I regularly made $265 week working 28-32 hours in these first-rate houses in the 1970’s. And I didn’t have enough “seniority” to have a dinner-shift schedule …. I worked the lunch shift and took an occasional dinner shift when another wait staff gave one up. The dinner wait staff made $360 to $400 week. This was AFTER the bartender and bus staff got their cut!
My rent was $140 month for a large (600 sf) studio with all hardwood floors with matching wood nails, a brass pull-down murphy bed, built in (elaborate) dresser with mirror and a huge walk-in closet. I even had my own brick patio with a built in BBQ! That $140 included ALL UTILITIES. Location: Banker’s Hill (SD) facing the bay and directly across the street from a famous local Mills Act historical-home-turned-office building.
I had a brand new car I paid $5400 for (cash). It was the only new car I have ever had which was all my own.
These union house jobs along SD Bay were among the best jobs SD had at the time which didn’t need a college degree …. and probably still are …. although I do not know if they are still represented … or not. They were DEFINITELY worth crossing the border for.
btw, the “minimum wage” in SD at the time was about $2.40 hr … and went up to $3.35 during my tenure as a wait staff. It typically took at least 10 years in a lunch wait staff position to have enough seniority to snag a dinner wait staff position …. when someone moved out of county/state … or died.
By ’83, then President Reagan had signed the “8% tip tax law.” I was already out of the profession by then but that was the end of the “glory days,” IMO, as 8% of a wait staff FOOD tab was taxed (on top of the tax on their minimum wage). Likewise for the bartender’s bar tabs plus food wait staff tabs of cocktails which they prepared.