A blog carnival on tipped workers' wages wouldn't be complete without the voices of those working for tipped wages themselves. Below are just eighteen of the hundreds of personal stories submitted by MomsRising members. Take a look and share your responses in the comments. We'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

1.       I was a server for 15 years and raised four kids on a servers' wages plus tips.  Depending on other people to tip you, which doesn't always happen, can be the most stressful part of being a server.  There were many nights that I didn't even make enough to pay my babysitter without digging into money put back for rent  or utilities or groceries.  My best friend still works in this industry, as do my two oldest kids.  They struggle 80% of the time to even make enough to pay the absolute necessities, never mind anything extra.  What most people don't realize is that servers don't make minimum wage like most people, and when they have the money to go out to eat or drink, they need to have the money to tip their server appropriately.  Another thing that most people don't know is that you, as a server, have to give up part of your tips every night to bussers, bartenders, and other staff, so you don't even get what you make.  Then comes the taxes...they tax credit card tips at a VERY unreasonable rate, to boot!  Then you have employers, like my friend's job, that CHARGES her every time someone runs a debit or credit card!  This is absolutely sickening that our SERVICE industry is getting abused like this, and it IS abuse.  Someone needs to help...and I am MORE than willing to lend my voice and support to this cause.

Rita - Indian Rock Beach, FL

2.        I have a son, a daughter and a niece who work as bartenders and servers.  Fortunately, they have the force of their personalities to serve above and beyond, but some customers are downright stingy.  Some nights are good, some are not, but they still have their living expenses and families to support.  I cannot believe the abysmally low wage has been around that long.   It's way beyond time to update the minimum wage for these hard working kids.  MY kids, who work double shifts, late shifts, whatever it takes.   Give them a chance!

John - Liverpool, NY

3.        Hello, my position was eliminated in Dec. 2008 and despite 400+ resumes sent in my field and closely-related fields over 2.5 years, I found myself looking for employment locally at restaurants to earn enough to feed my family of three.  As a single Mom who has been employed for 30 years, I was horrified to hear repeatedly that the starting wage was $2.13 an hour, plus tips.  I would need five jobs to support my family, PLUS find the 'extra' time to continue looking for employment.  Many of the jobs I applied for had the practice of tip sharing, and/or there would be no tips for the first couple of months 'until I learned the back of the house' first.  Needless to say, not an option.  I fully support the awareness required to change the law.  Thankfully, I am now employed, coming within 3 weeks of losing my home and everything else I've worked for.

Michelle - Cary, NC

4.      Several of the waitresses at a local restaurant in our town are raising children, which is almost impossible to do given their low wages and our state's poor economy.  My husband and I are retired, and appreciate their good service to us.  We make sure that we leave a tip of at least 20% or more for them each week when we go out to dinner.

Susan - Ypsilanti, MI

5.       I was a waitress and bartender for 20 years. Let us not forget, that not only is the wage minimal but there are hardly any restaurant establishments that offer health care coverage options. So the pay is minimal, the work taxing and the opportunities to get affordable health care practically non-existent. Let's give the woman and the waitress and fairer wage.

Martie - Chicago, IL

6.       Here's what you need to know about me, and servers like me across the country: we work hard for the money we earn. I am a mother of six children. My husband works and is our main support. Because of my children's extraordinary medical needs (1 child with a heart defect, 1 with autism, 1 visually impaired) I homeschool my kids to make sure their education isn't disrupted by our many medical appointments.

I am also a full time student. Working in a restaurant gives me the ability to work late hours after my husband gets home from work and still contribute to the family finances. You might see me smiling, taking your order, refilling your drinks, and bringing your check, but that is only a tiny fraction of the work I do each night. Restaurants rely on their servers as cheap labor. We clean the floors, clean the tables, take out the trash, in some restaurants where I've worked servers even clean the bathroom. And why not? You couldn't legally pay a janitor $2.13/hour.

Most of my shifts are closing shifts, to give my husband time to get home from work. That means I stay behind after the restaurant closes and do all kinds of extra work like restocking the dishes and cutlery in the kitchen, emptying and washing out trash bins, sweeping, mopping, cleaning the soda machines, cleaning the bread oven, the coffee pots, the tea urns, restocking items like paper goods and to go containers, ketchup bottles, salt and pepper shakers, etc. If it sounds like a lot of work - it is!

Consider also that my tips are shared, not with other servers but with the bartenders, hostesses, and bussers who work in my restaurant. Taxes are taken out of my check for all of tips I receive, and I don't get the money back from my tip outs until I file my taxes. Most of the people I work with are other moms, many of us don't have a choice. We're educated but can't find better paying work that has such a flexible schedule. I work for an ethical company that tries to do right by its servers, but many restaurants don't.

I have been doing this for a long time and some businesses abuse their waitstaff, take advantage of the low hourly pay they are required to give them, and even steal their tips. Raising the minimum wage for servers would end a lot of that. Please consider making a change. I am attaching a photo of my family. Think of them the next time you are dining out.

