I mean it's kind of nice actually if they refunded something without them complaining.

LoL:
I do the same thing with one exception. Sometimes a server will say something like "hey I'm sorry about this, but just want to let you know it's policy that there's an 18% auto-grat on the bill, they don't let us take that off. just wanted to let you know that's going to be on there." That often comes hand-in-hand with excellent service deserving of an additional tip. At some places, the auto-grat can be overridden, and savvy servers will profile groups and remove it if they think it's a likely bigger than auto-grat % tipping group.

mullen:
What Neil said. The church may have just been calling to make the tip situation right, or they might have tossed in even just an offhand comment about this being posted on FB. But either way, the fact that an Outback employee was publicly calling them out was more than enough for Outback to refund their money for the order.

I also thought that it didn't make much sense, but I have never worked in a restaurant. Can anyone with experience say if her story rings true?

Outback experts,

I'm more curious about the order. What's the deal? Only half the people get a potato?!

I thought everyone got a steak and a chicken. Church works up a healthy appetite? 🤔

I think they deep fry bloomin’ onions on sight with orders this big.
Also psa in case anyone was going to hit up outbacks new special. The fine print in the advertisement says that a 10 oz beer is included in the 9.99 deal. What the **** would Mick Dundee think of a 10 oz beer?

One steak, one chicken, one potato, and one go-box to everyone. Family members who are smart enough to avoid going to church gotta eat too.

People eat steak and chicken with a potato? How big would the serves be? I always thought US restaurant serves were quite big so it seems weird to need both the chicken and the steak

You would know better than we would: Outback is an authentic Australian dining experience here in the United States. So I'm guessing the portion sizes are pretty much exactly the same as in Australia.

If you'd be willing to share your grandmother's family recipes for Bloomin' Onion or Loaded Aussie Fries, bighurt would be most appreciative.

Good to see the usual dirtbag suspects are confirming their dirtbag status ITT

20 minutes to put together 25-75 boxes, caps (and possibly portioning herself) on 25 sour creams, caps (and portioning herself) on the 25 steak sauces they prob asked for, random little requests for sides of cheese, a bunch of butter, 25-50 silverwares, random ketchup, salt, pepper, all in 10-35 bags depending on size?

Depending on the restaurant and timing the kitchen might not even hand them over in boxes so you'd have to transfer from plates to boxes.

And we're hoping every single one was ordered cooked the same, otherwise you have to label as well (cooks might be doing it, again it depends).

They picture themselves as like a cool mafia guy from a movie, but yea they're actually just Joe Dirtbag and prob rate themselves a 4 on life satisfaction if they're being honest.

That's what I do, and I've never thought to feel bad about it. I subconsciously just think of it as a pre determined wage like non-tipped jobs and they took the job knowing exactly how much they're being compensated.

I normally tip 20% plus a roundup to the nearest 5 dollar/10 dollar depending on the size of the bill, so they are getting less from me, but they're getting more from people who normally tip 15%. I'm still expecting the same level of service as a normal tip, but I feel like it's a feature of the restaurant just like some restaurants offering better portion sizing, prices, etc.

Closer to 20 minutes than an entire shift. If it was going to take much longer than that multiple people should be working on it or the order will be super cold.

Regardless, working as a server is a gamble. Some days you will make way way more than EV, other days less.

Most states have a minimum wage for tipped positions that's much lower than the national. In Maryland it's $3.63/hour. My ex would literally have take home checks of around $20-30 on a two week cycle after taxes etc.

These servers and bartenders in most cases are only working for tips. And yes, your entire shift can be taken up prepping orders. When I worked at Ruby Tuesday in college we would cater a dinner for the local women's shelter every Wednesday, their staff included. So that was around 40-50 people to prep and cook for, which I was usually on the cook side. That would take around 5 hours of prep work, cooking, portioning and the server/expo team plating the orders to-go. Those poor servers literally had to give up half of their shift of making money to help on those meal nights. It was rotation based to not take away staff from in house customers, so two prep staff for portioning, 2 cooks, 2 servers just on charity night. Most of the time, the manager would send home the server afterwards and give them a primetime shift on the weekend to make up for that day.

