Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407020014
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Stories by MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The influx of college-educated, career-minded people like Goad into waiter jobs may be one of the forces that is changing the nature of the profession.
Waiting tables was once a part-time job or a stopover until landing a 9 to 5 position. But it has recently become more of a career for some - if not always by choice.
Waiters are now calling for the respect and advantages other professionals receive. Restaurants are responding by making benefits available and by extensively training servers to enable them to deal with the increasing expectations of customers.
Goad, a waiter at Mr. Su's Chinese and Vietnamese Restaurant on the City Market, says the sluggish economy of the last few years has kept many people like him in waiter jobs longer than they planned. He has worked in restaurants as a bartender and waiter off and on since 1981, but hopes to land a job as a teacher by this fall.
Not all waiters are college graduates stranded by the economy, but many are similarly career-minded.
Allison Moreth has a full-time job as a teacher at Grandin Court Elementary School, but still works at First Street Fine Food & Drink on the Roanoke City Market for extra cash.
Karen Cox, a server at the Jefferson Club in Roanoke, is a self-proclaimed career waitress. ``It's all I've ever done,'' she says, and all she ever plans to do.
For a long time, though, the profession has carried an ``I don't get no respect'' attitude.
``People just don't get it,'' says Kathy Johnston, a waitress at Alexander's, an upscale dinner house in downtown Roanoke. For one thing, ``people have no idea how much we get paid. My last paycheck was negative $24.'' Her sister, Susan Johnston, a waitress at Stephens, a popular Southwest Roanoke spot, recently was handed a paycheck for 4 cents.
The Johnstons think some customers don't tip well because they believe waiters are paid a higher wage than they are.
Many waiters are paid $2.13 per hour, 50 percent of the federal minimum wage of $4.25. Employers may credit a waiter's tips toward the minimum wage to make up the other 50 percent.
Waiters are required to report their tips to their employers, who assess the taxes and deduct them from the $2.13 per hour. There's not much left.
In 1992 the median weekly earnings of a full-time waiter were about $220, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
But tipping is only one of the beefs some waiters would like to serve up for the dining masses, and they're gaining the voice to do it.
For the last year and a half, Vivienne Wildes and Gerald Foley have been trying to draw attention to the importance of waiters through their Waiters Association, based in State College, Pa. The group already has more than 1,000 members.
Wildes, a veteran waitress, says that too many waiters lack self-respect about their jobs because they think they are just on their way to a real career, when they have a perfectly good career already.
The association promotes good service and the idea that waiters can bring in more profits.
The restaurant industry is recognizing the increasing value and career-mindedness of waiters with benefits.
A decade ago, few restaurants offered health insurance to waiters. Today many do. Corporate Clubs of America, which owns more than 250 clubs including the Jefferson Club, offers an employee-paid health plan, paid vacation and even profit-sharing to full-time employees.
Wildes says that the high rate of turnover among waiters was a deterrent to offering them insurance, and still is for many individually-owned, nonfranchise restaurants. Rob Callahan, owner of First Street, has a paid health plan for his full-time employees - anyone working an average of 25 hours a week - but says that currently only the managers are on it.
Kathy Johnston says she's been offered health insurance at Alexander's, but turned it down because she can get coverage cheaper on her own. Susan Johnston has no coverage at all.
Members of Wildes' Waiters Association can purchase a policy through the group, which they can take with them from restaurant to restaurant. By insuring the association members as a group, Wildes can keep premiums down.
Callahan thinks Wildes is onto something. He says a plan like Wildes' is attractive to private restaurant owners like him because it eliminates the administrative hassle of insuring employees. It might also be a viable alternative to President Clinton's proposed mandate for employers to insure all employees, even part-timers.
Mike Olsen, chairman of the Hotel and Restaurant Management program at Virginia Tech, says the restaurant industry is also placing new emphasis on service in response to a more discriminating customer.
``The baby boom group is intelligent, and more price-conscious [than customers have been in the past],'' Olsen says.
David Taylor, associate manager in charge of serving staff at Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar at Valley View in Roanoke, says a server can make or break a restaurant. ``Food you can re-do,'' he says. ``Service is tougher to overcome on the spot.''
Corporately owned establishments in particular, like Applebee's, a nationwide chain owned in Roanoke by Apple South Inc., are responding to the new demands placed on waiters with more extensive training.
Apple South has a five-day training program used in its more than 100 Applebee's, according to Taylor. The program includes the basics of good service, company policies, alcohol safety and suggestive selling techniques.
Callahan keeps his waiters sharp with wine tastings and samples of daily food specials. He says it makes for better service if waiters know exactly what the guests are receiving.
But for all their gains within the industry, waiters still lack respect outside of it.
The Johnston sisters, who own a tri-plex in the Wasena area, had their father co-sign their mortgage, but still had to wait a long time for its approval. They say they weren't getting the respect they deserved from the bank because they were waitresses. After a regular customer at Alexander's, who happened to be an executive from the bank handling their mortgage, intervened on their behalf the loan came through.
Wildes says if the IRS respects tips enough to tax them, the bank should count them, too.
These days, many mortgage companies recognize tip income, as long as its documented and consistent. Crestar Bank asks for two years of documentation, such as a federal tax return. First Union National Bank has a similar policy.
What can trip up a waiter is not claiming enough tips to qualify for the loan. Because many waiters are on their honor to report their tips to their employers, there's a temptation to take some home untaxed.
According to Steve Cornwell, a manager at the Roanoke office of KPMG Peat Marwick, restaurants are required to report all tips reported by employees, all tips charged on credit cards, and gross receipts from food and beverage sales. The IRS can match this information against tips reported on the employees' tax returns.
Waiters who try it often get away with it because, except for credit card tips, there's no paper trail to track down for an audit.
In many restaurants, though, the high percentage of meals paid for by credit card and computerized check-tracking systems that tell how much food a waiter sells have led to waiters claiming a more accurate amount of tips.
At the Jefferson Club, where gratuities are added to checks automatically and waiters receive their share as part of their paycheck, all tips are taxed.
Tips, after all, are what waiting tables ultimately is all about.
It's that cash in pocket at the end of a shift that keeps you going, says Pat Tucker, a waitress on the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift at Gary's Little Chef in Roanoke.
As soon as you pick up that first table, she says, ``you know you got your cigarette and gas money, if nothing else.''
by CNB