During my last two years of high school, I worked at a golf course during the spring, summer, and fall. I was making $9.25 an hour, which was the minimum wage in Nevada at the time. However, I also made tips for cleaning the carts, restocking the range, and doing other customer-facing duties. On the weekends during the summer, I would sometimes make as much as $200 in tips in a single night. On the weekdays, especially in the spring and fall, I would walk away with much less. When I first started, I put the same amount of effort into every shift. Even if it was a cold Wednesday night, I’d be out chatting with customers and trying to earn more tips. However, as time went on, I started to get lazier on days that I knew I wouldn’t make as many tips. I would sit in the office instead of standing out back, and I’d let three or four carts collect out back before going to clean them, rather than cleaning them as soon as they came in. My slacking performance was definitely due to the fact that I knew I wouldn’t make as much money. I figured why even try if I was only going to make an extra dollar or two. I also felt that I wasn’t being paid enough to put my all in on nights when I wasn’t taking home a large sum in tips. Looking back now, $9.25 an hour is not bad AT ALL, especially for a high school job, but I had some friends who were making $12 or $15 an hour elsewhere, so comparatively I felt like I was being lowballed.
I think comparing my hourly pay to my friends’ motivated me to be lazier. I didn’t feel like the golf course was giving me their all in terms of compensation, so I sure wasn’t going to give them my all. However, there was a certain tip threshold that motivated me again, because it made the work on par with what I felt my time was worth. I suppose it wasn’t the compensation that motivated me to slack off, but the lack thereof.
