example.

That could be a meal for about 3 people at the restaurant i just got fired from. Or 2 people if they got one of the 4 dollar milkshakes(the milkshakes are rockin, trust me), or beer, or an appetizer and steak dinners or something.

Jar, whats minimum wage in australia in terms of american dollars per hour?

 

If I went to America, I'd tip. Hell, those bastards'd probably trick me into giving them $20. And lab, fuck you are generalising so fucking much it brings the bile to the back of my throat. And when I say that, it's only a fraction of the disgust that I feel. Seriously. Sleek, I could be wrong but I think it's about $4 American per hour.

 

OK, apologies. That was really directed at Jar, not all Aussies. He said "we" collectively, so I said "Aussies" collectively. Reading over it, it's still offensive. Oh well. I'll say, though, that I had no idea how to stereotype Australians until I met them. Everything I said has been told to me by Australians talking about their own folks.

I do get along well most Aussies I actually meet in real life. I just don't let them get the bill.

Also, I realize Australians are not all the same. That said, I have yet to meet one who tips well when travelling. And I've met them pretty much everywhere. that's one of the coolest things about Aussies where they definitely trump Americans. Australians travel. Everywhere. I've met them in India, Jordan, Croatia, Romania, the US, the Czech Republic. Did you know only 5% of Americans even OWN a passport?

 

When I went to Israel, the only other foreigner I met was, surprise, an Australian. He seemed pretty cool, but I only talked to him for about ten minutes when I was on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Dead Sea my friend Ryan and I had just climbed. Israel is a beautiful country. Too bad I'm anti-Semetic.

On national generalization: It's perfectly acceptable, in my eyes, and the eyes of many others. Also, most of those blanket statements are true. Most Italians (including those born in America) are loud, generous, aggresive, fiercly protective of their families, and drink alot of wine. Most Irishmen are bad-tempered, of simple taste, hate the English, and drink quantities of beer. Etc, etc, etc.

 

I read the whole post, and then chose to take issue with that sentence.

I don't care, he made good points from my perspective - that being a non-tipping culture perspective.

As I said, it depends on age and duties. My brother got about $10/11AUD an hour, which is about $7 or $8 US I'd say at the moment.

Don't have class? If class means paying about 4 times what a meal actually costs to make, and running the risk of someone spitting in your food for any number of reasons, then no, I don't have class. But who the fuck needs 'class' anyway? The only people it impresses are empty-headed socialites and Americans.

How about I know more Australians then you, and I say this isn't true. And seriously, why should you pay increasingly large amounts of money for diminishing returns in terms of quality? Food can only get so good, and paying double the amount doesn't make it twice as good.

Yeah, that's pretty true. I've been to quite a few places around the world, although one place that's common for Aussies to go to, and which I'm not particularly keen on, is SE Asia. Seriously, what's the attraction in trekking through the jungle, risking all sorts of disease and living in dumps for 3 months? I know some people love it, but it's just not my style. And please, don't ask my style because I can't define it.

And here I am, on my third Aussie passport, and able to get Spanish and German ones.

The Dead Sea is cool. I went to it from the Jordan side though. A tourist bus of Europeans, mainly Frenchies, got there at the same time as us though, so the Sea wasn't the only scenery around .

See, now I've got to ask, what have the Jews as a whole done to you?

 

Hah, I beat you! My Scottish Connections(tm) allow me to go anywhere in Europe.

His parents probably beat the shit out of his Jewish friend, and told him that Jews were evil. All I have to say is you're a fucking dipshit motherfucker of a Nazi/ American patriot whore who contradicts himself.

 

You know, it doesnt surprise me. You might say I've been expecting this ever since you showed us that picture of you with your shirt off and the tattoos etc. And the short hair.

I guess you really cant control who buys what computer games, but whatever. I wish skin heads couldnt buy rpgs.

Do you run around arcanum shooting gnomes?