Heather  - Okatie, SC

7.        My mom was a restaurant worker solely supporting two children.  Our father left and in those days enforcing child support payments wasn't high on many legislators' priority lists.  My mom would count her tips at the end of the day and whether I could sign up for after school activities would depend on the generosity of her customers.  Often I would  have to watch myself after school instead.  Whether I could buy new tennis shoes depended upon the generosity of her customers.  Whether I had any money put away for college depended on the generosity of her customers.  Some days her customers were generous.  Many days they were not or just couldn't afford to tip much themselves.  Financially, we were at their mercy.  My mom deserved the same minimum wage as any other citizen.  Her children deserved the guarantee of a minimum wage.  Thank you for helping correct this problem.

Cause - Seattle, WA

8.        I was a waitress as a young single mother because waiting tables offered flexible hours so I could (generally) be home with my daughter more & go to school.  I can't tell you how many times I made less than $20-$40 a day (during the lunch rush at a busy chain restaurant.  LOTS. And I was a good waitress!  Polite, fast, and I paid attention to detail.  What I don't understand to this day is how restaurants can get away with not paying their employees minimum wage.  The patrons of a restaurant cannot be counted on to tip fairly & when they don't it is the hard working servers who suffer, no one else.  Setting up a restaurant is worth more than $2.13 an hour, too, but you only get paid $2.13 an hour before & after close, too.  Restaurants, like all other employers, should be required to pay their employees at least minimum wage.  Right now they are getting away with barely paying their employees.

Christine - Fort Worth, TX

9.       My mom raised me on her waitress wages and tips. Nowadays she never could have supported a family this way. This needs to change!

Ann Marie - Springfield, MA

10.    I have worked as a server for over 30 years. I have also worked in banquets where my tips have been withheld.  Although I have worked almost 80 hours a week for many years, I am still unable to get credit because according to my paycheck, I do not fit the formula to be able to fulfill loan agreements and therefore have been subjected to predatory lending in order to purchase items as basic as a vehicle. I believe minimum wage has been raised 5 times, each time Congress decided that servers did not deserve a raise like the rest of America.

If Congress thinks people are going to leave more $ for service, I, although I cater to my customers can tell them firmly that it just doesn't work that way.  Meanwhile my cost of living keeps going up. Our industry is very volatile and there are very few safeguard to protect our jobs, I greatly envy people who are able to stay at a job for years, there is also no ladder to climb up in our industry and no matter how good you do your job, or how much the customers love you...you are ALWAYS expendable.

Barb - Pittston, PA

11.    I was a dinner house waitress for over 20 years and made Oregon or California minimum wage, PLUS tips. If I had not made the state minimum wage I would not have been able to raise my 3 children adequately. Because my tips were on top of a decent hourly wage I was able to keep my head above water and have a decent life. I made $2.13 an hour in the 60's!

Casey - Silverton, CO
12.     My mom worked as a waitress from age 12 to age 37. Before her retirement she was making 50 cents an hour and counted on her tips to buy groceries. For our small family of 3 she had spent $35 a week on the groceries along with paying my grandmother approx. $35 a week to care for me. I believe she did fairly well on her 'salary' due to the fact that she worked in a popular Italian restaurant in Napa, Ca (before it became what it is today) and there were only 2 waitresses and no bussers for an establishment that had the occupancy capacity of 150 customers.

My favorite memory of her days as a waitress was of her asking my dad to rub her tired feet at the end of the night and his response was: 'count your tips, your feet won't ache as badly'. We didn't do without but we surely didn't live a high life. One weekend vacations to Lake Tahoe a year, to allow my dad to ski, was all that was afforded.  I respect her for the hard work she did. Sometimes she would clean the restaurant and prep food in the morning then go home, bathe, and be back to her night job as a 'hash slinger'. It was a lonesome life for me since she had to spend so many hours away from home but it made me appreciate the fact that I got to be a stay-at-home mom when my children were young.

Tamie - Vallejo, CA

13.     My mother has worked as a server at a chain restaurant for almost 20 years.  In that time, she has never made more than $2.13/hr.  In fact, sometimes, she gets 'paychecks' for $0 because Social Security and Medicare is taken out of the paycheck with the assumption of tips made.  Despite all this, she raised four children on her own, stretching every penny as far as it would go.  As time has gone on and the economy got worse people leave smaller and smaller percentages as tips.  Making up the difference between $2.13 and minimum wage gets harder and harder.

Servers at these mid-grade restaurants suffer under the brunt of the economy's woes.  Often the gap between $2.13 and minimum wage is not covered by tips. Also, in a ploy to skimp on payroll, tasks that would have gone to a busboy or host/ess are now foisted on the waitstaff.  Since, they are only required to earn $2.13 an hour, it makes economic sense to the restaurant to downsize the minimum wage workers and instead have the waitstaff bus tables, clean bathrooms, seat customers, vacuum the floor, fill condiments, roll silverware, do kitchen prep, clean equipment, etc.  During the time they are performing these other tasks, their pay is not being supplemented with tips.  Essentially, they are working for a flat $2.13/hr doing work that previously was paid at least minimum wage.

