Waitress reveals how much she got paid for six weeks, leaves everyone in shock

While the issue of tipping has divided Americans, back in 2021, a server sparked a debate over extremely low wages. The 25-year-old waitress, Liny (@lvndsmac), at the time claimed that she was paid only 1 cent for six weeks of work. The TikTok creator and server at a Nashville restaurant broke the internet, with viewers debating the cause behind her pay. While it was unclear why Lily got paid so little, the answer may be hidden behind the state laws. 

Here's why the server got a single-cent wage

The video from 2021, which has now amassed over 1.9 million views, shows the server sharing evidence of her extremely low pay. Sharing the image of her paycheck the server urged all of her viewers to tip servers whenever they go out.

She goes on to show several different paychecks that showed the amount of $0, $0, and $0.1. The overlay text on the video mentioned that it was the total pay of the server. The viral post divided users with several claiming that there were justified reasons behind the low pay. 

One user suggested @kathleentaylor407, "Your pay is based on you. do your job and you will get paid. You signed up for that so you know what it was about. $$personality. get that money."

Meanwhile, some fellow servers defended Lily saying that it was the employers to blame."Server here. Problem isn’t the tips. It’s the hourly wage not being high enough to cover taxes," commented user @pipersmom925. 

Meanwhile, some viewers also contended that tips should be mandatory. "In the US it’s criminal that tips aren’t MANDATORY! I always tip 20% PERIOD," suggested user @morgansandiego. 

However, a large section of viewers, including servers argued that the server's paycheck was low because she made more than the minimum wage in cash tips. "I served for years. With that being said, your paycheck is 0 because you made more than your hired amount hourly for that pay period," wrote user @stinaann_. 

This was indeed true, as according to Newsweek, most states across the U.S. use a tip credit system to pay servers. Under this, the restaurants are required to pay the minimum wage to employees in case their tips don't add up to that level.

The report mentioned that Liny's state, Tennessee, employers follow the federal minimum wage which is $7.25. Furthermore, restaurants are required to pay only $2.13 of that as a "cash wage," if the server makes the minimum wage after including tips.  Thus, as in Lily's case, if a server earns at least or over the minimum wage level in tips, taxes are taken off from the cash wage, which may lead to a low amount paycheck, like $0.1. This was also confirmed by Liny herself in a reply to one of the comments on the video.

Despite the facts coming out in the clear, the debate around tips didn't seem to stop as more and more users flooded the comments. 

For more such videos, fashion hauls, make up content and vlogs, follow Liny (@lvndsmac) on TikTok.