SOME TIPPED WORKERS ARE WELL PAID

In 2014, the Canadian job-finding site Workopolis.com interviewed a former waitress who had once pulled down the after-tax equivalent of $100,000 a year. Kate (her true name was concealed because she had evaded tax on much of those earnings) worked at a hotel bar and was pulling down as much as $6,000 per month in tips. “Sometimes I would make my rent in one shift,” she said. This is an anomaly, but it is not unusual for servers at bars or fine dining establishments to pull in wages much higher than the Canadian median. The University of Guelph’s Bruce McAdams is a restaurant industry veteran who has studied the effects of tipping on Canadian restaurants. His data showed that when tips are accounted for, the average Canadian server is making about $30 an hour — with a select few making the meteoric wages enjoyed by “Kate.” These are wages equivalent to those pulled in by a registered nurse, making serving one of Canada’s most lucrative jobs that can be obtained without post-secondary education. Server wages are particularly high in Canada because tips are often piled on top of high minimum wages. In select U.S. states, the salaries for restaurant workers are as low as $2 per hour, leaving servers almost wholly dependent on tips. But in Canada, the absolute lowest minimum wage is $9.45 in Quebec, with Albertans making as much as $15.