On a typical Monday delivering pizzas in Lincroft, New Jersey, Brendan Madden could make $13 in tips. Or he could make $200.
The nature of tipping is extremely unreliable, the Luigi’s Famous Pizza and Catering delivery driver tells CNBC Make It. Driving around Lincroft and neighboring New Jersey towns, 25-year-old Madden never knows how much he will make in a given shift.
His baseline salary is $5.26 an hour, and he makes an additional $1.50 for each delivery he completes, according to documents verified by CNBC Make It. The rest of his earnings are determined by tips. For context, minimum wage in New Jersey is $14.13 per hour, as of January 2023.
Madden works 30 to 40 hours a week, divided into several 10-hour shifts Monday through Thursday. Yet no week of pay is the same, Madden says. It all depends on the generosity of those answering his knocks at the door.
“Tipping doesn’t work as a system for paying people,” he says. “I don’t think it’s a sustainable system because not everyone tips fairly.”
“I just try not to think about money as much as possible, given how unreliable it is — you can’t guarantee you’re gonna have the same week you had the week before,” he adds.
As much as he tries not to think about the money, Madden often talks about the “tipping debate” with his coworkers at Luigi’s, since it’s one that crucially affects their daily lives — and their income.
Living at home with his parents on leave from college, Madden realizes he is fortunate not to be living paycheck to paycheck just to cover rent. But he knows this is not the case for everyone. “How do other people survive like this?”
Tipping is not ‘goodwill,’ it is crucial
The majority of Madden’s income, like that of other service industry workers, is reliant on the generosity of others. Earning a below-minimum wage, he relies on tips to close the gap.
“There is a certain element of charity in the pay structure. It relies on the goodwill of others,” he says.
Few customers realize how…
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