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I am and have been a waitress for a very long time. At this point I make $2.75 hr. I started out at $2.03 hr. In all of these years I have really worked my way up. What is fair about that? You would respond, well you get tips. There have been days that it was so bad, last week in fact, that I brought in $187 for the entire week in tips. Now you add it up, it wasn't even worth the trip to go to work, especially with gas prices.

I am also a single parent and it is almost Christmas. The tips that I earn support a family of 4. This can not be accomplishes easily. My last paycheck, for a 2-week period, was $79 dollars. If I had been making minimum wage, there would have been a dramatic difference.

Do you tip at Sonic? That's good, but they do make minimum wage. Most of them make at least $7.00 an hour where I live. Most of your local restaurants do not offer this for their wait-staff. Our #1 goal is customer service. Why should we not make as much as fast food workers whose #1 goal is quantity and bad service?

Many of the women that I work with are holding down two jobs to support their families. I wish that I could, but I have to be there for my children when they get home from school. Most people think that we are there because we just need the extra money. Sometimes that is true, but face the facts, we are trying to give to our families hust like you. Why should we suffer because the government doesn't want to increase our wages?

I feel very strongly that the wait-staff profession is under-rated and abused. We have to put up with a lot of people that have had a bad day and then in turn take it out on us. We just keep smiling, but we are really crying inside from such harsh treatment. Have you ever tried to keep a smile on your face for 6 hours straight when people are belittling you and the restaurant you work for? Most of you would 'lose it'. I have a bad temper, but this is my job, so I keep my temper in check.

It is not as easy job, like most of you think. You are on the move for 6 or more hours a day, smiling, bringing out food, taking away food, running the register, dealing with complaints, helping each other when the restaurant is packed and washing our dishes. Yes, we have to wash our own dishes or should I say yours. Would you do this? I think not. We provide a lot more that customer service and I feel that we deserve to get paid for it.

By the time I get home each day, my feet are killing me, my back hurts as well as my jaws, from smiling. The slip resistant shoes that we wear are not comfortable at all. Now you ask why do we go through all of this for what little we make? My answer is so that I can be home when my kids are home. Some do it for extra money and others have no choice because they lack the training to do anything else. So, give us a break. Do we not deserve to make what we are worth?

Learn more about this author, Mona Williams.
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