comment: >
  
  I was a waiter in college at some of the finest dining establishments in a different state, where we had to wear tuxedos, made bank, used crumbles, and served celebs and politicians. 
  I briefly was unemployed from an entirely different much better career and in TX. I took the test and passed and strangely it was enough to keep me from tipping my toes back in the industry even temporarily thank god. And I was insanely over qualified for any of it anyway. 
  My point was this kinda thing isn’t new. Thanks for your input though bud.
context: While there is important information in food handler safety, the slow video presentation and mini-quizzes are a boring and IMO crappy way to communicate that info, along with not really leaving one with a good reference tool in case something needs to be refreshed.
  Along with that, when I moved from food service into construction, I can contrast that my company paid for me to get my OSHA30 certificate, paid for my forklift cert, and pays every year to keep my DOT exam up to date.
  It's crazy to force the food service employees to pay for these "licenses". >
  
  Tips are horrible just pay people >
  
  I make $15.50/h as base pay bartending. With tips my average shift is $40+/h. Why would I not want tips? I've been in the restaurant industry for 16 years in Mn. I've turned down every non tip "promotion" that's ever been offered to me because it would be a pay cut. Tipped employees in restaurants usually do quite well in the many restaurants I have worked both in rural Mn and the twin cities metro. Back of house(mostly non tipped employees)is where the real pay disparities are. 
  Would you rather get paid $15/h no tips or $40/h with tips? The math is pretty simple. >
  
  I think what everyone is saying its, you should be paid $40/hr guaranteed (not the min.), since that's your baseline and it's a living wage in a lot of cities. >
  
  Lol sure I'll work at a restaurant that pays me $40/h base. It's never ever going to happen. General managers don't even get paid that much now. There are plenty of non tipped restaurants in Minneapolis right now. I wouldn't work at any of them because it would be a massive pay cut. 
  The non tipped restaurants even charge a service fee that goes straight into the businesses pockets. So the employees there get paid less than a tipped employees and the owner takes more money. I'd never work at a restaurant/bar with that model. >
  
  So what I'm hearing is, the business owners are screwing over their employees so often that you want a little more control over how you get paid. Sounds like a union should be in your future. Construction work isn't run by saints and they get paid what they're due, just saying. >
  
  Unionized restaurant employees are a thing in the twin cities. I'd still take a pay cut working for them and my hours would be way less flexible.
  Even in a union I wouldn't be making $40/h. Hell I know restaurant owners that don't even make that much. Usually in the first few years of operation at least. >
  
  They need better unions and the owners not making 40/hr is none of the worker's business. This is capitalism baby. >
  
  Companies just suck. They really do just suck. Humans who run them turn into monsters losing any humanity they may have had. >
  
  There's one court case we can point to that changed businesses from having to look out for the consumer, to now only having to look out for the shareholders. So most companies thought, "Sweet! Fuck them customers." Now all companies are soul crushing machines. >
  
  Which court case are you referencing? Would like to read more >
  
  Thanks, I’ll read through this! >
  
  
  The company they are paying, ServSafe, doubles as a fund-raising arm of the National Restaurant Association — the largest lobbying group for the food-service industry, claiming to represent more than 500,000 restaurant businesses. The association has spent decades fighting increases to the minimum wage at the federal and state levels, as well as the subminimum wage paid to tipped workers like waiters.
  The federal minimum wage has risen just once since 1996, to $7.25 from $5.15, while the minimum hourly wage for tipped workers has been $2.13 since 1991. Minimums are higher in many states, but still below what labor groups consider a living wage.
  For years, the restaurant association and its affiliates have used ServSafe to create an arrangement with few parallels in Washington, where labor unwittingly helps to pay for management’s lobbying. First, in 2007, the restaurant owners took control of a training business. Then they helped lobby states to mandate the kind of training they already provided — producing a flood of paying customers. >
  
  This enrages me so goddamn much, knowing that I'm one of the people who unwittingly paid into this horrid scheme. This is deception of the highest order and all the more reason lobbying needs to be severely curtailed and wages raised to meet modern needs. >
  
  Why is this something that's even handled by a private company?! These types of certifications should be offered though a government entity like health departments. >
  
