A single mother working at an Olive Garden in Georgia got a hefty $700 tip from a regular customer who wanted ot make her life a bit easier. However, the tip unfortunately ended up doing quite the opposite.
Recommended Videos
Within 24 hours of getting the large tip, she was fired, didn’t get the money, and, on top of that, management called the police on her.
The story has gone viral online, and the details keep getting messier.
What Happened To This Olive Garden Server?
The story first surfaced through a Facebook post by a woman named Bunny Williams. It was shared in a viral TikTok series by @recoveredmom1. Together, the videos have more than 5.2 million views.
In the post, Williams shares that her daughter (the Olive Garden server) is a single mother to a four-year-old child with autism. She recently got a $700 tip on a $32 check from one of her regulars.
The receipt showed “seven hundred dollars” written out under the gratuity line. It also had a note wishing her a belated Happy Mother’s Day. They added that, “It’s been a while since we’ve seen you. Glad that we could catch you here. Here’s a little something to help you on your journey. Love and blessings.”
When the server brought the tip to management, she was told they could not pay it out immediately. She was instructed to write zero on the tip line until it could be verified. No one could tell her how long the verification process would take. She became visibly upset, asked a co-worker to cover her next table, and was told by management that she could either do her job or leave. She took the table and finished her shift.
Later that day, management offered to pay her 20% of the tip while the rest was under review. One manager told her the process would take one to two days. Another told her it could take up to 120 days.
What Happened Next?
The next morning, when she arrived to work, she was reportedly fired, and they said it was because of her behavior from the day before. Management also allegedly called the police on her because she was crying.
In a statement shared publicly, the server wrote: “I was let go from my job under circumstances that I believe were retaliatory, despite my dedication and hard work. I consistently showed up, did my best, and worked hard to support myself and my child.”
“To make matters worse, I never received the tip-out compensation that I earned through my effort. As a single parent raising a child with autism, every dollar matters, and losing both my job and the wages I worked for has placed a significant financial and emotional strain on my family. I am simply seeking fairness and accountability.”
Did Olive Garden Respond?
As the story spread, Olive Garden issued a statement under a comment on another creator’s video.
“To protect our guests and team members from fraud, we have a policy in place to verify tips over $500 or far above the check amount,” the statement read. “When a tip like this is given, the team member immediately receives a 20% tip on the check and the remaining amount is provided once the payment is successfully confirmed. In this case, we followed our policy for a tip that exceeded 2,000% on a $32 check. We have verified that the tip amount was declined due to insufficient funds. The team member was not terminated because of the tip that was left on the check, and we have shared all this information with her.”
The server’s mother made another post stating that the customer who left the tip had actually reached out directly after seeing the story go viral. According to the mom, the customer said he was initially charged $32 on Sunday, which updated to $38 and some change by Monday.
Confused by the discrepancy and seeing on social media that the server had been fired without receiving the tip, he froze his card.
Olive Garden allegedly attempted to run a separate charge of $693, which the bank declined.
The customer’s message also mentioned that he “knew it was weird when I tried to ask for you specifically and they said that your section was full when it clearly wasn’t.”
A GoFundMe has since been set up for the server and is currently at 60% of the $5,000 goal.
How Much Servers Actually Make
To understand why $700 matters so much, it helps to understand what servers are actually making. According to Toast, servers generally make $20,000 to $31,000 a year. The federal minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 an hour. Restaurants are legally required to make up the difference if tips don’t bring a server’s hourly rate up to $7.25—the federal minimum wage—but that floor is still well below a living wage in most parts of the country.
The bulk of a server’s income comes from tips. This means earnings swing wildly depending on the shift, the section, the day of the week. Also, whether customers feel generous. Many restaurants also have tip-sharing policies that require servers to split a portion of their tips. These go to bussers, bartenders, runners, and hosts, further reducing what actually lands in a server’s pocket.
Was This Illegal?
It’s hard to say, but according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the Fair Labor Standards Act explicitly prohibits employers from keeping any portion of an employee’s tips.
That applies regardless of whether the employer takes a tip credit. It extends to managers and supervisors. They are legally barred from participating in tip pools or retaining any tips that belong to an employee. The only exception is tips a manager personally earns by directly and solely serving a customer themselves.
It also states that under federal law, the amount owed to an employee from a credit card tip must be paid no later than the regular pay day. Also, it “may not be held while the employer is awaiting reimbursement from the credit card company.”
The Mary Sue reached out to @recoveredmom1 for comment via TikTok and Instagram direct message. We also reached out to the mom via TikTok direct message, and to Olive Garden via email.
