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I live in a fairly well-off place and most food service jobs pay about $7.25-9/hour, _maybe_ with tips. My university (3 hours away) pays $8.50/hr for most stud

I live in a fairly well-off place and most food service jobs pay about $7.25-9/hour, _maybe_ with tips. My university (3 hours away) pays $8.50/hr for most student positions, a cruel joke when tuition is $10k+/year. Mine is about $13.5k but I have enough scholarships to bring it down to about 3k. Napkin math shows that, to afford a $13.5k tuition bill, one must work 1564 hours for the university. They cap you at 20hrs/wk so as not to overburden you, so you can pay off your tuition bill in a mere 78 weeks. I go to one of the least expensive state universities. A minimum wage raise would not be merely symbolic, at least not in Texas. If my university paid $12/hr, it would take 55 weeks to pay off tuition and at $15 it would take 44 weeks.

willcipriano 5y ago
Tipped workers take some liberties with the income math. I spent a decade in the restaurant industry and front of house made considerably more than the back of the house while also paying less tax even though they were "only paid $2.75 an hour". Generally speaking cash tips are not reported and tax free, a server will make in excess of $20 an hour in a moderately successful resturant. The back of the house jobs now start around $13 an hour for unskilled labor in a hot and dangerous kitchen, every cent of it subject to tax. In addition by under reporting income, tipped workers often gain access to social programs that their true income would disqualify them from. I don't know what the deal is with your university in particular, but your local Amazon warehouse is paying $15 an hour as that is their national minimum. Walmart just recently announced they are moving to $15 nationally as well I believe.
- jackson1442 5y ago
  I was more referring to places like McDonald’s. I have a friend who technically makes tips at Jersey Mike’s but people don’t _really_ tip at places like that, especially since it’s just a tip jar, so cash only. Tipped server jobs are actually in somewhat high demand around here since people generally tip well, especially with restaurants moving to those Toast PoS systems that prompt customers to tip.
  - willcipriano 5y ago
    A McDonald's owned by McDonald's itself (most are franchises and this is not the case) won't start you below $13, they aren't doing that because they are kind but because they found the wage floor for them to be about there. For context, I started dishwashing at the age of 13 at $8.25 an hour twenty years ago. In your position I wouldn't settle for one of those near minimum wage jobs take a look at things like garden centers, construction labor, bakeries, or even something like doordash that I hesitate to recommend but may be a better deal in this case. I do wonder why that town has wages so far below what I'm seeing around. Perhaps this has something to do with it being a university town and having lots of unskilled labor? I also do wonder if it being a self fulfilling prophecy is also a possibility, if you get a bunch of people together who belive that wages are lower then they are, a savvy busineessman might make that belief a reality. Either way it's a interesting case study, thanks for sharing your experience and I will consider it further as I continue to look into this topic.
    - jackson1442 5y ago
      I'm also confused as to why wages are lower here. I'm with my family at the moment so this is a university town only in that there are some satellite campuses here. Most people here are well-off, and I think my anecdata might be partly tainted because I know my friends who have jobs here pretty much took the first jobs that they found. I personally have a remote sde job, so all of this is anecdata I've collected from those around me, alongside seeing job postings out and about.

willcipriano 5y ago

Tipped workers take some liberties with the income math. I spent a decade in the restaurant industry and front of house made considerably more than the back of the house while also paying less tax even though they were "only paid $2.75 an hour". Generally speaking cash tips are not reported and tax free, a server will make in excess of $20 an hour in a moderately successful resturant. The back of the house jobs now start around $13 an hour for unskilled labor in a hot and dangerous kitchen, every cent of it subject to tax. In addition by under reporting income, tipped workers often gain access to social programs that their true income would disqualify them from. I don't know what the deal is with your university in particular, but your local Amazon warehouse is paying $15 an hour as that is their national minimum. Walmart just recently announced they are moving to $15 nationally as well I believe.

jackson1442 5y ago
I was more referring to places like McDonald’s. I have a friend who technically makes tips at Jersey Mike’s but people don’t _really_ tip at places like that, especially since it’s just a tip jar, so cash only. Tipped server jobs are actually in somewhat high demand around here since people generally tip well, especially with restaurants moving to those Toast PoS systems that prompt customers to tip.
- willcipriano 5y ago
  A McDonald's owned by McDonald's itself (most are franchises and this is not the case) won't start you below $13, they aren't doing that because they are kind but because they found the wage floor for them to be about there. For context, I started dishwashing at the age of 13 at $8.25 an hour twenty years ago. In your position I wouldn't settle for one of those near minimum wage jobs take a look at things like garden centers, construction labor, bakeries, or even something like doordash that I hesitate to recommend but may be a better deal in this case. I do wonder why that town has wages so far below what I'm seeing around. Perhaps this has something to do with it being a university town and having lots of unskilled labor? I also do wonder if it being a self fulfilling prophecy is also a possibility, if you get a bunch of people together who belive that wages are lower then they are, a savvy busineessman might make that belief a reality. Either way it's a interesting case study, thanks for sharing your experience and I will consider it further as I continue to look into this topic.
  - jackson1442 5y ago
    I'm also confused as to why wages are lower here. I'm with my family at the moment so this is a university town only in that there are some satellite campuses here. Most people here are well-off, and I think my anecdata might be partly tainted because I know my friends who have jobs here pretty much took the first jobs that they found. I personally have a remote sde job, so all of this is anecdata I've collected from those around me, alongside seeing job postings out and about.