Working for a Living
Working For A Living
Chris Stokke
Williston State College
Author Note
This paper was prepared for College Composition II, taught by Professor Preus.
Working For A Living What do you want to be when you grow up? The one question I have dreaded since the first time I was presented with it. The pressure of society to make outrageous amounts of money and excel with an extravagant job is tremendous. In this day and age it seems that the motto, “The bigger the better”, holds true in many situations. Whether it is a larger amount of money, a bigger truck, or a new lake home, there is always something more to be desired. Now I would be lying if I said the same did not hold true for me. I work in an industry where it is legal to be paid under minimum wage. In North Dakota, employers can pay tipped employees an hourly wage of 67% of the minimum wage, as long as the employee’s tips bring the total hourly wage up to the state minimum wage (Guerin, 2013). This ends up to be a wage of $4.86 in North Dakota for a food server, which is the occupation that I hold. With the economic struggle that so many people are facing, I believe that the raise of pay for servers is not only needed, but also a necessary action that would fix the problem at hand.
Worth the Wait? Waiting on somebody hand and foot is not a very easy task to accomplish. The struggles that come with serving can be very stressful, and are not suited for the short-tempered. While serving, just like any other job out there, obstacles arise without any for-warning. Whether somebody needs a refill, food did not come out right, or I need to be more than one place at a time, there is always something that needs to be done right away. Unfortunately if there is a problem with the food that is undetectable to the seeing-eye, the blame a lot of the time is taken out on the servers tip. This happens because people in general tend to tip on overall experience not service that was
Chris Stokke
Williston State College
Author Note
This paper was prepared for College Composition II, taught by Professor Preus.
Working For A Living What do you want to be when you grow up? The one question I have dreaded since the first time I was presented with it. The pressure of society to make outrageous amounts of money and excel with an extravagant job is tremendous. In this day and age it seems that the motto, “The bigger the better”, holds true in many situations. Whether it is a larger amount of money, a bigger truck, or a new lake home, there is always something more to be desired. Now I would be lying if I said the same did not hold true for me. I work in an industry where it is legal to be paid under minimum wage. In North Dakota, employers can pay tipped employees an hourly wage of 67% of the minimum wage, as long as the employee’s tips bring the total hourly wage up to the state minimum wage (Guerin, 2013). This ends up to be a wage of $4.86 in North Dakota for a food server, which is the occupation that I hold. With the economic struggle that so many people are facing, I believe that the raise of pay for servers is not only needed, but also a necessary action that would fix the problem at hand.
Worth the Wait? Waiting on somebody hand and foot is not a very easy task to accomplish. The struggles that come with serving can be very stressful, and are not suited for the short-tempered. While serving, just like any other job out there, obstacles arise without any for-warning. Whether somebody needs a refill, food did not come out right, or I need to be more than one place at a time, there is always something that needs to be done right away. Unfortunately if there is a problem with the food that is undetectable to the seeing-eye, the blame a lot of the time is taken out on the servers tip. This happens because people in general tend to tip on overall experience not service that was
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