A Hooters server based in Florida has shared a detailed breakdown of her tips after working an 11-hour double shift on a Monday. The server, who posts under the username @secretarnoldpalmerlover on TikTok and goes by Jay, said in the video that the shift began at around 10:30 a.m. and ended when she was cut at approximately 9:30 p.m. Her video documenting the day received more than 52,700 views.
In the video, Jay said she started her shift early because customers were already waiting outside before the restaurant opened. She said she planned to count her tips throughout the day and shared the amount she received from nearly every table she served.
By the end of the night, Jay said her total tips for the day came out to about $400. She credited a large party near the end of her shift for boosting her earnings, saying the table had an automatic gratuity added on top of additional cash tips from the group.
Tips varied widely throughout the day
According to Jay, her first table of the day included three separate checks. She said the first check came to $10.77, and the customer left her $10, which she described as “technically that’s almost 100% tip.” She said the next two checks were each $15, and customers left her $3 on each, which she said amounted to “a little more than a 20% tip.”
Jay said tipping percentages continued to vary at later tables. She said one table left her $12 on a $56 check, which she estimated was about a 25% tip. Another table, she said, left $8 on a $22 check, working out to roughly 40%. A separate customer left $5 in cash on a $19 check, which she again estimated at about 25%.
Jay said that even when customers tipped at standard rates, the dollar amounts felt small because of low check totals. “I don’t know, it’s just like the check is so low that even when people leave 20%, it’s not a lot,” she said in the video. Other servers have described similarly uneven shifts, including one who shared a trick to boost tips that earned a co-worker an unusually large tip from a single table.
She also said she received a $30 tip and a $10 tip on a $50 check, though she did not specify the percentage for the latter. Around 2:30 p.m., Jay said she counted additional tips, including a $25 tip on a $72 check, a $16 tip on an $80 check, and a $4 tip on a $12 check. She said one customer left her $50 without specifying the check amount.
Later in the shift, Jay said she received a $4 tip on a $100 check, a moment she described sarcastically in the video. “So today’s, today’s going really well,” she said. Tipping behavior can also be influenced by subtle cues from service staff, as one psychologist demonstrated when testing a psychology-based tipping hack on a bartender during a live shift.
By the time she finished her shift, Jay said she had worked for about 11 hours and was eventually cut around 9:30 p.m. While counting her cash at home, she said her total came to approximately $400, which would average to about $36 an hour based on the length of her shift.
She said a table of 12 customers, which included an automatic gratuity charge along with additional tips, made a significant difference in her total earnings for the day. “I had autograt on that and they tipped on top of that, and that definitely saved me,” she said in the video. She estimated that the table alone earned her close to $100.
Jay described the shift as a positive outcome overall but noted that her earnings were boosted by an unusually large party. “So yeah, that’s how much I made on my morning double, but I did get lucky,” she said.
According to Glassdoor, Hooters servers typically earn a base hourly wage ranging from $16 to $26 an hour, with additional income depending on tips received during a shift. Earnings beyond the base hourly rate can vary depending on customer volume and tipping behavior, the listing indicates.
Other Hooters servers have previously shared similar earnings breakdowns on social media. One server said in her video that she made $600 during a shift that coincided with her birthday, while another server had said she earned between $450 and $500 during certain shifts, per her video.
In a previous video, Jay outlined several workplace guidelines at her specific location, including restrictions on wearing jewelry, having unnatural hair colors, or arriving at work already dressed in uniform. She had also said in another video that her daily earnings can vary significantly, with one breakdown showing totals ranging from $48 to $427 across different shifts.
Published: Jun 22, 2026 01:00 pm