Servers deserve more

For 20 years now, the minimum wage for servers has stayed the same at $2.13 an hour. Nearly all of this is taken by taxes and rarely seen by the individual.

This leaves a server with no choice but to live solely off tips. This can be a great benefit at times like Christmas and Thanksgiving when people feel overly generous. However, it is an extremely unreliable way to receive income. The money you work so hard to earn relies completely on chance. It is dependent on the weather, how busy the restaurant is, the cost of a customer’s bill, how well you do as an individual, if the kitchen can carry out all requests made, the taste of the food, and more.

Even if everything works out perfectly and one does a superb job at serving, not even this can guarantee a tip of 20 percent of the cost of the bill. Some people will leave nothing for no apparent reason. Others will leave only a fraction of the 20 percent for numerous reasons, all of which I believe are completely unacceptable.

Some people who work as servers only plan to do so temporarily as they work their way through life. However, for many, this is their sole career, the way in which they must support themselves and their entire family.

Something needs to be done about this issue that has been stagnant for two decades. S. VICTORIA DuBOSE

Little Rock