A Waffle House waitress’ reveal of how much she made working a weekend at the restaurant chain is catching the attention of hundreds of thousands of TikTok users.
In a recent video, viewed over 500,000 times, TikTok user Maya (@smallbutfit) revealed she made over $600 working one weekend at Waffle House.
@smallbutfit another weekend in the books🤧 #fyp #serverlife #YellowstoneTV #wafflehouse #candycrush10 ♬ original sound – Maya | Ma-yuh
“They worked ya girl today,” Maya says in the video while still in her Waffle House uniform. “I ain’t even gone hold you they worked me today. But it’s all good ’cause I feel like we did pretty decent.”
She then proceeds to count the money in front of the camera and detail how much she made working Friday through Sunday.
“So $45 Friday, $258 yesterday and today $343. So, a solid freaking weekend honestly,” she says.
Some commenters were impressed by how much Maya was able to rake in over one weekend.
“You make more than me and I work in the ICU … applying to waffle house rn!” one commenter said.
In a follow-up video, Maya says not every weekend is always the same in terms of tips.
“That was one video where I made a good amount of money, but every day is not like that,” she says. “I’m not clearing $30,000 a month, not even $30,000 a year when it comes to waitressing. So y’all need to take that into consideration.”
She also stresses that despite what people may think, she makes sure to factor in how much she’ll have to pay in taxes from waitressing.
“My last manager that I had before the manager that I got this time, one thing she didn’t play [about] is them IRS, Uncle Sam games so we good over here,” Maya said.
One commenter was overly critical of Maya’s video, commenting, “Thanks for the info..this is the very reason I don’t tip.”
In another video, Maya pushes back at the criticism, highlighting she does a job many people don’t want to do with grace and ease.
“Is it because you’re jealous that a waitress went in and made more money than you make on your check in one day, is that why? Again, doing something that you wouldn’t want to do?” Maya asks about the commenter’s refusal to tip. “All you gotta do is go and apply to Waffle House, that’s all you gotta do. Like I don’t get it.”
Servers typically earn the bulk of their pay from tips. According to one research article, nearly 60% of wait staff earnings come from tips.
Update 4:40pm, Nov. 17: Maya Monfiston told the Daily Dot her intention behind the video “was to show ppl that you can make good money as a server regardless of where you work.”
“I was hoping that ppl would be open minded and try something different,” Monfiston said. “My experience has been up and down, now I would say I love it and I look forward to going to work every weekend.”
Waffle House has not responded to a request for comment via email.
