How much did waiter/waitress get paid from employees/restaurants in the U.S. if not consider the tips from customers, like if we choose a random restaurant from a random town?

Question

If everyone only tips around 10%, will this prevent workers from making a living? Also, it seems people don’t tip guys in fast-food chain like KFC, BK, POPEYES, McDonald’s, etc. Does things work different over there?

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Answer 1

The government sets different rules for “tipped employees”, and that classification is based on how much of your income comes from tips. As you said, most people don’t tip for fast-food, so those workers are not considered tipped employees.

The US has a national minimum wage for tipped/normal employees but each state can boost it if they want.

Some states like California give tipped employees the same base salary as normal employees.

For say Florida, normal employees currently get $11/hr minimum (going to $12 in October). For tipped employees it’s $7.98 (before this October), but if they don’t average at least $3.02/hr in tips (summing to $11/hr total) then the employer adds in the difference (but if you aren’t making enough in tips then you likely will be deemed bad at your job and will be fired).