Restaurant Servers

My parents and I agreed that having a side job during high school would be a good opportunity for me to make some spending money and learn about a different type of responsibility. I personally did not care where I worked so long as it was not in the god-forsaken mall. Minimum wage was not a question because I was not trained or educated to work a higher paying position. I was fortunate enough to find a job as a hostess/busser/waitress depending on what was needed on each night. The restaurant, we will call it “The Grill,” was a higher class establishment with expensive wines and pricey exotic food items. I was paid minimum wage ($8.55 an hour in Washington state) plus about 20% of the servers’ tips. I worked Tuesday and Wednesday nights which were some of the slower nights at The Grill and after a four hour shift I would probably walk away with about $50 of cash tips.

My experience at The Grill was an amazing one. I felt I was overpaid for little work. It was physically demanding and stressful at times, but ultimately I was pouring waters, without ice or with a lemon for more demanding customers, and running around with coloring books and bread plates. Working at The Grill was one of the most important and eye opening experiences of my life. Developing personal relationships with the adults working there made me realize there is much more to a restaurant than what a customer may perceive. The people that serve our food daily live with financial struggles and work pressures unknown to the people ordering medium rare steaks, getting upset when the sauce is not on the side. The purpose of this project is to be a voice for the voiceless and tell the stories of the unknown inner workings of restaurants.

Although working at The Grill was a better experience than most people have earning minimum wage because it is a local, family owned establishment and with high priced foods and therefore high tips at the end of each night. However, it provided a less than desirable life for its employees and did still did not meet the financial demands of a family. Working with the same people for over a year I had a chance to actually hear their stories and learn that the money I made for day trips with girlfriends and a new pair of jeans could hardly meet their high rent in a suburb of Seattle or the price to send their kids to a successful private school. One man, Kyle for this paper, was recently divorced, paying off childcare expenses, and rode his bike to work in the cold and rain in order to go to night school for web design and a hope for a better life. Most of the people that I worked with always told me that they could not see working in a restaurant for the rest of their lives but that there was no better alternative for an uneducated middle aged person. The fact that I had already received a higher level of education created an interesting complex and when I left The Grill to go to college most of my coworkers were thrilled for me and encouraged me to do well so I could have a better life than they did.

Because I have worked in a restaurant along with my sister and mother I feel incredibly close to this low wage experience. My time at The Grill was beyond valuable and I will never walk into a restaurant without remembering my own experiences. I have such a strong personal connection and close relationships with my coworkers that I would like to take this project as an opportunity to tell their struggles and change people’s minds about restaurant servers just like my experience changed mine.