Stiffing a server: Leaving a poor tip or no tip to a server after they just worked their butt off to ensure your happiness.

As someone who has worked in a restaurant or two for four years now, the amount of people that don’t tip their waiter or waitress is astonishing. In most areas, waiters and waitresses don’t make an hourly wage. For instance, servers are paid $2.13 an hour plus tips. In some restaurants, servers are even required to “tip-out” hosts, bartenders, bussers, etc. Essentially, this means they have to give a portion of their money to the aforementioned people. At most restaurants you are required to give 3.5% of their total sales. That makes it easy for a server to have a $80 night turn into a $50 night.

Most restaurants provide something called “credit” for hosts and bussers. For example, if a host makes $5.45 an hour and works for five hours, then she makes $26.75 for the night. If the tip-out doesn’t reach $36.25 (minimum wage) then the restaurant has to compensate for the difference. However, this is not the case for servers.

Here is my average expenses for 2016 – 2017:

Tuition: $12,166.44 (in-state, public college, not including summer classes).

Rent: $5,640 ($470 x 12 months).

Car Insurance: $2,436 ($203 x 12 months).

Phone Bill: $1,680 ($140 x 12 months).

Textbook Fees: $1,000 ($500 per semester).

Misc: $1,000 (Including groceries, gas, etc).

Yearly expenses of $23,022.44 as a college student.

Now let’s look at the statistics of poorly tipping your waitress.

Bill: $120.67

Suggested Tip (20%): $24.13

What you left me (7%): $9.65

I now have $9.65 to my name – so I thought. After tip-out (3.5 percent of sales) I only made $5.43.

I can now pay 0.00023586 percent of my yearly expenses ($5.43/23,022.44).

Most of the time, the customer bases their tip off of the hard work and hospitality given. As long as you are sitting at the table, your server is doing exactly what their job title states: serving you. We don’t expect to be handed a $100 bill at the end of every bill (although it would be nice), we simply want a please and thank you.

I know I don’t expect to be thanked tremendously, but would appreciate being acknowledged when we ask a question. Mainly, I just want a response.

In case you didn’t know, when you stare at me with a blank stare I can't read your mind. Tell me what you want instead of wasting both of our times.

Also, consider the fact that we are actual human beings. I’m sorry, but I haven’t acquired the ability to be in two places at once. If I am talking to another table, that’s all I can do at the moment.

I’m not ignoring you.

I will get your scampi butter, peach tea refill, and bread as soon as I have a chance.

If you’re not okay with that, McDonalds will gladly take your service.