Waitress's Frank Tipping Admission Leaves Internet Divided



An unidentified waitress has sparked a heated debate online about restaurant tipping culture after creating a video to educate people on how gratuities are dished out behind the scenes. Following an interaction with a customer, the woman posted a video on TikTok, where she revealed that servers’ tips are distributed among employees — dishwashers, bussers, hosts, etc. — who don’t have the opportunity to interact with customers face-to-face to win tips. She explained that what most people don’t understand is that a customer doesn't tip, they actually cost the server money. For example, if a server makes $100 in tips, they might have to hand 10% of that to the host, 7% to the busser, 5% to the runner, and 3% to the dishwasher. That would leave the server with $75 in tips to keep. So, theoretically, if the server didn’t get tipped enough, she would have to cover her customer’s bill out of her own pocket. Social media commenters erupted with their opinions on the matter, with some saying it shouldn’t be the responsibility of the server to tip the behind-the-scenes employees, while others blamed the restaurants for their convoluted compensation system.