Mom Makes A Heart-Wrenching Case For Why Tips Matter So Much To Families

A server who got no tip on an order totaling nearly $200 called out people who refuse to leave enough gratuity, as she made an emotional case for why tips matter.

Taylar Cordova posted a picture to Facebook of a receipt belonging to a customer who left no tip on an order totaling $187.43. She wrote that she and her daughter depend on tips to get by and said those who don't leave tips are the "lowest of the low."

"This is the reason I work so much. This is why I cry in the shower. I STRUGGLE to put clothes on my daughter's back and food in our bellies because of THIS," she wrote. "Whenever you feel like it's probably fine to not tip your server, that's one more bill stacking up because they're short on money. This is food for the week that our families will go without because you didn't think it was necessary, even after asking for everything under the sun and receiving it free of charge, mind you."

While the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, U.S. law allows employees who receive tips to be paid just $2.13. Tipped workers are more than twice as likely as normal workers to fall under the poverty line, according to a 2011 study from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the labor movement.

Cordova wrote that patrons should consider how much they would have to work on such a low wage to feed their families before choosing not to tip.

"Next time you don't want to tip, regardless of the situation prior to receiving your bill, think about how much you would have to work that week off $2-5/hr to feed your family, not just you," she wrote. "Could you pay your bills based on that pay alone? Could you feed your family AND yourself? Because that's what happens when you choose to not tip."

Cordova, who lists her job on Facebook as a take-out server at P.F. Chang's, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.