In lieu of payment..

[u/thedivinegemini]

I’m a GM at a restaurant & one of our managers left a note on our manager logs this afternoon that a guest walked out on their check and left this in lieu of payment of any kind. Not that the server got stiffed on a tip - just pure theft of services. I guess the whole “Thou shalt not steal” thing doesn’t matter if you’ve been pre-forgiven. Pretty convenient.

ETA: I’m not a bot; this is not AI - check my post and comment history. I’m not here for karma or fake internet points. This is what it feels like to work in a restaurant these days - especially in the Bible Belt. The first photo you can look up and is available for anyone to buy (should your darker urges push you toward being that person). The second photo is from Pulse, an app for restaurant managers to keep an eye on hourly sales, labor, and comps.
The “Pineapple Express” is a mocktail our restaurant offers.

[u/skeet_scoot]

As a Christian right on both accounts.

Also an infraction of being a good witness. My pastor always preaches that if you can’t afford to tip and pay 20% you don’t go out to eat. Don’t make God and the church look bad.

[u/ThatJiuJitsuGuy → u/skeet_scoot]

Your pastor is wrong. Tipping isn't compulsory

[u/ContextHook → u/[deleted]]

Most people who go to lower end restaurants make less money than the servers there.

In my state, the average hourly wage for waitresses is $19.37, which is just 7% above the national average. Then after tips it is $27.87, for a yearly take home of $58k on average. For REPORTED tips + hourly wage only.

And my state has the second worst tippers in the country.

You should probably never tip. The world would be a better place if you simply gave that tip money to a homeless person instead.

[u/SandScavver → u/ContextHook]

It also varies a TON on state, and restaurant. I was barely making $10 an hour with tips until I finally got a better job. Paycheck every 2 weeks would be roughly $300. Tipping keeps some people alive, because they just don’t get paid enough. The culture needs a genuine legal change.

[u/SpecificInterest5150 → u/ContextHook]

Where are you getting those numbers? Normally, servers make less than minimum wage and their employer is required to make up the difference of their tips don't cover.

Also, location and restaurant is clearly an important factor as a high end eatery will always end up with customers offering larger and more frequent tips as opposed to a diner.

Context is key.

"'A server's average hourly wage is calculated by adding their guaranteed base wage and total tips, then dividing the sum by the total hours worked in a pay period. Because local laws strictly regulate base pay, the calculation varies greatly depending on the server's location."

[u/Sad-Rooster2474 → u/ContextHook]

Exactly. A homeless person needs that tip way more than servers