Retail and restaurant work often gets a bad rep as workplaces go. Mostly it’s because these are jobs that deal with people directly. And since people can be difficult, so does the work of the employees get difficult too. Sometimes.
That’s not always the case, though. Sure, you can’t really expect good clientele, let alone fix it, when you’re a server at a restaurant, but if money’s your goal and it’s good, then problem solved, right?
A server from Texas has been going viral for showing how much she managed to earn in tips alone working just a few-hour shift one random night. And now people want to apply.
More Info: Jules' TikTok | Madalyn's TikTok
Servers have recently started documenting their tips on TikTok, and it's starting a conversation
Image credits: joolieannie
A bit over a month ago, TikToker @joolieannie, or Jules, had just finished her training at Texas Roadhouse and was curious to see how much she’d make at this new job of hers. Her shift was 3 hours, it was a slow night, so she only ended up working 2 tables—overall, smooth sailing, it seems.
She decided to shoot a video documenting how much each customer left in tips throughout the night. Some tables were generous, others not so much, but Jules ended up earning $61 in tips. Add her hourly wage (according to the math, about $5) to that and it is around $25 an hour. Not bad, right?
All of the action is happening at various Texas Roadhouse locations, which has the internet intrigued even more
Image credits: joolieannie
Image credits: Krista
Well, the bigger picture is iffy, depending on who you ask. In an interview with Bored Panda, Jules noted that she no longer works at Texas Roadhouse—she ended up leaving a month later.
And, as it turns out, this seemed like a beginner’s luck kind of situation as the tips turned out to be not as generous as the night in the video. Or at least they weren’t as consistent. Jules elaborated that there were often nights where she would leave with just $40 in her pocket.
One server, Jules, shared how she ended up earning $61 on a slow night working 2 tables for 3 hours, coming to ~$25/hour
Image credits: joolieannie
Image credits: joolieannie
To give you a little bit of context, the federal minimum hourly wage across the US is $7.25. It can be higher as states can decide that, but it cannot be lower than that. Unless it’s a tipped employee, which means that the minimum they can pay, say, a server is $2.13 per hour. The rest is supposed to be supplemented by tips.
And after some number munching, worst case scenario, the server can end up earning just $25.56 for a 12-hour shift. And you can understand how sad that is. Hence, tips are a life-saver for many servers.
This is completely ignoring whatever other factors there may be within the restaurant, like the staff, corporate culture, the clientele, the tools you have to work with, stuff like that.
You can check out Jules' full video below
Speaking of which, when asked, Jules pointed out that the biggest challenge for her as a server was working on nights when the restaurant was severely understaffed. Besides that, she also urged anyone aspiring to work at a restaurant to “work somewhere you’ll be respected and appreciated.” Given all this, you can understand how a server’s job can be an extreme challenge.
However, according to Indeed, the average base salary per hour among servers in Texas (at least the ones who reported) is currently $15.95, and it’s the same as the national average. Add an average of $100 in tips and that’s +$8.33 to the base hourly salary on a 12-hour shift. So, $24.28.
Other Texas Roadhouse servers have also documented their tipping luck, and they seemed to have better luck. TikTok user @marlenakelly, Marlena, also did a tip count, but expanded it to a week, averaging at $131 a day, with the most she’s earned being $210 and totaling $920 in a week.
Another TikTok user, @madalynpost, with whom Bored Panda also got in touch, has a video detailing a couple of weeks’ worth of tips. Her experience seems to be the best, as she totaled at a bit over $2,400 for that period, averaging at $267 a night ($188 at the lowest, and $455 was the max working a 12-hour double shift).
If you can’t be bothered to do that math, based on these metrics, it’s $2,880 and $5,870 a month for these two ladies respectively. In tips. At Texas Roadhouse. In theory based on small-sample practice.
Another server, Madalyn, from a different Texas Roadhouse location (well, actually 3), ended up with significantly higher payouts
Image credits: @madalynpost
Madalyn gave us some great insight into what it means to work at Texas Roadhouse, the challenges servers face, and the whole tipping situation:
"To work at Texas Roadhouse there is extensive training you have to go through. Typically 4 days of physical training where you also take tests over the material you have learned, one long final test, and one day of running food and learning the tables. The whole process usually takes about a week. Every store varies in their training process, but in the 3 stores I have worked at, those were all common denominators. It can be extremely overwhelming at first because there are very high expectations of the employees who work there, but once you get the hang of it, it really isn’t that challenging. That might just be easy for me to say since I have worked there for 4 years."
She continued: "In my personal experience, the tips I receive are heavily based on the work I put in and how I interact with tables. I will admit—there’s always that luck factor too, but I wouldn’t recommend relying on that. The better and more comfortable I got at my job, the more money I stated making. There are other factors that help play into this, like table turnover rate. The more efficient I became, the quicker I could get tables in and out—and therefore, more opportunities to make money. Working in an area that’s known to have good clientele doesn’t hurt either."
In her video, Madalyn totaled at a bit over $2,400 across two weeks, averaging at $267 a night
Image credits: @madalynpost
Image credits: @madalynpost
And besides hard work, Madalyn also explained that there are other factors to consider when it comes to tipping. Namely, it's things like location, pricing, time of employment, and experience. Sure, folks usually tip a percentage of the total bill, and the higher the bill, the higher the tip. But she pointed out that these factors effectively give more opportunities for tips and being more in control over them:
"Time of employment and experience are big reasons why tips vary drastically. When you first start out, you have smaller sections with smaller tables. This is so servers don’t get overwhelmed when they’re new. For example: a new server might start with 2 tables (a 2 top and a 4 top), so the max amount of people they can serve at one time is 6. However, a veteran server could get 4 tables (2 4-tops and 2 6-tops), so they could potentially serve up to 20 people at one time."
And here's Madalyn's rundown
Many were surprised at how the ladies have pulled it off, with some sharing their own experiences
All in all, your mileage may vary wildly, but one thing is certain. Well, OK, two things: one, the federal minimum wage can technically go as low as $2.13, and so you can imagine just how much some restaurants can take it as an invitation to squeeze whatever they can from employees (as some commenters have made it clear); and two, more often than not, the people coming to dine at Texas Roadhouse are pretty generous (but you still gotta put in the effort). On average, of course. But it seems folks like the odds.
And speaking of folks, people on TikTok loved the video as well as the whole tips situation at Texas Roadhouse. Some even confirmed that it’s possible to earn even more once a server moves into a bigger section, or reconsiders becoming an espresso barista in certain locations.
It is important to stress that mileage may vary, and some commenters did point that out, like whatever West Des Moines location the commenters under this video were referring to. But that is to be expected given differences in management, agreements in the tipping systems, the clientele, among other things.