Those servers assigned literally worked for free those days. So whoever said it couldn't have taken up their entire shift, you couldn't be more wrong.

Try cooking/plating consistently for 75 people when you are at the mercy of limited cooking space (the restaurant and it's patrons orders are still coming in) and limited on staff. There really needs to be some sort of national reform in the minimum wage policies for tipped workers.

Edit: most casual restaurants only staff 2-3 cooks per shift. So they're always understaffed. On big to go orders, it literally becomes all empty hands on deck.

@foatie, if the statute of limitations hasn't run, your ex should sue because she was supposed to receive at least regular minimum wage--not the reduced tipped employee minimum wage--if her tips didn't make up that difference.

Pretty sure her tips weren’t included. Her take home pay not checks should be much higher than her check number. If she was only taking home that much, she should have insta quit.

obviously she took her tips home in cash not on her paycheck. she didnt only make 20 dollars working two weeks

a lot of servers have zero on their pay check since the taxes taken out are more than the nominal wage

it may be different by state but the requirement to pay up to meet federal min wage if the tips dont is done weekly, so you could definitely be working for nearly nothing if you spend several hours on a shift doing prep work untipped but are still over minimum for the week

This man has it correct. I thought people would be able to figure it out that tips are taken home in cash and that she wasn't making $10/week. LOL. A slow day for her was about $75-100 in tips, a good day could be as much as $300-350. Most servers are only scheduled for 3-4 shifts a week. A lot of them rely on covering shifts for callouts or people that quit to flesh out a decent check.

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If that's happening it's definitely between you and your employer.

If they have you doing charity work during a shift, I would question whether they shouldn't be paying you at least full minimum wage for that shift since you are not working in a tipped position that shift.

Got it. I thought you were concerned for that the workers who were doing the big catering prep were making less than minimum wage when you said they were working for free.

Restaurants violate so many labor laws on the daily that if people took action, it would literally shut down the entire industry. I've been in instances when we were so busy that you have servers in the kitchen chopping carrots and toasting buns in between checking on their tables. Part of the restaurant culture is all for one and there's usually a strong family environment fostered. If I was a server, there would be no way that I would be prepping veggies while still paid a server wage with no benefits, while the cooks are making $9-15/hr. But in the server's shoes, what do you do? Risk being sent home by management because you don't want to help the team? Or you can get your hands dirty, make sure the meal comes out on time and aesthetically pleasing in hopes that you get a good tip to make up for that extra labor?

It's easy to say "she should sue the restaurant", but what server has $2500 up front to retain a lawyer to sue a national chain? Not to mention that chain has a legal department that will get multiple motions from the courts, prolonging the case, until the plaintiff runs out of money. Plus, good luck finding a lawyer to fight for you in small claims court for a practice that all of the restaurants do.

Seeing this first hand over 10-12 years ago puts me into that "over tipper" category out of sympathy for what they go through. Plus, it's so rare that I go to casual dining establishments, that a 50% tip on a check to a great server 3-4 times a year isn't a big deal. You're having a good meal and literally making someone's day in the process.

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States with a lower tipped minimum that require supplementation up to the state minimum if tips don't cover it: AZ, AR, CO, CT, DE, FL, HI, IL, ME, MD, MI, MO, NE, NJ, NM, OH, RI, SD, UT, VT, WV (21 states)

States with a lower tipped minimum and NO supplementation requirement: AL, GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MA, MS, NH, NY, NC, ND, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WI, WY (22 states)

The other 7 don't have a lower minimum wage for tipped employees: AK, CA, MN, MT, NV, OR, WA

Everything I've read said servers are better off than cooks monetarily.

If I were a server in a restaurant that decided to pay me less than minimum wage, I'd get another job immediately, then quit the job with the scumbag(s), then represent myself in small claims court. There's no need for motions practice, lawyers, etc., over a few hundred dollars.

Don't even need to do that. Just file a complaint with the state government.