When I first moved to Georgia from Oregon, I immediatley started applying for bartending positions as that’s what I had done for work back home. I knew going in, that Georgia is one of those states that pay their service workers $2.13 an hour, I knew that I believed that was rediculous since tips are incredibly unpredictable, but what I didn’t know what how unmotivating it would be. After about a year of working here the hourly pay has made me feel a range of negative emotions. Anger, frustration, laziness, sad, and above all, my ego was bruised for not being paid what I know I deserve. This is honestly what made me decide to go back to school because although I love bartending, there is no way to make a decent living like how I was able to do in Oregon.
Being in Savannah makes it even tougher. The industry here is super seasonal and heavily dependent on tourism. When the city slows down, bartenders basically stop making money. You can work an entire 10-hour shift and walk out with almost nothing. And even when you do have a decent night, a huge chunk disappears because of tip-outs to barbacks, food runners, hosts, and the kitchen. The owners pay all the other positions so poorly as well that the system here needs us to tip out almost half of what we make.
This pay structure doesn’t just hurt motivation, it completely changes behavior. Nobody wants to deep clean, restock, or stay late doing bar prep when those tasks are paid at $2.13 an hour with zero tipping opportunities. It ends up feeling like unpaid labor, so people rush through it or avoid it. The incentive just isn’t there.
Ultimately, working in Savannah’s tipped-wage system taught me just how deeply compensation shapes not only performance, but also a person’s sense of worth and long-term direction. It’s one thing to understand in theory that low pay can hurt motivation, but it’s another to live it day after day feeling undervalued, overworked, and financially unstable despite giving your best. The $2.13 wage didn’t just make the job difficult; it made the entire industry feel unsustainable and unfair.