‘Keep your nickel’: Server can’t believe brutally insulting tip is real

Tipping seems to be on the decline, at least based on every viral TikTok that servers have been posting, but the most recent installment takes the cake. Texas Roadhouse waitress Mikaela M posted a video of a receipt from a table that decided to leave her a 5-cent tip.

The bill came out to a little over $112, and rather than leaving a suitable 15% tip or even a nice 20%, Mikaela’s customers decided that a .04% tip would suffice. After showing her audience the measly tip, she said that it was so small, she didn’t even want it anymore.

The initial video received more than a million views, and rather than taking to the comments to offer Mikaela support or sympathy, many people chose to instead criticize her service, saying they don’t even tip anymore, and that she should be grateful that she got a tip at all. A few fellow servers chimed in to tell similar stories of times when they felt like they were giving their best service and were rewarded with a tiny tip.

Mikaela was quick to clap back at commenters who criticized her service and said that she got the tip that she deserved. She told her critics that as far as she could tell her service was fine. She even brought them rolls to go, refilled all of their drinks on time, and their orders came out perfectly.

“You could be the best server out there and people won’t tip,” one commenter said in response to Mikaela’s video. It appears that the general consensus among restaurant workers is that many times you can give the best service in the world and still be neglected a tip.

Mikaela made a third video even confirming someone’s comment that she may have lost money because of how low the tip was. She informed viewers that in the restaurant business servers automatically give a percentage of each bill to other servers and hosts. She loses 3% of every bill and since this tip was only 5 cents, she had to pay that percentage out of her own pocket.

Tipping is a vital part of a server’s salary. According to the United States Department of Labor, the federal minimum cash wage for servers is only $2.13. Though many states are integrating automatic tipping and regular minimum wage into their server’s salaries, many — likely including the state that Mikaela is from — have yet to integrate it. That tip-based salary is on top of any required outtakes that the restaurant may require.

Let this, and the thousands of others of viral TikToks about servers being undertipped, remind you to be kind to your servers, and tip them as generously as you can.