What type of benefits does/did you have as an employee of a restaurant, if you don’t mind my asking? And if it was an optional participation type thing, did you? Why or why not?
I’m looking for things along the lines of medical/dental coverage, retirement plans, how paid time-off (vacation, sick days) was handled, etc.
If you could give me an idea of the size of the place, too, like major corporation or mom and pop place, I would appreciate it.
Thanks.
I was a waitress at a four star restaurant for 3 years, about 10 years ago.
It had, I think, 90 seats and was fairly famous. There was a cookbook published with the restaurant name and several follow up cookbooks, mostly dessert cookbook with high production drool pictures of desserts. The executive chef had his own TV show for a little while. It was owned by the chef and a partner. They had no other restaurants.
No server got paid more than the approximately $2.75 that is the minimum for tipped employees. Tips usually ran $100-$200 a night but could dip down to $50 in the off season (Jan-March-it was a tourist destination).
As for benefits-they had group health/dental insurance available, but you paid the whole premium yourself. I don’t think they had any other benefits available, but they might have had a 401(k).
There was no such thing as paid time off. It was easy to arrange time off–you just had to get someone to cover your shifts–but there was no paid vacation, sick time, etc.
The only other benefit was a 50% discount on a meal at the end of your shift. There was no discount at any other time.