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In reply to the discussion: Sitting in a restaurant today I realized how much trouble we are in for [View all]davidthegnome
(2,983 posts)That sort of misery is bizarre. I can't say I'm terribly surprised. Recently I had a job working for a local restaurant, washing dishes. I was lucky enough to have a decent Boss who paid eight dollars an hour, I would have worked for minimum wage and even told him that up front. It's a small Italian place in a small Maine town, I've watched the Waitresses work their butts off, a couple of them working almost full time hours and at times making less than 100 on a given week (particularly the very slow weeks). Often it's because people don't tip fairly or at all. It shames me to admit that I'm guilty of this, but not because I didn't appreciate the service, rather because I was too broke to pay for much more than a soda and a cheese burger. Whatever I have left is usually the tip - some times quite generous, but some times less than 15%. Nonetheless, I always leave more than a nickel, if I couldn't afford to leave at least a couple dollars I wouldn't eat out at all.
I didn't realize that giving less than 15% was really stiffing the wait staff. In the future, I'm going to make sure I have enough to leave at least a 15% tip when I eat out.
As for my position, on a busy night it was really tough, even though I'm fairly young (27) and in reasonable physical condition. A lot of people don't realize that dish washers don't just wash dishes. They also run around for the cooks, opening cans, getting supplies, helping out with prep work. There's also usually cleaning work involved, for me it was always the basement that looked like a tornado had hit it (had to get rid of all freight boxes after my shift - they build up to a lot on a busy week). I had two nights a week that would give me anywhere from 3-10 hours, Friday and Saturday nights. No way I could survive on that alone, which is why I live with my parents.
The majority of jobs available in my neck of the woods are in the service industry. There's dish washing, prep help for cooks, some telemarketing and a few fast food jobs. Usually these jobs now get a fair number of applicants, even from college grads. I don't see so much what is about to happen, but what IS happening. People are working very hard for very little, it's not right and it's not fair, but our society is not evolved enough to address the problem seriously.