Across the country, single mothers, college students struggling to pay rent, and other hard-working people are trying hard to make ends meet as servers at Olive Garden and other Darden Restaurants — and it isn't easy.
Kelly Ditson, who has worked as an Olive Garden server, put it this way:
"As a mother to two young sons, I am barely scraping by. There have been plenty of nights where after a long day of serving unlimited breadsticks and Italian dishes to a stream of customers, I struggled to put food on my own table."
By law, restaurants are required to make sure that servers and other tipped employees earn at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour between tips and direct wages from their employers. Yet there is no state in America where a family can survive on minimum wage.
In theory, servers can make above minimum wage with generous tips, but...
Hard-working waiters and waitresses deserve a stable, livable wage. Tell Darden Restaurants to raise wages for employees at Olive Garden and other restaurants owned by Darden!
Mr. Lee,
As a consumer and someone who cares about your hard-working tipped employees and their families, I urge you to stop relying on customer tips to meet your obligations to your employees.
As you know, even with tips, the average server makes just under $22,000 a year. Half make less than $19,000. That is not a survivable income.
[Your comments here]
I urge you to do the right thing and raise wages at Olive Garden and other Darden restaurants to a more livable average wage of $12-$15 an hour.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]