A Hooters waitress from Florida has gone viral after revealing how much she earned in tips after one shift.
In a TikTok with more than 10 million views, Leah Fennelly shared with her followers the amount of tips she received throughout her 12 pm to 8pm shift at Hooters.
The Thursday shift began with $3, $7, and $8 in cash. After serving three more tables, she earned $43 in cash, followed by another $127 at the end of her morning shift. One customer even tipped Fennelly $34 because he “asked for my number.”
At one moment during the evening shift, one of Fennelly’s customers happened to be a famous athlete. “I didn’t realise I’m serving a Hall of Fame pitcher for a baseball team, so I’ll let you guys know how much he tips me,” she said.
While she doesn’t mention the baseball player’s name, she does explain how she realised he was famous when customers “started going up to him and asking for pictures and autographs”.
The pitcher only left a $7 tip, even though Fennelly said that the low amount was technically 20 per cent of his total bill. She also clarified that tips during lunch shifts tend to be smaller than dinner.
The next morning, Fennelly revealed her grand total in tips to her followers, while counting the stacks of dollar bills in her kitchen. She received a total of $282 in cash from the eight hour shift, as well as an extra $100 from one of her regulars via CashApp “for sitting at my table for so long”.
“So, $382? Not bad,” Fennelly said.
The TikTok video gained more than 1.3 million likes on the app, and even inspired some users to consider a career change after learning how much Fennelly makes from one night of waitressing at Hooters.
“Maybe I’m working at the wrong restaurant,” commented one TikTok user.
“That’s it, I’m applying,” said someone else.
Two TikTokers with full time jobs revealed how their take-home salary is even less. “I’m an engineer and this girl makes more than me,” said one person. “Lol I’m a nurse and you make more than a starting nurse in a 12 hour shift,” another person said.
The viral video also had social media users overseas confused by how the tipping system works in America. One user asked how servers in the US split tips evenly between the staff, while another person wondered if servers still receive tips if a bill was paid by a card.
Fennelly explained that servers at Hooters keep everything that they make, including cash tips and credit card tips, and tip out their bartender one per cent of the total sales. When a customer pays with a debit card, Fennelly said that, at the end of the night, the restaurant does something called a “check out,” in which the manager calculates all the tips, takes out the one per cent for the bartender, and gives servers their credit card tip in cash.
Hooters employees have been gaining large followings on TikTok for revealing all the secrets to the infamous American food chain restaurant. Hooters faced backlash from many of its employees after introducing new shorts to the uniform, which some staff compared to “underwear”. One waitress revealed the “ridiculous” reasons her co-workers were fired from the restaurant, which requires their staff to follow strict guidelines.
