I’ve had two tip jobs (busser and valet) and in both cases I loved it. They’ve been the only jobs I earned more for doing more work. Busy days I’d go home with $100+ in cash and it felt worthwhile. Curious if others have had the same experience.

30 comments

  1. It seems like the general sentiment here has been that tip paying positions should just make more per hour and not need tips. But that doesn’t compensate the employees more when it’s really busy, which is a key aspect of tips. I remember looking forward to the busy days in the restaurant, or the wedding or event days at the hotel as a valet cause it meant busting our butts, but making a bunch of money in tips. This always felt more equitable than a base salary regardless of how busy you were.

  2. Yup.

    One of my two favorite jobs was at a car wash chain in NC where I got minimum wage and tips. On busy days I’d leave with over $100 cash. Which was awesome back in 2003.

    I don’t think we were supposed to get tips tho, but the company didn’t discourage it so we took them. I think that has since changed.

  3. Years ago I delivered pizza. On an outstanding night, I’d make $10-12 in tips; two or three dollars was typical. I made more from trip commissions.

  4. When I did tipped work I made way, way more than I would have at the prevailing cost of unskilled labor. At least $20/hr most nights while most jobs open to me were at the $8 minimum wage rate. And I definitely didn’t commit petty tax fraud.

  5. Yeah it was great. I’d drive around listening to Metallica for 5 hours and go home with $200. My roommate bartended from 5-11 and would come home with twice that. I don’t think the pizzeria I was at would have paid me $40/hr to drive around, not to mention no one reports their tips.

  6. I earned tips when I worked for moving company, and when I delivered Macy’s furniture for a contractor. I enjoyed the furniture delivery more because I honestly spent more time driving the truck than handling the furniture and tips would be pretty solid most of the time.

  7. I liked that I got a lot of cash. I didn’t *like* the job.

    I make less cash per hour today but my total compensation is higher, paid vacation, sick leave, paid holidays, retirement, ect.

  9. Yes, I’ve had five or six restaurant jobs that were tipped, I always liked it. You make more money from tips than any business is going to be willing to pay hourly for restaurant work in this country.

    My opinion of the whole tipping thing in America is that it’s a clever solution to a bad system.

  10. Yep I worked concessions at a golf course. It was super chill tips were pretty good usually 60-100 bucks a day in tips. The best day was a local celebrity fundraiser tournament and I left with $500. As a high school kid that was a great day.

  11. I’ve never worked in food service or been dependent on tips, but I did get paid a commission when I worked in fashion retail.

    >They’ve been the only jobs I earned more for doing more work. Busy days I’d go home with $100+ in cash and it felt worthwhile.

    I can really relate to this feeling. I enjoyed knowing when I came home exhausted after a particularly busy day that I was going to have a fatty paycheck (no, Europeans reading this, I wouldn’t actually get a physical paycheck) waiting for me at the end of the pay period.

    I transitioned into retail management about 10 years ago where my incentives were more around overall store performance and three years after that I got out of retail all together and now I have an office job where I make salary plus an annual bonus. None this compares to the feeling of when I was on the sales floor and I could bust my ass on a busy day, watching my sales climb on the POS software and calculating what my commission was going to be in my head.

  12. My first job (at a bakery) had a tip jar on the counter, but the owner kept all the tips. So that wasn’t great. The overwhelming majority of customers didn’t tip, so it only would’ve been a few dollars per shift, and I was just a kid, so I didn’t make an issue of it.

    As a customer, it’s always seemed to me like servers at popular restaurants must do reasonably well. Hypothetically– handling four tables, average group occupies a table for 40 minutes, average bill of $50 results in a $10 tip. That’s $60/hour in tips when all your tables are occupied, right?

  13. Not as a formal job, but I did valet work a few times in high school. My folks had some friends that were very well off, and liked to show off their money, so when they would throw a party at their house, they would hire us as valets to park cars. Word got around, and we did it a few more times for other people. We probably would have done it for free, just to drive some of the cars (I was a car guy). It wasn’t steady work by any means though.

    On a fun note, we lived in a smaller city, and had to go 1.5-3 hours or so, to get to the high end dealerships. When some of those people needed a car serviced, dropped off, picked up, etc., then they would pay us to do what was needed. Again, it wasn’t steady work, but it was fun being 18 and getting paid to run around in high dollar cars.

