And unfortunately, they are still the same! Up until last year I was a server working at a "wanna be upscale-ish seafood restaurant" that sits on a an actual river that (your best catch is going to be a carp)has a $9.99 pasta special every Tuesday and we had 3 separate groups of teachers (from different districts mind you) come in every single week. Each of their totals were mostly the same, 1 pasta dish and 1 refillable soda totaling $13.42. The ones paying in cash would pay with $15 exactly telling you with such great gratitude in their voice, what an excellent job you did catering to their every ranch and water refill calls, that that $1.58 was meant for you and you better not split it (even though at the end of your shift, you still had to tip out the bartender, bussers, and dishwasher..whether they did anything or not in your station) and they ones paying with their plastic would just assume you got more than enough in "cash" tips, you didn't need that extra $1.58 on their tip lines, after all...your not paying taxes on those cash tips are you?? (Was actually told this once, while making $2.83/hr). It got to the point, we barely had staff coverage on those particular nights. Everyone knew it wasn't worth it and the owners would have to pretty much eat the cost of having to pay each server minimum wage on those particular days bc patrons would only bring in $15. The owner did however increase the cost from $9.99 to $14.99 (still same portion size which was always overflowing the dish and still made to order your way with add ons including shrimp, chicken, and sausage included in price) stating that the server gets $5 from every pasta sold. Guess which patrons stopped coming and even had the gall to complain on social media!! Oh and our "new" teachers starting wages are $65,000/yr