Hooters Waitress Shares How Much She Earns In Tips In One Day — And It's More Than What Some Engineers Make
You won't believe what she makes in one shift!
QualityHD via Shutterstock / Milatoo and KT Paper Designs via Canva Though there are many instances of people in the restaurant industry struggling to make ends meet, one Hooters waitress revealed that may not always be the case.
The Hooters waitress shared exactly how much she earned in tips during an 8-hour shift.
Leah Fennelly, a law student and a waitress in a Florida Hooters restaurant, took to TikTok to reveal her impressive earnings during a full day at work.
“Hey guys, I’m working at Hooters today, my shift is from 12 pm-8 pm on a Thursday, so I’m gonna show you what I make in a day,” she said.
From her first three tables of the shift, Fennelly earned all cash tips of $3, $7 and $8, along with change. A couple of hours later, she served three more tables who tipped her $6, $14 and $23, all in cash. When Fennelly was halfway through her shift, she had earned another $6, $5, $4, $50 and $31 from a customer who asked for her number. By the time the morning shift wrapped up, Fennelly was tipped another $20 and $7.
Later in the day, she learned that one of her customers was a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher, which she realized when other customers approached the table to ask for photos and autographs.
“I didn’t realize I’m serving a Hall of Fame pitcher for a baseball team so I’ll let you guys know how much he tips me!” she exclaimed.
She wound up receiving a $7 tip from the baseball player and an additional $10 from another table.
When Fennelly’s shift ended at 8 pm, she displayed her final tip earnings of the shift, which were $38, $10, $5, $5, $12, $7 and $5. Additionally, one of Fennelly’s regulars sent her an extra $100 through CashApp.
When she combined all of her tip money from the 8-hour shift, it totaled $382, or about $47.75 an hour.
Many people were shocked by the final amount, with one person who claimed to be an engineer noting that the Hooters waitress "makes more than me."
“You made most of my paycheck for the week,” another user shared.
Despite this woman's high earnings on this particular day, $47.75 per hour is not the norm for servers.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, servers make an average of $36,000 per year, so you may not want to ditch your suit for orange Hooters hotpants just yet — that's about $24,000 less than the national average in the U.S. as a whole.
Server income varies widely by both industry (for example, servers in fine dining restaurants can generally expect to make more than those in chain restaurants) and location.
In addition, in many restaurants, servers are responsible for tipping out both front-of-house coworkers like hosts and food runners as well as back-of-house employees such as dishwashers. Tipped wages are also taxed.
And let's not forget that servers are sometimes not tipped at all, especially these days when more and more people report experiencing tipping fatigue. Some people took Fennelly's video as a sign to stop tipping servers altogether.
"That's why I don't tip," one person wrote, with another adding that "her work is not worth $50 per hour."
Though 66% of people in America have a negative opinion about tipping, it's likely that the U.S. won't do away with it any time soon despite the fact that who exactly is benefitting from such a pay structure is unclear.
“People assume that tipping is to the benefit of the business, that they’re getting lower labor costs and that just goes to their bottom line. But no, it goes to consumers in the form of lower prices,” tipping expert Michael Lynn told Vox. “So effectively it’s not the consumer subsidizing the business, it’s consumers subsidizing other consumers.”
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.