I believe he was saying before tips, if I read correctly. Add to that an average of five bucks an hour for tips (for me it was more like $10/hr and this was 10 years ago), and I’d say, yes, that’s a pretty decent wage for a job that requires very little skill.
Wow. When I delivered pizza we made minimum wage plus tips. And when we weren’t delivering pizza, we had to wash dishes (by hand–the restaurant didn’t have a dishwasher). I was always jealous of the waitresses in the restaurant because they made more tips and didn’t have to go outside (this was day shift in Phoenix in the summer, when it was often over 115 outside, and one day it was 122… the car got a wee bit toasty sitting out there in the sun, and the AC typically took longer to cool down than my delivery drive took so most of the driving was in a car so hot I could barely open my eyes) and they didn’t have to wash dishes. They’d bring back the dishes all mounded with food and grossness and just dump them into the first sink full of water–not even scraping them first. It was so disgusting.
Note: I worked as a waitress later and decided that all in all delivery was the better job, except for the dishes (I realized that my restaurant was “special” in making drivers do dishes, and that if I did it somewhere else that would likely not be part of my job). Waitressing is just harder work and you put up with more shit from the customers.
I actually enjoyed being a cocktail waitress for the time I did that except that the specific club I worked at didn’t do assigned tables, so the waitresses were constantly poaching each other’s customers, and I’m just not that cutthroat. (I wouldn’t run in front of another waitress who was walking toward a customer, for example, so that I could get there first and take his order). Except for that part I actually enjoyed the job, because I didn’t often have to deal with actual food, and the guys typically were chatty and the atmosphere was jovial. The tips were typically pretty good, too.
yep been a waitress, been a pizza delviery driver. Delivery is much better. I delviered pizza for over 4 years both part time and full time. When I wasn’t out delivering I was cleaning, making boxes, taking orders, running the register and helping the kitchen staff prepare the food. No I didnt’ tip the cook because when I made pizza he didn’t share his higher wage with me. I averaged about $5.oo an hour over my minimum wage and received milage. The inside staff made about $5.oo over minimum wage to start and got regular raises. As far I know I am the only driver at our place who ever got a raise over minimum wage, the accountant for some reason liked me and recommended the owner give me a raise so he did. I also one Christmas got both the bonus pay and the baseball jacket that was suposed to be either or. (and yes I told the manager). I hope i never have to do it again but it wasn’t the worst job I ever had as disgusting as the job was at times (I told them I would never ever clean the walls in the mens room again). It paid my bills.
I truly believe that some people don’t know they are expected to tip, I gave everyone the same polite smiling service regardless of the tip. I had people who thought the coin change was a good tip (wow! 46 cent tip!) and some who would tell me they were too broke to tip me because they had government job or were a teacher whatever.
For regular delvieries about 2/3 of the people would tip, colleges it was about 1/2 the people tipped something. Business were the worst, they often had a check for the exact amount of the food and nothing else even though they took longer.
A good tip is a dollar or two per pizza delviered or entree delviered. More if you ask for special services like bringing you a newspaper or if the weather is bad (rain counts). And please please make sure you are dressed when you answer the door, I have an image of a chubby guy in ragged jockey shorts, telling me he didn’t know they had girl delivery drivers. After a few weeks of this happening I had a note put on his address in the computer to send one of the guys. My managers were all pretty cool about watching where they were sending me particulary at night.
I did lose a tip on time because when the customer opened the door, I blurted out “wow! what an ugly dog, what is it?” I then was all embarassed and apologised all over the place for being rude. It was a half shar pei and half rottweiler and not the good halves of either one. They didn’t tip me and I dont blame them but it was an ugly dog.
Mot pizza guys around here are high schoolers. The ones who are not generally have… issues. The ones I know are so mental they can’t get any better jobs, or at least won’t try. Most don’t live off of pizza delivery, and there aren’t as many scut jobs to do. Vitrtually no-one eats in-store or anything.
The in-store people make minimum wage, more or less, and the deliveyr guys get paid the 9-10$ per hour plus gas and tips.
That is sooooo fucked. :mad: Damn, that means my next delivery dude is getting a bigger tip. If the pizza isn’t cold. 
Ever since the gov’t (Congress, IRS, some @!#?@!-head) decreed that delivery drivers are tipped employees, their employers were given the right to pay them less than minimum, which I was after. Before, I was paid $5.50 when minimum was $3.85; after it was $5.25 when minimum was more.
When I delivered, we worked in the store: stocking, taking phone orders, folding boxes, cleaning. Anyone caught not doing something was probably going to be the first to go home for the evening.
Humblest apologies for the hijack, but a shar pei - rottweiler cross?! I just googled “shar pei” to make sure I wasn’t misremembering. That really must have been one weird critter!
I’ve got a friend who just retired from the military and is currently delivering for Pizza Hut. 3-4 deliveries/hour on a good day, less than one delivery/hour on slow days. But anyway, she just told me this story with regard to tips: This sweet little old lady ordered a pizza for $24.70, and left my friend the 30 cents from $25 as a tip, explaining, “I’m so sorry I can’t give you more. I wish I could but you see I’m old and poor.”
That really chaps my ass. Always has. Lamest excuse ever. Whether you’re a highschool or college kid, or some old fart on a fixed income, if you can somehow scrape together the cash and enjoy the luxury of someone serving you food, or having someone deliver piping hot food to your door, you can fucking afford the tip!
