By Moses Leos III
Nallely Ruiz has worked at Helen’s Casa Alde since high school and is now a senior at the University of Texas at Austin. She is one of roughly 2.4 million Americans considered tipped employees working in the “Waiter or Waitress” industry in May 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of the 2.4 million, 1.9 million work in restaurants or other eateries.
Servers like Ruiz and Texas State University graduate Ryan Howard, another long-time local restaurant server, say they don’t know if American customers realize that servers don’t make minimum wage and tips on top of that; they earn $2.13 an hour and rely on tips to make a living.
“They assume that this is our job, and they don’t have to tip, because we get paid to be servers,” Ruiz said. “I guess they don’t understand that most of the money we rely on comes from tips.”
Texas has the second highest level of employment in the industry, second only to California. In the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metropolitan area, roughly 18,160 people work in the field.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers of tipped employees are only required to pay $2.13 an hour in direct wages if the amount plus tips equals minimum wage, which in Texas is $7.25 an hour. Some states have a minimum wage higher than the federal standard.
Should an employee not meet that threshold, the business must make up the difference. Texas is one of 20 states requiring waiters or waitresses to be paid the federally mandated minimum wage for tipped employees.
Tips are the lifeblood for many students, Howard said, who use the jobs to pay bills. In addition, the profession is flexible for students.
Yet, while Howard, who worked at the Buda Chili’s, would welcome a raise for servers, he also believes it shouldn’t be changed.
“I say that because no matter the raise, servers would be living based on tips and we can’t control how much people tip unless Texas requires an automatic 20% tip on each bill,” Howard wrote in an emailed response.
According to him, the job is a mix of reward and high stress. Howard interacted with customers that are talkative and are “easy to deal with.” He said he often runs into those same customers when he returns to Buda and catches up with them.
But it’s the impatient customers that he said are the biggest downside to being a server. From snapping to glass tapping to glares, it’s those customers that may driver servers a little nutty.
“Working as a server is both rewarding and stressful at times. You are able to meet different varieties of people both among co-workers and guests,” Howard wrote. “Quite frankly, those people you meet can make your shift awesome or, well they can make it dreadful.”
People that do not tip well are also an issue. It’s a challenge as tipping provides the bulk of a server’s income.
Raising servers’ wages to the minimum wage level would be a welcome change for Howard. He believes it would provide servers more compensation on slower evenings, such as Super Bowl Sunday. However, he also admits it could, “cause an uproar.”
Much like Howard, Ruiz’s experiences as a server varied. While she dealt with the occasional rude customer, she often works with regulars whom she gets to know.
She thinks many customers don’t realize how much severs are actually paid or the myriad tasks servers perform during their shifts. Examples include prepping coffee machines, wrapping silverware and bussing tables among other routine duties.
Remy Alcala, co-owner at Helen’s Casa Alde, has also worked as a server and also sees the importance of tips.
If the rate of pay were to increase, she said the business would be able to accommodate the change. However, she’s also fine with the current system.
“If [servers] don’t make enough in tips, we’ll make that up to make sure they’re at minimum wage. As long as that’s a factor, that’s fine,” she said. “If they are making fewer tips, and we need to make that up [by] raising minimum wage, let’s do that.”
