www.ditl.org

Okay, looking it up a bit more it would appear that, unless they're either in training or under the age of 18, waiters/waitresses/whatevers over here do indeed get the full minimum wage (€8.65 per hour, which comes out at ~$10 according to a converter I found online somewhere).

Do people in those occupations really only get paid a couple of dollars an hour in the US? How is that even legal?

Sionnach Glic wrote:After looking it up, tips do not count towards or as part of your salary if you're a waiter/waitress/whatever in Ireland.

and Ireland's bloody expensive

Hey, you need to pay well for quality.

They get paid federal minimum wage as opposed to State minimum.

Federal is around 5.25 I believe.

Whichever is the lower I suppose?

Captain Seafort wrote:Whichever is the lower I suppose?

Yeah, mostly because they expect people to pay tips. I guess it makes sense that Americans get pissy about most Europeans. It hurts their income.

So what exactly is the language of this state "minimum wage" act? "You must pay your employees at least $x per hour, unless you don't want to"?

Nickswitz wrote:They get paid federal minimum wage as opposed to State minimum.

Federal is around 5.25 I believe.

Well, that's new - when I was a teenager, the standard was to pay wait staff well under "minimum" wage (call it poetic license. ) The idea is that in America - I don't know the Euro philosophy - tips are expected as par for the course, not simply an addition for exceptional service. That is, a waiter can expect to get 15 - 18% for a baseline job, with detractions for poor service or additions for good service.

That makes sense. Hell, there's no right or wrong is there, only opinions I guess the confusion only comes when you switch from one gratuity philosophy to another...

I've had a waitress spill a beer on me, replace it with the wrong kind of beer, and then charge me for both - my response was to cut her tip down to 10%. Like I said, a gratuity is the norm, not an exception, and modern trends tend more towards 18-20% rather than the old standard 15%. Someone would have to curse my children in order to receive zero gratuity.

When my dad ate at Simpson's in the Strand and couldn't use his Amex card, the poor maitre d' had to run back and forth for half an hour converting the guests' assorted American dollars, Australian dollars, Deutschmarks, Swiss francs, French francs, pounds sterling, and lire. My dad tipped him 30% of the bill, and later told me he thought the man was going to cry.

....If someone had done what you had done on the top line, i would entirely expect payment refusal.

Well, I got the meal comped.

Ah, thats fair.

Yeah, at pen point at a Friendly's in the area we went to, the waitress was so busy flirting with the guys at the table next to us we never got our food, we waited over an hour. We not only didn't pay, there was no way in heaven or earth she was getting anything, her job was also axed at our recommendation plus we got a free full meal at the Friendly's from the manager. So overall, it was a win, but yeah, basically, if you don't do the job, you lose it.

Here in good ol' Texas, waitstaff get a whoppin' $2.13 an hour. Yee-haw!

Everything's bigger in Texas... except for the wages.