Story time!
1/Little known fact, I have like 20 years of F&B under my belt. When I was 7, my parents managed at a popular Midwestern restaurant chain and my Dad would turn every Saturday into a "take your daughter to work day" and have me wait tables from like 6am to 7am

2/Later, I would joke with my Dad that he did that to save labor costs, but he just wanted to spend time with me. In middle school, my parents owned a restaurant. I switched schools and we'd leave our house every day at like 6am to drive 20 minutes to the next town.

3/Us kids would walk to school, go to classes, occasionally go to the restaurant for lunch, and at the end of the school day, my brother and I would wait tables and wash dishes at the restaurant. We often wouldn't get home until long after 9pm.

4/Unfortunately, like many small businesses in Michigan in the early 2000s, my parents lost the restaurant. Nonetheless, I would go to work at fast food and restaurants for the next 15 years. Everything under the sun actually in terms of restaurants. McDonald's. Subway.

5/Small diner in mid-Michigan. New restaurant in Rockford, MI. Ruby Tuesday in SC. Country clubs in VA (which really taught me so much about politics, one of my old regular members is now a mayor!) A WI biker bar/grill. A Chicagoland dive bar. Many more in between.

6/I love the F&B world. I loved working in it and probably would still do it part time if I hadn't had the privilege of helping out small vaping businesses. Oh, and COVID. (I really feel for the cooks man. Wearing a face mask over a grill???)

7/This being said, any lawmaker that thinks that eliminating the tipped wage is a good idea, has never worked in the F&B industry.

8/When I got a "real" job, I longed for the F&B days, bc it matters how well you do in regards to how well you get paid. You're a crappy server, it's going to reflect in your tips. You're an awesome server, it's going to reflect in your tips.

9/I usually made tips of at least 20% of my bills. If waiting on four tables, at one time, average check size of let's say, $50, and average table time of an hour, that's $40/hour, or, $25 more than the bs politicians want to "save" bartenders with.

10/I find it appalling that a certain Congresswoman is calling bartending "indentured servitude" (after rising up for being a bartender - see above tweet, she probably wasn't that attentive)
If that was really the case, illegal immigrants would be doing it. Not persons like me.

11/I honestly don't think ending the tipped wage has anything to do with wages, but rather, politicians understanding that many bartenders/waiters don't claim any of cash tips and forcing employers to pay $15/hr would eliminate that loophole.

12/But to round up my story. When I was 7 and waiting tables, in that hour of time, I'd make like 20 or 30 bucks and go to the Target next door and figure out what Barbie was the best bang for my buck, and I loved those Barbies more than any that had been given to me.

13/In middle school, I saved up my tip money from working after school at my parents restaurant and payed for my own plane tickets to my sister's wedding in TX. Still my favorite plane ride. Mom and Dad still brag about that.

14/Forcing undo and unwanted changes to tipped workers would have eliminated all of those awesome memories for me. Also, restaurants are already suffering and eliminating the tipped wage is straight up kicking the small mom and pops when they're down. Screw that.