One of the only reasons my mother stays in this job is to maintain insurance coverage.  Twenty years of working on her feet has taken its toll on her knees and contributed to arthritis and elbow problems. In order to maintain coverage, she must work a set number of hours a week regardless of if there are customers on which to wait or not.  She has no paid sick days and if the restaurant is closed for a holiday, she goes unpaid during the closure.

Something needs to be done about this. My mother has done an admirable job supporting herself on this paltry sum.  She saves, she scrimps, she thrifts, she picks up odd jobs, and she still supports one of her children as well as playing a big roll in supporting her two grandchildren who's mother is also a waitress. There is never much extra.  There is no cushion for retirement, nor idea of luxuries.  She has done the best she has been able.  She has worked long hours to make ends meet and had to sacrifice participating in many of the events of our childhood just to keep food on the table and utilities paid.

It is a terrible decision to have to make whether to spend time with your children watching them grow and giving them emotional support while forgoing the opportunity to earn a few dollars or to work long hours away from your family just to be able to offer them the most basic necessities.   My mother is one of the hardest workers I know and she is definitely not rewarded adequately for her efforts.

Chelsea - Chicago, IL

14.     I worked for tips for over 20 years while my kids were in school, so I could be home when they were awake so we could spend more time together. $2.13 and hour is not only slave wages, but most people do not understand that tipped workers are taxed based on a percentage of their sales not how much they make in tips. This often means they are paying income tax on tips they never received. In addition when a tipped worker gets laid off their unemployment benefits are based on the $2.13 an hour and NO TIPS are included!! I was laid off from my last job at a 4 star fine dinning restaurant. I worked full time but  unemployment insurance only paid me $46.00 a week because  of this rip off formula. I was taxed on my full earnings but the restaurant got away with paying benefits based only on the $2.13 an hour wage! Why does the restaurant industry get away with this? Good luck with this project it is long past time for the restaurant industry to join the rest of the 'free market' in 2012!

Victoria - Hagerstown, MS

15.    I currently work for two restaurants. One is very well established and tips are disbursed properly to all front of house employees and has a system of checks and balances. The other, however, does not tip employees at all. Though it is a fast, take-out restaurant environment, the owners keep a tip bucket out that easily collects over $100 a day with about 5-6 front employees working a day. As a family business, the owners not only pay under the table, but also keep 100% of the tips from the bucket as well as all credit card tips. Though I respect this business and the family that owns it, I feel ripped off everyday when customers thank me for my service and leave generous tips with no idea that those tips go straight to the owners. It's getting quite tiring to deal with, and I have printed out the laws that they are not complying with so I can speak to them formally about my concerns. If they are not addressed or are ignored, I will likely quit, and hope that others will follow to stand up to unfair labor practices.

– Doorae, HI

16.    I just had my first baby, and her father is not in the picture right now, so I'm having to do everything myself. I'm telling you, it's nearly impossible to pay rent, car payment, utilities, car insurance, and the cell phone bill on the pittance I'm making. After the holidays -- when I seem to need money the most -- business is almost nonexistent, and therefore my tips are, too. I can't afford to get health insurance for myself and my baby through my job because my paycheck, even when I'm working 40+ hours a week, isn't enough to cover it!I'm very lucky to have family and friends that are willing to watch my baby girl free of charge while I'm at work... But I suspect that not all working moms are so lucky. And all servers' 'pay' (tips) are being reduced as the recession worsens. Oh, and then there's the fact that most of the general public doesn't even KNOW that we're not getting the same wages as everyone else, so some people don't even tip at all, even if there was no problem with their service.

I work very hard as a server. I'd like my income to reflect the work I put in to my job.

–Sarah, TX

17.    I worked in restaurants in both Maine and Colorado and it was extremely difficult trying to plan and budget while working at restaurants.  I never knew when I was going to have a 'good' night and be able to pay for all the things my son needed, but worse, I never knew when I was going to have a 'bad' night.  This might be due to bad weather, the shift I was working, or that I had several tables that were bad tippers.

- Jessica, Washington, DC

18.    I have been working in the restaurant industry for 23 years and you are right not much has changed. In Colorado we have a slight benefit , that is  the minimum wage is I think somewhere around $4.26 now but  that only changed in the past few years. There are still people in this world who do not believe in tipping or tip less than 10%. Then there are the people who dine and dash. They pig out on steaks and drinks then send you back to the kitchen for dessert and run out on their tab. Management wants you to pay for the tab which is probably more than you have made all day.Try raising two kids on these wages and now pay for one who deserves to go to college because she graduated with honors and continues to get straight A's but can't get a scholarship.

– Sandy, CO