Tipping - Restaurant Owners in the USA Are Too Cheap to Pay Good Wages

Restaurant owners in New York City like this (a lot!):

So they pay their waiters and waitresses very low wages, as low as the law allows them to pay, and they expect customers to give the waiter/waitress a tip. 

A tip, in case you don't know, is an additional amount of money equal to 15% to 20% of your bill. So if your bill is $20, you are expected to leave a tip of $3 or $4 dollars.

Restaurant owners will even say,"Don't be cheap! Give your waiter a good tip!" Well, people in the USA are starting to say to restaurant owners, "Hey, don't be cheap! Pay your waiters what they should get as human beings! Stop making the customers pay extra! Share your wealth with your staff!"

Here is a nice article about this type of situation:

The article:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/05/06/1509590/-How-restaurant-owners-con-Americans-into-paying-employee-wages-it-s-legal-and-it-s-brilliant?detail=facebook

Vocabulary from the article:

to con someone - this means to deceive or trick or fool someone. If you con a person you make the person pay or give you extra money he/she shouldn't have needed to pay for something. For example: "How much did you pay for that pen? $3? Oh my God, that store clerk conned me into paying $15 for the same type of pen!"

brilliant - super intelligent

taking in profits - you can also say 'making a profit'

to foot the bill - to pay for the bill; this is slang...for example: "Hey, let's ask our boss to take us out to dinner; he'll probably foot the bill and we can save some money."

to range from ___ to ____ - to be from one point to another point along a common continuum. "College tuition in the USA can range from free to $50,000 per year."

to subsidize the rest - to pay for the rest of the worker's salary

a server - a waiter/waitress...someone who takes your order and delivers your food

literally- this is a term of emphasis. i.e. He literally said he hated me! (He really said he hated me.) He literally jumped in the air he was so angry! 

And that how it will continue - an example of bad editing, it should be: And that's how it will continue

until the people speak out - until people begin complaining

while we're working this out - while all of us are solving this

the gumption - the courage, a strong motivation which overcomes fear (like the word audacity i.e. He had the audacity to ask me such a personal question.)

to split tips - to share tips with other servers

uneasiness- a feeling of discomfort, in this case because you have caught them doing something wrong

by a mere .13 - by the small amount of .13

condiments- ketchup, mustard etc.

to kiss someone's ass - to be very very very very nice to someone just because you have to. Actually this person is wrong...even if your waiter/waitress is horrible you are expected to tip him/her.

snuck out - sneak, snuck, have snuck (actually it should be a regular verb of sneak, sneaked, have sneaked). To sneak out means to leave secretly, without anyone noticing you.

out of my own pocket - by myself

do you see how servers get fucked? - can you understand how unfair things are to servers? to get fucked means to be treated unfairly (be careful, 'fucked' is considered very vulgar, dirty language)

take a cut of your tips - take a certain percentage of your tips

to be blacklisted - when everyone in an industry knows you are a trouble-maker and they won't hire you 

to make ends meet - to make enough to survive

don't kill the messenger - don't blame me for telling you the truth

to be stiffed - to not get any tip

slandered and vilified - verbally attacked by people who do not tell the truth about you

the other NRA - when Americans see NRA they think of National Rifle Association. The 'other' NRA is the National Restaurant Association.

holding the poor down -keeping poor people from becoming successful

being scammed- being conned, being cheated, not getting what we deserve

to call the industry out - to tell the truth about the industry

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