Look, you pathetic old bat, if you’ve chosen to spend the last $25 you have left in the world on delivery pizza, pick the $23 pizza and tip your fucking driver!
In my town (and, I imagine, in most non-enormous metro areas) cabs are primarily used by people getting to and from the airport and people going out to get hammered.
I tip a couple of bucks for the airport cabbies.
When I’m going out to get drunk, I lay a twenty on the dude. My wife and I like to drink at a bar that’s not really anywhere near any other nightlife, so getting a cab to get picked up at last call can be a two-hour endeavour. If I pay the driver twenty bucks on the way out and ask him nicely, I’m pretty much garunteed he’ll show up at closing time to pick us up. I’ll throw him another ten on the way back.
I do the same thing with bartenders, if the place is crowded and I’m in there for some serious drinking. Tip twenty the first time up, and another ten at closing time.
For some reason, we never wait in line.
Reliving a bad memory dept:
When I was 7, I was helping my brother shovel snow at a neighbors for cash. I knew he supposedly got a decent amount for this customer, so I didn’t mind working hard. He did the driveway with the snowblower; I did the stairs, doorways, and walks by hand. At the end of the job, he got two envelopes; one for him & one for me. I opened mine at home and discovered three dimes. :eek: :eek: :eek:
I took another envelope from my father’s desk, shoved her envelope into it along with a hastily scrawled note on school notebook paper:
"Dear Mrs. insert name,
In good concience, I can’t take your 30 cents as I honestly feel I haven’t earned it.
Sincerely,
Count Blucher"
I stuffed it into her mail slot and went back home & about my day, poorer but wiser. Later, my mother angrily demanded I go over and take it back (How could she know? The bat phone(d)?). I took my beating and my punishment, but I wouldn’t go over and take it back.
Those neighbors never had nice things to say about me after that. Two years later, I was told that when they were on vacation, that the local GOP party abruptly convened and voted to kick the husband out as president. Lets just say I was hard pressed to feel sorry for them.
Well, maybe 30 cents worth… :rolleyes:
These things make sense and I would also do something similar in similar circumstances.
You can not be paid less than the Federal Min wage unless your tips are “if that amount plus the tips received equals at least the federal minimum wage, the employee retains all tips and the employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips. If an employee’s tips combined with the employer’s direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference.”
The Gov’t did not decide that delivery drivers are “tipped” employees. They have defined what a “tipped” employee and you must still make the Min wage after tips.
http://www.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/flsa/002.htm
I didn’t offer an opinion before, but I will now.
I object to tipping on principle. People should have a little pride in doing the job they’re paid for. Meeting the bare minimum requirements (e.g., pizza arrives on time and reasonably edible) is not grounds for getting extra money out of me.
However… I do tip, and pretty generously. Despite my philosophical objections, I know that the drivers and wait-staff get paid less than they should, because our society has this fucked up idea ingrained. I would much, much rather those workers get better pay and remove the cultural expectation of a tip, even if it meant paying a bit more in certain sectors. Instead, I get to fund the assholes who put are too cheap to toe the line that we’re too messed up to get rid of.
In theory. In practice it can be quite different.
When I was working as a waitress at Pizza Hut, they just always reported our tips to the government as X where X = minimum wage minus what they paid us. That’s regardless of what our actual tips were, be they more or be they less. You were allowed to report extra above that if you wanted to.
Well, you see, that is illegal. If your employer is going to commit a Federal crime, and you don’t turn them in for it, then there’s not much anyone can do. Sure, you might not want to report them while working there, but you have a couple years after leaving.
I do know that most dudes under-report their tips to the IRS. Of course, if you work in a pizza place, there might be too few tips to under-report.
That’s some story - I’m quite impressed that you had the sense of self-worth, fortitude, and graciousness (not to make any sort of nasty remark about it) to do that at 7 years old. And I can’t believe your mother reprimanded you for it. If my child did that I would pat him on the back and give him $50!
Out of curiosity, how old was your brother and how much did they give him?
Yes, obviously. But it was also 1990 and if you’ll recall that year it was nearly impossible to find a job, especially if you were, like me, 18 years old without a lot of experience. It didn’t make sense to make waves and risk being out a job. (And frankly, once I did leave, it wasn’t really on my mind enough to care about going back and getting them in trouble)
If the cheapskate service industry firms in the states paid their staff a living wage instead of expecting the public to make up the difference it would add alot to the personal dignity of the poor sods who work for them and make for a much better atmos for the tourists who come from countries where tipping is for exemplry service not just for doing their job.
For gods sake just put the prices up and stop the begging and we 'll all be happy.
I’m with The Loaded Dog. I would hate to see tipping become part of our culture- I rarely tip- maybe a taxi driver or a pizza delivery person.
Ecch. It’s taken me literally more than half a lifetime to learn the tipping situations I occasionally encounter that I’m currently aware of. Some for-instances: when you get your hair cut at a beauty salon, apparently it’s customary to tip the shampoo girl a buck. I was past 50 before learning this. I don’t spend much time in bars, so I was in my late 40s before I was aware that you’re supposed to tip the bartender. Leaving a tip for the hotel maids? Around 40 when I learned that one. And so forth.
The way the Europeans, Australians, etc. deal with this is much better. Pay people a decent wage upfront, and get rid of most of the tipping.