PayScale's Restaurant Report Methodology
PayScale reported on how tips affect incomes for workers in the food service/restaurant industry based 15,000 of these workers who took the PayScale Salary Survey between January 1, 2013 and January 1, 2015.
Definitions:
Total Cash Compensation (TCC): TCC combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, and other forms of cash earnings as applicable. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).
Years of Experience: These are the number of years the respondent has spent in their field/career. Therefore the years of experience will incorporate all applicable jobs in the field, not just the current job. All values were calculated using all years of experience.
Base Median Pay: The median pay, also known as the 50th percentile, is the middle value for TCC across all employees with a given job title: half of all workers will earn more than this amount, while half will earn less.
Median Hourly Tips:The median hourly tips for workers who report earning hourly tips.
Typical Total Hourly Income: The sum of the base median pay and median hourly tips.
Percent of Total Hourly Income from Tips: The percentage of the typical total hourly income that is hourly tips.
Tipping Frequency: The percentage of workers that report receiving tips.
• Very Frequently: At least 30% of the workers within a job report receiving tips
• Frequently: Less than 30%, but more than 10% of workers within a job report receiving tips
• Occasionally: Less than 10% report receiving tips
Median Hours Worked: The typical median hours for workers who report earning weekly tips.
Typical Hours: Determined using the median hours worked for workers who report earning weekly tips.
-Full-time: >35 hours per week
-Part-time: Between 25 and 35 hours per week
-Limited Time: Less than 25 hours per week
% High Job Meaning: The percentage of respondents who chose the two most extreme "high job meaning" options: Yes or Very Much So.
% High Job Satisfaction: The percentage of respondents who chose the two most extreme "high job satisfaction" options: Fairly or Extremely.
% Low Job Stress: The percentage of respondents who chose the three options for the least amount of stress: A Little Stressful, Not Stressful, or Relaxing.
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA): Geographic entities as determined by the Census Bureau: See Here.
Gender: Workers that selected either Male or Female.
Primary Food Service: Workers that reported working in one of the following: Casual dining, Fine dining, Fast food, Quick Service Restaurant (QSR), Catering, Bar, Buffet, Mobile Food/Food truck, or Other.
% Underemployed: This is the percent of respondents who answered "Yes" to the question "Do you consider yourself underemployed?" or answered "I'm not sure" and did not answer "I am happily employed" when further prompted "Tell us more about your employment situation."
Reason for Being Underemployed: This is the percent breakdown of those who answered "I am not getting paid as much as my education or training merits", "I am not working in a job that uses my education or training ", and "I am working part-time but want full-time work " when further asked "Tell us more about your employment situation." This only applies to those who respond "Yes" or "I'm not sure" to the question "Do you consider yourself underemployed?"
