Mom's Paycheck Was Only $9 After Working Over 70 Hours as a Waitress

Working in hospitality is tough.

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We've all had to work behind a bar or earn money waiting on tables, whether that's as a part-time weekend job or a job to fund school studies.

It takes a certain personality to work in this kind of environment...

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Hospitality requires a lot of hard work and resilience and often, the work can be very rewarding.

But for many people...

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Working in hospitality is a full-time profession and it is the only way to earn money.

But it is a well-known fact that here in America...

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Waitresses aren't paid well, at all.

Even though a lot of waitresses are allowed to keep their tips...

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It is a disgrace at how little they are paid per hour, with many being paid as little as $2 per hour.

This is a very sad reality for a lot of people...

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Especially for those trying to support and raise small families.

Aaliyah Cortez fully understands this struggle...

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The twenty-year-old has worked as a server and a bartender in an Austin, Texas sports bar for just over a year now, and she is also the mom to a little boy.

Aaliyah decided to create a TikTok video to outline her small paychecks...

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She was fed up of receiving weekly paychecks that ranged between $4 - $11 for seventy hours of work, so her video shed some light onto this harsh reality.

Aaliyah explained the importance of tipping...

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"There are laws set up that allow tipped employees to be paid under the federal minimum wage, which makes us rely on the customer to pay our wages," she explained to Buzzfeed.

She also explained that her income is based on tips from customers because her paychecks are too low...

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"It’s not right that we have to do this, but I wanted to shed some light on the issue and inform the public about the importance of tipping," she went on to say.

The reality of our hospitality industry is shocking...

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"If I had a good two weeks from tips my check will be on the lower side. At my last restaurant, my checks would come out to be $0."

However, Aaliyah is always looking on the bright side...

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And she spoke of how grateful she is to her customers.

"I just wish we were all being paid adequately and consistently. As you can see – by my check – I cannot afford to live off of $2.13 an hour, so I solely rely on the generosity of my customers," she said.

Aaliyah's video went viral...

And people have encouraged the young woman to pursue a job that pays a lot more than $2 an hour.

But a lot of people have pointed out how much in tips she had earned...

The paycheck says that Aaliyah had earned $708 in tips, and many have argued that this amount is more than what the minimum wage pays.

Watch the video for yourselves here...

And keep scrolling to learn about the generous customers who bought their waitress a brand new car after they learned she walked to work every day...