NFL Rookie Tells Waiter 'Be Grateful' For 4 Percent Tip
For one waiter in New Orleans, a chance to serve an NFL player did not go as he might have hoped. Carolina Panthers rookie Donte Jackson gave a measly five bucks on a $120 restaurant bill, good for an oh-so-generous 4 percent.
The waiter tweeted out the cheapskate move Sunday.
@_DJack01 You can’t even tip 10%. I just wanna know if my service was bad honestly. You childish for the smiley faces too🤣 pic.twitter.com/19Wos16hZc
— T⚜️ (@Tyler_Hover21) July 9, 2018
And then, because no good social media fire is complete without someone pouring gasoline on it, Jackson did exactly that with his response.
https://twitter.com/_DJack01/status/1016151347798990848
Dave Barry once wrote that “a person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.”
But this is such an act of rank disrespect that every restaurant in Charlotte, where Jackson will be playing his pro ball, has just been put on notice that when Jackson walks in, it’s not going to matter whether he’s treated like a king or a homeless guy — the waiters aren’t getting their fair cut.
And if the probably-apocryphal “to insure promptness” origin of the tip is anything to go by, he can forget about prompt service.
Plenty of people took Jackson to task on Twitter for his flippant, rude response.
For one thing, Jackson just signed a four-year, $4.8 million contract to play football.
Meanwhile, Louisiana is not one of the states that requires that servers be paid minimum wage regardless of tips.Tipped employees in the Pelican State get paid $2.13 an hour and are expected to make up that income in tips.
And before someone points out that federal labor law requires the difference between tip income and the $7.25 federal minimum wage to be made up by the employer, go into any restaurant and ask servers how often that actually happens — there are comedians who would give their left arm to get that many laughs for something they say out loud.
One person called out Jackson for making his home city of New Orleans look bad, pointing out that many New Orleans jobs are in the service industry.
Man, I’m disappointed in u, Donte. You need to learn from your teammates about how you should carry yourself off the field. You should know better, being from NOLA. Service industry is one of the main industries in our city. Not cool, man. You can drop $125, but can’t tip?! SMDH
— Alexis Payment 🇺🇸🇮🇪🇪🇺 (@alex_and_harley) July 9, 2018
Another brought up the “cheapskate customers should be barred” angle.
4% tip?!?! Yikes @_DJack01 not a good look at all! A normal costumer that tips 4% should be shunned from ever returning to that restaurant, let alone a professional football player. And then telling her to be grateful for the $5 after she served you a $121 dinner. Damn b lol😳
— colors_in_the_void (@gregincolorado) July 9, 2018
And a third, citing the all-too-common ignorance of tipping etiquette, gave Jackson a chance to save face and learn a lesson.
20% ! Come on man! Don’t be branded as some cheap ass. If you didn’t know any better you do now.
— l brown (@123lebo) July 9, 2018
Regardless of what happened, Donte Jackson just ruined the night of an underpaid service industry worker and got a whole heap of bad PR.
And if he’s given terrible service the next time he walks into a restaurant, he only has himself to blame.
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