How come dishwashers don't get tips but waitress and chefs do?

Question

If there minium wage is around $8.00 an hour plus tips. Don't you think it should be equal?

I know they should not expect tips, but Im just wondering though. Because I believe been a dishwasher it's 10 times harder then being a waitress and people don't like washing dishes.

Well thats kind of weird, because where I work they don't get tips at all.

Answer 1

Yes, like has been said above, this is a loaded question! No matter how you answer, somebody's going to take sides.

Going back to the origins, tips were given to servers and servants, in gratitude for their good work. Until quite recently, it was common practice to leave a coin on the dresser of your hotel room, for the housekeeper (maid). Today, if they find money anywhere in a room after checkout, they have to turn it over to management as lost-and-found! You tip the hotel doorman, the Red Cap, the railroad conductor and porter, the shoeshine boy, and the paper boy. People would tip the mailman -usually at Christmas time, and stage performers tipped the stage hands.

At one time, some customers could actually go through the restaurant's kitchen, tipping members of the kitchen staff -including the chef and the dishwashers. Today, it's practically expected that each and every customer MUST leave a tip, and sometimes even if the service is terrible. In a swanky place, the head waiter usually gets his tip when you enter, to assure good service. Some diners add their tip to their charge card, or add it to the bill when they pay. Others prefer the traditional method of leaving the tip on the table. They can see and interact with the waiter or waitress, and they know the chef or the cook prepared their food. But the dishwashers and janitors, being on the bottom rung of the restaurant hierarchy, are "out of sight, out of mind."

Have you ever heard a satisfied diner remark, "My complements to the dishwasher!"?

In some cases, the wait staff do -or are required to- share their tips with the kitchen workers. Sometimes they all dump their tips into one big pile, and someone is appointed to count it all and divide it equally among everyone there. But this is a case where everybody is paid equally. Usually, no matter what they are paid, the dishwashers are not included in the "tip pool." They also often get yelled at and ordered around by the wait staff, who feel superior to them. But if the dishes don't get washed, the whole operation can grind to a halt! In food service, EVERYBODY is important, and should work as a team, tips, salaries, or wages aside.

Answer 2

I've waited tables in restaurants for 5 years...and have yet to meet a chef that gets tipped. (How would you even do that, anyway?) But, anyway...this is a really loaded question. :)

Dishwashers, while their jobs suck (it's just true), don't get tipped because they generally make a higher wage than servers. Servers get paid a base rate of $2.16 an hour. (I'm not sure where it is you're working that they get $8...) But generally, the only servers who get paid more than that are the ones who work in really swanky places, and believe me...they're working for those tips. (It's not a hard job, but it can be very difficult, if you know what I mean.) The tip is based on the quality of service. If you give good service, you get good tips. If you give crappy service...well, it doesn't always work out that way. I'm not sure how that would work in a dishwasher's case. You send out dirty dishes, so they don't tip you as much?

Now, if your question is "Should servers be paid a salary and not get tipped, just like dishwashers?" then that's a little trickier. I think it would be much harder to get good service in a restaurant if it didn't matter to your server whether your food came out or not. Dishwashers report to a manager, who KNOWS if their doing their job well or not. Servers report to their customers, who may or may not tell the manager if they're doing a bad job. But, a bad servers TIPS will reflect the quality of their work...and they'll probably quit on their own.

That said, if you're working in a restaurant where YOU make $8 an hour AND the servers make $8 an hour + tips...start serving. :)

Answer 3

Being a dishwasher is much harder than waiting tables. As a rule dishwashers are paid more per hour than the wait staff who usually receive half of what ever the minimum wage is in your country per hour and the tips are expected to make up the balance. When someone stiffs them on the tips they are in effect making the waiter pay for waiting their table. 15% percent is for service (bringing the food etc..) anything above that is an idication of the appreciation for the service. Too often people mistake the tip as the only indication of good or poor service.

Answer 4

Dishwashing is a nasty job, but not harder than waiting tables. Sorry but I was a server and also had to fill in for a dishwasher that didn't show up one night. It was gross but also a pretty menial, mindless task. Where I worked, the dishwasher got paid almost as much as the line cooks, servers only got $2.18 an hour plus tips. And I'll give the dishwasher a tip, when they actually get the dishes clean. They'd get po'd at me because I would bring a stack of "clean" dishes back to them, maybe they thought that the dirty part would be covered with food anyway, I wasn't about to put my customers food on a plate with leftover food particles on it.

Answer 5

Well when I was a dish washer the waitress always tipped me and the chef out of her tips, we would always share tips, that's how it was done when i worked and i do agree with you the dishwasher should be tipped to, let's face it, it's the nastiest job there.

Answer 6

Good question and sadly it just might be a case of "out of sight,out of mind"-in other words, unlike waiters,etc. they are not seen and therefore not thought about but they certainly merit tips. The premise /practice of splitting tips among all the staff is an excellent one.

Answer 7

good point. I dont know why.

Nice Avatar though.