A video on TikTok demonstrating how a bartender earned only $9 for 70 hours of work has gone viral. Needless to say this has been disturbing, and has caused outraged by those on social media.
Aaliyah Cortez, a 20-year-old waitress and bartender at the sports bar in Austin, Texas, posted a recent paycheck on TikTok, showing that even though she had been on the payroll for 70.80 hours over a two-week stretch in January, her paycheck was just $9.28.
‘So this is why you should always tip your bartenders, servers, anyone who waits on you,’ the mother-of-one said. ‘This is why you tip.’
For most people who have served as a waitress or a waiter, they can completely appreciate how challenging it is to make the ends meet. And in fact, for some people who work in the hospitality industry, their little salary is the only thing that can help keep a roof over their heads.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Aaliyah, who has a 22-month-old son, Elijah, explained that because she is classified as a tipped worker, her employer only has to pay her $2.13 an hour.
The US government requires that employees who receive at least $30 per month in tips only get paid $2.13 an hour by their employers (called the minimum cash wage).
If an employee’s tips don’t make up the rest of the $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage in those tips, employers are required to make up the difference.
