Over the years, numerous internet users have gone viral after sharing what they make as a server. In September, one user sparked a discussion after claiming she made almost $400 serving just four tables. Before that, another user claimed that she made nearly $1,000 after working a single weekend. A further user stated they made $2,500 working part-time for one week in a restaurant.
Seeing these numbers and the short amount of time needed to reach them, one may conclude that serving is an easy way to get a lot of money quickly. This is not always the case, as TikTok user and Texas Roadhouse server Emma (@dumbmfgirl) recently revealed.
In a clip with over 2 million views as of Friday, Emma offers a more realistic portrayal of what one can expect to earn while working at a restaurant. Throughout her four-and-a-half-minute video, she documents how much she ends up bringing home every day, as well as how much she ends up working on each day she’s scheduled.
For example, she says that on a Saturday, she worked for seven hours and made $185.90, which is over $26 hourly. However, the following day, she was scheduled for a double but only ended up working for 4 hours and making $96 in cash.
Her hours were similarly limited on Monday; she worked only three hours and made just $60. Additionally, she says many food orders were messed up that day, meaning she couldn’t spend as much time with each table as she would have liked. This, she says, likely affected her tips.
On her final workday, Tuesday, she says that there were too many servers on the schedule, which affected how much money she could bring home. This means that, over her four-day workweek, she brought home a total of $426.38 for 17 hours of work, which averages to around $25 per hour.
Emma does note that these 17 hours do not include the additional labor a server requires, such as back work or setting up tables. Additionally, this number is after tip-out, which she says is 3% of her income.
“My hourly only ends up being 20 bucks,” she wrote in a comment, claiming that the majority of her income comes from tips.
@dumbmfgirl ♬ original sound – emma 💔
In the comments section, users appreciated Emma’s candidness and honesty.
“This is the most realistic one I’ve seen,” wrote a user.
“Girl. I serve at Olive Garden, and I felt you on your Monday night,” said another. “It’s so frustrating when that happens, and you feel like you can never catch up.”
“This is me as a server,” stated a third. “Love how honest you are cause I wanna cry many shifts when things keep going wrong.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Emma via Instagram direct message.
