In a viral TikTok video, a Texas Roadhouse server shared the barely-there tip she got from a table that ordered more than $100 worth of food and drinks.
In the video, Mikaela (@mikaela.mac1105) had what appeared to be a table of two’s receipt in hand with the tip they left her on a $112 order.
According to the receipt, the table ordered a wing appetizer, two ribeyes with shrimp, a side of extra shrimp, and two lemonades.
“Nah, look at this sh*t bro. It says five cents tip. Five cents,” Mikaela says.
Viewers can clearly see that the customers left her a literal “$.05,” which doesn’t even get the bill rounded to an even number (since some people use the tip to get a round payment amount).
“At this point, I don’t even want that,” Mikaela adds.
@mikaela.mac1105 Keep your nickle #fyp #foryoupage #viral #foryou #fypシ #serverlife #server #restraunt #waiterslife ♬ original sound – M
Texas Roadhouse is a steakhouse chain that specializes in Texas and Southwestern-style cuisine. Founded about three decades ago, the chain has grown to include three restaurant concepts (Bubbas’s 33 and Jaggers) and has more than 700 restaurants across virtually every state in the United States, plus in ten foreign countries, according to the chain’s investor relations site.
The video has more than 1.8 million views and over 2,700 comments as of Thursdsay morning..
“Keep your nickel,” the caption read.
For context, tipping etiquette dictates a 15% to 20% tip at sit-down restaurants if the service is good and 25% if the service is excellent. Even if customers aren’t too happy with the waitstaff, it is still recommended to tip at least 10%, Bankrate reported.
It’s important to note that waitstaff is legally allowed to be paid below the federal minimum wage since the expectation is that their lower wage will be padded by tips.
Tipped workers are currently allowed to make as little as $2.13 an hour, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The federal minimum wage for other workers is $7.25 an hour. If a tipped worker doesn’t make more than minimum wage due to a lack of tips, their employer must make up the difference so the person makes at least minimum wage each hour.
In a follow-up video, Mikaela explains that she actually ended up losing money by serving that table since, at the end of the night, she has to tip out—to hosts, bartenders, and kitchen staff usually—three percent of her total sales. This tip-out assumes that each table is tipping more than 3%, but in this case, they didn’t, so the tip-out ate into what Mikaela made that night.
Some commenters came at Mikaela, saying that if she’d given the table better service, she would have earned a better tip.
“Quality of service equals tip,” a person said.
“I always tipped according to the service. Good service good tip. Bad service bad tip. Equates to me…,” another commented.
Others said it was possible they made an error when leaving the tip amount.
“They hit enter before they were done. I did once when I gave .01 intending on ten. I told them to redo it if they could but they said no. their loss,” a commenter wrote.
In a response video, Mikaela clarified that she gave the table great service, their orders all came out correct, and she even got them bread to-go.
The Daily Dot reached out to Mikaela for comment via Instagram DM and to Texas Roadhouse via email.