  That's what you get with low taxes,  small government, deregulation, privatizations and  neoliberalism in general.
  Lately, , I found out that UK construction companies  could  certify their new buildings as respecting all safety and fire quality standards,  by any person they deemed competent enough... LOL.  No governmental agency, no private certification company, no nothing.  You could ask your pub pal for a hand in exchange for a beer or two...
  Of course, since that terrible disaster of a high tower building burning and killing many people, things have  started to change.... But oh boy is capitalism fucking people over... >
  
  Meanwhile socialism fucks people over by doing the exact same thing. Greed is human, not capitalist. >
  
  In both systems, there are good and bad people. But, unlike socialism, capitalism  actually celebrates greed, considers it as a virtue,  and encourages people to be more greedy. Of course, socialism has its own flaws too. But promoting greed as a good thing  isn't one of them. >
  
  This is the most American type scheme that I have ever heard of, incredible that dissimulation lobbing is okay because it's lobbing. >
  
  This is similar to people investing their retirement money into healthcare companies through index funds, and those companies then lobbying against universal healthcare, thereby killing tens to hundreds of thousands of Americans and wasting half a trillion dollars every year.
  We're being robbed and socially murdered with our own labor and our own resources.  
  It's like cows building their own slaughterhouses, or work slaves building the pens enclosing their labor camps.  
  Absolute abomination of a system. >
  
  Sure you pay for your own safety class, and then the money is used to keep your paycheck smaller, but the Double Irony Sandwich prep training seems to be included, so it's not all bad... >
  
  Got to give American capitalists and business owners their due.  They never seem to run out of imaginative and resourceful ways to screw over their workers. >
  
  I’ve unwittingly contributed to this just to work at McDonald’s fuck the NRA >
  
  A $15 food safety course is almost a full 8 hour day of labor at the restaurant industry's $2.13 an hour wage. Same wage I made decades ago. >
  
  Seriously? Min wage is 2.13$? Is the united stated stuck in 60s? How is that even legal nobody could live off of that.. in Canada I think the lowest is 16$ that's not even easy to live off of.. >
  
  Its that way because if you receive tips, they can pay you less. One important thing is that your total tips + wage has to greater than the non-tipped minimum wage. If you make less than the non-tipped minimum, then your employer is supposed to increase your wage until it is equal to or greater than the minimum. >
  
  Ask your employer to make up the difference and you will suddenly be working less hours. >
  
  A lot of places will track your credit card tips and do the math that way >
  
  Man, I’m not sure if there’s an NRA I actually like lol. >
  
  Is there much polling done on how servers feel about their wages in general? I know the “got stiffed by a customer” posts go viral but the waiters I know all prefer tips because they clear $50+ an hour. Both are anecdotal so I’m wondering if there is real data out there. >
  
  Super fucked up. because they are basically monopoly on certain certifications. >
  
  Reminds me of a signature gatherer who was recently at the store and wanting signatures to limit restaurant workers' wages. There seems to be an entire nest of snakes dedicating to keeping workers' wages down. >
  
  Fuck these national associations. >
  
  I mean these food safety classes are important — that being said, the employer should be paying for that training. >
  
  
  
  Any reputable employer pays for those classes.  I pay for people to take those.  I pay fair and honest wages and let everyone know what everybody makes and why.  I hate the operators who behave this way because it stains the entire industry. 
  
  
  The funds collected by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation are used to fund the operations of the NRAEF.  It's only 2% of the NRA's revenue.  The industry bought an educational company because the standards of localities vary widely in breadth and enforcement and we want higher standards for our food safety.  
  
  
  In many areas these funds are collected by the local health department who require restaurant workers to take the same classes from them rather than ServSafe.
  
  
  Full disclosure: I am a member of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation and a ServSafe Educator.  That is why I know how this works and that is why I know how the money is collected and that's why I know where the money goes. >
  
  Tips are horrible just pay people >
  
  Had a friend that could make his 1300 rent in like a day as a server lol >
  
  While this is undoubtedly shitty, don't discount the fact that there are a significant subset of waiters/waitresses who also actively fight changing their pay for the better. There's some serious misinformation floated around about how pay raises would lower their income since people wouldn't tip as much or at all. It's really screwed up. >
  
  Texas has this shit. I once tired applying for waiter job, and I had to take a test. >
  
  If the serve safe test prevented you from being a waiter, you have no business being near food.
  The questions are so easy you have to try to fail.