Surviving an Unlivable Wage | Full Documentary

"The restaurant industry has driven a significant amount of economic growth since the Great Recession, but many restaurant employees continue to end up hungry due to a two-tiered wage system that allows tipped workers to be paid as little as $2.13 an hour. CBS Reports' Adam Yamaguchi travels to Indiana to explore the impact of tipping as a primary source of income for people in one of America’s fastest-growing workforces.

[cdeshayes]

The practice of tipping needs to be ended. Employers should be responsible for paying their employees a livable wage. Period.

[marys]

This is the problem: Many people are still earning the same amount of money that jobs in the 1990’s earned, yet housing, food, cell phones, utilities, insurance, car payments, etc. etc. etc.have quadrupled. Simple answer. Complex to fix it.

[roseywinter]

Restaurants are the "absolute, lowest-paying employer in the United States" and now restaurant owners wonder why, during a pandemic, they can't get anybody to work for them. Ironic.

[WDLawless]

My personal experience is that even with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, and earning an MBA degree 20 years later, I had to deliver pizzas and other food for over 30 years to survive. Even as a General Manager at a pizzeria, I was making only $30K a year and was disrespected by customer and bosses alike. I am very thankful to be working an IT job, where I work from home, for the last year. Even $15 per hour is not enough to survive in most places.

[brianallison]

The worst part is these places pay their employees an unlivable wage while reminding them all through their shift they don't care about them but turn around and demand the employees care about the business.

[KingHarambe_RIP]

The date of this video is truly devastating. These people were suffering and barely getting by before 2020. I can’t imagine what has happened to them since.

[LillyLavine]

Why are we taxing people making $2 an hour???

[BlueWoods]

What’s crazy is that fast food jobs and food industry jobs are some of the hardest jobs you can ever work fr

[TheGonzedd]

It will no longer be known as "the cost of living." It is now "the cost of surviving!"

[jdax]

So, a large percentage of people who work in restaurants serving food to other people are themselves nearly starving.

[tiffanybramlette]

Tips shouldn't be counted as income, it's an extra thank you for giving me good service.

[Americano]

“I’m paying 5 dollars to wait on you” as someone who was a waiter for a long time I felt that deeply. People don’t deserve good waiters in many cases.

[ofwands]

Even a college degree isn't a guarantee of a good job anymore....

[DimaRakesah]

The problem is we still treat low paying jobs as if only teenagers do those jobs and any adults working in them must be lazy or have made bad choices in life. The reality is that low paying work takes up a huge percentage of the available jobs. It's not really a choice, for many Americans it's the only option.

[gertrudewest]

I have this to say to any sized business; if you can’t afford to pay your employees a livable wage, then do the work yourself.

[jeffwang]

Even though the pandemic was a rough time for restaurant servers, I think we might be beginning to see a turning point as people realize their self-worth and take being laid off as an out to find more respectable work. Seems like restaurants are starting to feel the pressure after years of neglecting their employees.

[blazejennifer]

I used to generously tip waiters; now, I can no longer afford to go to restaurants.

[jaynordiaz]

The fact that we still don't pay a living wage to wait staff in restaurants is ridiculous to me.

[prepperjonpnw]

When I first moved to Utah I went out to eat at Olive Garden. I asked the waitress how much she was paid. She told me she was paid $2.50 USD per hour and tips were supposed to cover the rest. As I looked at the menu I noticed that the prices were exactly the same as the Olive Garden I ate at in Oregon where the waitress was paid $8.00 USD per hour. That means the owner of the Utah restaurant was making a much larger profit because he was saving $5.50 USD per hour times 11 servers and was paying much lower payroll taxes.
That is profane in the extreme if you ask me. Oh and the waitress in Utah also has to pay taxes on her tips. Seriously

[dion]

I'm impressed at how organized and controlled that woman is about her income and expenses and making sure she gets through the month. She's so pragmatic. Imagine how well she could be doing if the political system wasn't doing everything it could to keep her down.