At your service: Waiters, waitresses rely on tips for their livelihoods

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.