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Yes it is their real pay.

If no one tips them, then they make 2.13 per hour.

If their boss forces them to do minimum wage labor @ 2.13 per hour off of the floor in a closed restaraunt, as Semolina’s did, then they make 2.13 per hour.

Another thing that needs to be mentioned- depending on where your restaurant is located, i.e. who its clients are, they will not tip you, and you will make 2.13 per hour.

The Semolina’s that I worked at was on the edge of New Orleans, and let’s say that there were an inordinate number of “Obama supporters” that ate there. Guess what that means. You got it, you make 2.13 per hour.

Then waiters and waitresses would use that 2.13 per hour to bribe the hostess to sit those “Obama supporters” in anyone else’s section. So, essentially, the waiter’s 2.13 per hour was spent in an effort just to have a chance to earn a tip from a tipping customer.

Management got wind of this bribery, and they were really pissed, to say the least. They called the wait staff into meeting and said, regardless of your tip, you will wait on them, and you will do it happily, to which I said, “If they came in here and ate your food and then left without paying, you would charge them with theft of service, which is a felony. I feel the same way about my tip. They get what they pay for, which is nothing.”

That was my last day on the job :)

This location of Semolina’s was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Good riddance.