  14. Waited tables and Bartended in College to pay for my school, rent, bills, etc.

    Was able to afford all of it with minor school loans under $6k while only working 3 to 4 shifts a week during the school year.

    So I liked it. Granted if I could have made hourly the same that would have been amazing but that wouldn’t happen.

  15. I liked waiting tables in college. Tips were good money. I made more there then I did retail.

  16. When I was in college, absolutely worth it. Now that I’ve been in a well-paid salary position for years, I would definitely not quit to go back but it was a great option when my alternative was flat minimum wage.

  17. Yes and no. I worked at a car wash where we would get tips when I was in my teens. I loved it on sunny days where we had a lot of business. Could seriously end a 4 hour shift with $150 in my pocket from tips. The problem was, the job sucked when it was rainy and no one came in. Just had to stand there and basically do nothing for $4 an hour.

  18. I was a bartender at Universal CityWalk.

    It was hectic a lot of nights but I was making almost as much money doing that as I am now doing network support.

  19. Pizza delivery driver. Made $2.15/hour on the road, $4.25/hour in store. Made about $10 or so in tips and hour. Honestly, I would prefer to get paid minimum wage before tips but there is a reason I left for more money.

    I didn’t complain about low tippers either. They paid for their meal, I’m not entitled to tips and I don’t know their situation to judge.

    Edit: For those who may question the tip amount, I worked in a not so great area with a lot of lower income households. The people getting pizza were mainly getting them as a treat using change to pay for it. If someone couldn’t tip more, I understood. Not everyone just had disposable income like that.

  20. Yeah. I did doordash during the pandemic. I was making $30 an hour from tips. Great side hustle.

  22. Yep. Pizza delivery before the apps was pretty sweet. I made 20-40 dollars an hour depending on the night. This was the the 2000s so that was really good money for a college kid.

  23. Fuck yeah, I was good at my job and earned about as much one night a week as I did at my 9/5 job. The owner of the bar was my friend, I helped him refurbish the place top to bottom, and he gave me whatever night I wanted as my standing shift as a thank you. I picked Thursday because it’s the hardest drinking night that isn’t on a weekend. There were nights when I came home with $800 in my pocket. And the whole time I was having fun. Working hard, but having fun. And going gone with a house payment in my jeans for one night.

  24. Yep – but I live in CA so we still would get the minimum wage (or a bit above) as the base wage, then tips on top of that. Also I have a strong suspicion that my coworkers and general workplace environments were a big factor in why I liked those jobs.

  26. Worked at a car wash doing towel dries back in high school for a season. Made standard minimum wage and went home with a pocket full of cash tips everyday. Great job for a high schooler at the time. I generally made enough in tips that the paycheck just felt like a bonus.

  27. I had a friend who got a bartending job in Philly while he was working on his teaching degree. He ended up keeping the bartending job while he was teaching because it paid more. He’d work thursday nights and sleep 3-4 hours before school on Fridays.

    Another friend wanted to move to New York after college. He found a job cleaning dishes at a restaurant in Brooklyn and worked his way up to Host Manager. He ended up leaving New York to be with his girlfriend in December 2019… Amazing timing. After 2 years working in office jobs, he went back to the service industry and is making 6 figures in DC.

    I know the salary isn’t the same without subsidized benefits like health/life/dental insurance, but the money is good and the bar to entry is relatively low, especially if you don’t already have a degree or trade experience.

  28. I’m old enough to have had a paper route back when I was around 13-15 years old. Had about 50 customers on 2 blocks. The job kinda sucked (who wants to walk around at 6am in the cold?) but I’d get anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar tip when I got paid by customers. I was making around $50 per week with my pay and tips. For a 13 year old, I was rich.

  29. Yeah I was a bussed tables in college and high school and made a ton of money (for a 16 year old).

    I’d work friday and saturday during the school year and bring home $300-$500 a week. This was in like 1998.

    To bring that into perspective, the first apartment I rented in south Providence was like $200 a month for rent (1 of 3 rooms. In the hood.)

    ​

    Also delivered pizza in college. Drive around listening to audiobooks. Make decent money. No one bothering me for the most part. It wasn’t bad.

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