259 Comments
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Fog of Jen's avatar

The actual fuck? MOST places let the employees have a bite gratis. It is one of the very very very very few perks of working in an eatery. Hell, Dominos expects it so much they budget for it.

This is some janky shit.

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Suzie Greenburg's avatar

Eehhhh...I'd put that at 50/50 for actual employee numbers, big places- say all the restaurant staff at resorts, so loads of people for 4 months out of the year- those folks all pay for their food. Maybe discounted, like the cafeteria food was half off, restaurant food only 25% off. I remember hearing the food & bev manager talking about throwing food away, say, at 3 when the coffee shops closed (they had hours-old egg sammies on a warming bar to get rid if at the end of their operating day) he said, about these people who were being paid minimum wage, that "you can't give them free food. I give those people enough discounts."

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beb's avatar

In the Midwest there is a McDonalds at every interstate exit. In the south it's Waffle House. It's what you eat when you are too strung out from driving to go looking for something better. But paying minimum wage when the minimum hasn't been raised in decades is just criminal. Even McDonalds does better than that.

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Helikitty's avatar

Except there’s nothing better than Waffle House.

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Fog of Jen's avatar

Considering how they treat their employees, I'd sooner go to Ihop.

Tables are less sticky anyway

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UnionThuggery's avatar

Mileage may vary. The IHOP nearest me is a sticky disaster, the Waffle Houses are all clean. I've known enough Waffle House employees over the years that I know to tip generously. IHOP doesn't pay any better than Waffle House here either. Same tipped minimum +tips.

We need to end the tipped minimum and tipping in general. In other parts of the world (such exotic locales as Canada) service workers are paid a wage for the job they do and tips aren't necessary for their survival.

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BlueSpot's avatar

Fifteen eggs and what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt.

St. Peter don't you call me, cause I can't go ----

I owe my soul to the Waffle House store.

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OG Blockhead's avatar

Fuck Waffle House. I get folks might not have choices about work, but I have choices about spending money.

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Robert Eckert's avatar

Do they have to buy everything from the company store?

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Wookiee Monster's avatar

Are Waffle House and Dollar General in some kind of competition for shittiest place to work on Earth?

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Zyxomma's avatar

Ta, Robyn. I've never eaten at a Waffle House, and now I shall do so NEVER. Employees everywhere should be treated fairly. That includes the shit network for which I labor.

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Runfastandwin's avatar

I have no words…

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Queen Méabh's avatar

There's a Waffle House near my home. I haven't eaten there in years, but I pass it whenever I head into town. The parking lot is always mostly empty, so I don't know how they stay in business. At lunch time there might be 4 customer cars parked in front, and often only 2 or 3. The employees park at the back of the restaurant, and customers park at the front, and there are often more cars parked in the back than in the front, which is not a sign of a healthy business.

Is my local Waffle House a money laundering operation? Because no restaurant can stay in business with that low level of customers unless there's something fishy going on.

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diogenez's avatar

Is this a corporate-wide policy thing, or is this just a Georgia thing?

Either way, it's terrible!

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SethTriggs's avatar

"But nobody wants to work anymore," they lament.

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agony's avatar

I'm reading that $2.90 with dismay.

I worked in the restaurant business for many years, quite some time ago, both in jurisdictions that had a lower legal wage for tipped workers and in ones where tipped workers were paid standard minimum. In both places, restaurants did just fine, did not go out of business wholesale. Prices in the restaurants were roughly comparable.

But here's the part that has me in dismay. I worked in Ontario in the mid to late 70s, for $2.50 an hour, which was the special wage for restaurant workers. Minimum wage was somewhere around $4.50, $5.00, in that neighbourhood. 45 years ago. And the restaurant minimum, while lower than standard minimum, was roughly half as much.

45 years ago.

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Anzu's avatar

I'm a WaHo fan under very specific circumstances. Something about hash browns smothered, covered, and chunked just makes me happy.

But I support these workers in their demands to not get charged for food they don't get to eat. That's ridiculous! I also agree that hazard pay for the overnight shifts is warranted, especially since the urge to eat hash browns has often hit me at 3AM when I'm very very very drunk and the hash browns are a desperate attempt to try to sober up a bit before I call for an Uber.

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Riversong's avatar

I went to a Waffle House exactly once when I lived in the south. Their cheese options are one - American. That is not cheese and I will happily die on that hill. Still, their workers deserve basic protections and a union will afford them those.

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Pexas Teat's avatar

It may or may not be cheese, but it's definitely salty wax.

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marydn's avatar

I agree on both points.

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Secret Agent Super Dragon's avatar

Apropos of nothing at all, I saw one of those allegedly heart warming stories on FB where one guy was working at a slammed WH by himself and all the patrons pitched in and helped (SO LOVELY)

It's weird that these stories are always framed as "patrons pitch in to help at Waffle House" and never "cheapass WH owner can't be bothered to pay a living wage, walkouts inevitably follow"

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AthenaH2SO4's avatar

OT, but in the realm of awesome news for fairness - the "For-Cause Eviction" renters' protection bill advanced in the Colorado Senate! Of course, some pro-corporate stooges didn't like it, but fuck them. https://www.denverpost.com/2024/03/26/colorado-legislature-for-cause-eviction-bill-housing-democrats

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Anzu's avatar

I wonder how many of those "lease not renewed for health and safety reasons" evictions actually resulted in any substantial renovations to the units and weren't just a means of dealing with complaining tenants? Like if a tenant complained about black mold, so the landlord declined to renew the lease.... did the landlord actually ever do anything about the mold?

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AthenaH2SO4's avatar

I can guarantee you a fair few of those evictions were EXACTLY that. Source: it has in fact happened to friends of mine, and I've heard about more through the grapevine. Corporate landlords are the worst.

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