Recent Comments

1. about 2 months ago on Rubes

   It didn’t burn the vision chart. (That would have given away his secret ID) and he didn’t actually make it to the hair and nails part.

   Clark was rejected because of the vision test, though. His vision was so bad he got every letter on the chart wrong. (He accidentally read the chart from the next room due to his X-Ray Vision).

2. about 2 months ago on Rubes

   Heat vision reflected off of a polished and highly reflective piece of the rocket that brought him to earth.

3. 2 months ago on Pearls Before Swine

   Many states do have higher minimum wages. Many don’t. I didn’t say “ALL” servers get only $2.13, but MANY still do. Just because there is less or even no injustice in one area doesn’t mean we shouldn’t put a stop to it where it does exist. $2.13 is ridiculous, especially when the people making that much have to pay some of part of their coworkers’ wages. The fact that a server in one state might be making $7.25 or even $15 base pay doesn’t negate the fact that others still make $2.13.

4. 2 months ago on Pearls Before Swine

   The prices have been raising for years, yet the servers have still been paid $2.13 for over thirty years. Additionally, for chains that have stores in areas where federal minimum is required and in states like Califorina, server minimum is higher, they’re still pretty much the same prices and they aren’t all going under.

   If your really want to talk “margins”, the beverage margins alone are enough to make a loan shark blush.

5. 2 months ago on Pearls Before Swine

   These greedy leeches will do whatever they can to keep from having to pay for their employees and to make you do it instead.If you eat out and don’t want to tip, ask the server what they make and who they have to pay out to. Then calculate how much they’re paying to serve you.This crap doesn’t end because you don’t tip.It ends because you eat at places that value their employees enough to pay them.

   I’d like to end by saying that to solve these issues, the following should happen…-Service minimum should go back to being 50% of base minimum.(I also think base minimum should go up. We’re past the point of $15 being a reasonable living wage. It’s time to go up to $20 and permanently tie minimum to the cost of living)-Any business that pays any of their employees less than base minimum wage and/or makes said employees pay out (ie tip share) should be required to inform their customers of it in a reasonable way such as a poster in their main lobby or on the menu with a font size that is easy to read, being no smaller than the descriptions of the menu items. The information should include what wage tipped employees receive and what percentage they pay out to or receive from others.

6. 2 months ago on Pearls Before Swine

   These restaurants have lobbied for years to keep servers and other support staff underpaid, claiming that they’d “have to raise prices”. Meanwhile, the prices have gone up anyways, but most servers still make $2.13 and many still have to pay some of their coworkers’ wages. The prices at a chain restaurant in a state with federal minimum wage are the same as the prices in a place like California where Server minimum is same as everybody else’s. The BS about “We’ll have to raise our prices” is just a bunch of greedy jerks trying to convince everybody that it’ll hurt them (the public) and not themselves (the employer) if the employer has to pay their employees.

   Finally, one last note on my little rant….Most people have said fast food workers shouldn’t get tipped. I mostly agree, but only if the workers aren’t getting ripped off by “tipped minimum wage” and their base pay is decent, $15+. (Though they should still be allowed to accept tips if the customer chooses to offer. They should be fired if they solicit tips, but let the customer offer if they choose.)My first job in high school (mid 90s) was at a Sonic Drive-In. I started in the kitchen, (where I was mostly incompetent), but was eventually moved to carhop (where I excelled).By the time I left, I think I was being paid $5.15/hr with the minimum at $4.75. (Not 100% sure. it was almost 30 years ago, but I’m about 80% sure of it.)In addition to that, I got probably $25-40 per day in tips on weekdays, with $100+ on most Saturdays (though that was ALL day and the evening.)Now, Sonic has switched how they pay their servers to the $2.13.That means that a server working now gets less than half of what I did in the 90s.And to add injury to insult, they don’t even let you (the customer) tip on a credit card if you pay that way at the store. (You can if you use the cc on the app, but not if you use it at the store.)(Continued in one more…)

7. 2 months ago on Pearls Before Swine

   As far as the back of the house like cooks, dishwashers, etc, they receive full wages. (IE 7.25 or better. Though I don’t consider $7.25 to be that much as it is.)I think a lot of the places instituting tips where it’s not actually direct service (IE service like McDonalds or StarBucks vs somebody doing something specifically for you like a sitdown restaurant, food delivery, cab/ride share driver or somebody carrying your groceries to your car) is just an attempt by the owners to get it to where they don’t have to pay their employees as much. They see what a SWEET deal the restaurant industry has and they want in on that action.

   I’ve worked in at least one restaurant that took advantage of the reduced server wage in a way that was so over the limit that I ended up getting a court mandated paycheck from them years after I left.(IE somebody got sick of it and brought a lawsuit)

   One of the restaurants I worked at would schedule way WAY WAY too many servers nearly every day. Even on holidays that were known to be completely dead, they’d have the servers absolutely fully staffed. We’d all be standing around with nothing to do, and by 2 in the afternoon, you’d be lucky to have one table. Because it was dead, they’d send all but one person from the back of house home, and expect us to do all their work (for $2.13). We’d have to do dishes and clean the back. The only back of house position was one cook since they knew we didn’t know how to make the food. (Though if any of us had made the mistake of learning, I’m pretty sure they would have made us do it for the 2.13)

   (Continued in next response… Yeah, this is long…)

8. 2 months ago on Pearls Before Swine

   Currently a DoorDasher and InstaCart shopper. Might be going back to Ubering soon too.Former Restaurant Server.

   Some history and explanation

   Part of the problem is that servers and a lot of other tipped jobs have a different minimum wage. Right now, the federal minimum wage for tipped jobs is $2.13, and has been since 1991. Up until 1996, tipped minimum wage was actually set at 50% of minimum wage. In 1991, minimum was set at $4.25, with tipped wage set to $2.13. However, it was permanently stabilized at that price. In 1996, when minimum wage was raised to $4.75, tipped wages remained at $2.13, and has ever since. This why when I was a kid, 10-15% was considered a decent tip. Now, however, anything less than 20% is an insult.It’s been several years, but most restaurants I’ve worked at only did a gratuity of 15% to the server for large parties. The customer is charged 18% gratuity, but we only got 15%.

   Here’s another great thing for the restaurant owners and others who expect their customers to pay their employees wages. If an employee is tipped, they can count that against what they have to pay them. It doesn’t matter who pays the tip. Be it customers or…

   Other employees.

   Many restaurants institute a system called “tip sharing”. Basically, the server has to pay out to other “support staff”, usually bartenders (Who also have their own tables to take care of), Bussers, and Hosts. At most places it’s set at 3%. So if you eat somewhere and spend $50, but don’t leave anything, then that server paid $1.50 to serve you. That’s why the large parties pay 18% but the server gets only 15.

   And of course, since that support staff is “receiving tips”, the restaurant gets to pay them less too. (Not usually as low as $2.13, but still not as high as $7.25)

   (Continued in a response to my own comment…)

9. 3 months ago on Pearls Before Swine

   I remember a young Pigathia Lee once explained that a producer’s job is to fire the director.

10. 7 months ago on Pearls Before Swine

    Most telemarketer calls show up as a random number with a local area code because they usually (illegally) spoof a random local number to the area code they’re calling to. When I’m really REALLY bored, I sometimes answer and then ask where they’re calling from. They usually claim somewhere in California (which is also a lie, but works for this anyways.) I then berate them for committing a felony and ask if their family is aware that they’re a criminal.