Waffle House Is Raising Servers' Pay Across The Country

Waffle House plans to increase pay for servers at its restaurants across the country over the next three years, with some workers likely to see raises of a few dollars an hour.

In a video viewed by HuffPost, CEO Joe Rogers III explained to employees that the pay boosts would “affect every single salesperson at Waffle House,” and would be funded by menu price increases targeted at stores in areas with high costs of living. The raises apply only to servers and will start going into effect this month.

“This is a big deal, a massive additional investment,” Rogers said in the video. “And I don’t see many others in our industry doing things like this.”

Most Waffle House locations are spread across the South, where restaurant workers typically earn a low “tipped minimum wage” supplemented by gratuities. Waffle House workers in Georgia, for instance, can earn less than $3 per hour directly from the company, with tips expected to push them above the standard minimum wage of $7.25.

The pay plan would increase servers’ direct wages from Waffle House, with no changes in the way those workers receive gratuities. “It would be crazy if we went down the road of service charges instead of tips,” Rogers said in the video.

Waffle House, which is privately owned and based in Norcross, Georgia, did not respond to requests for comment on the plan. The chain has around 2,000 locations and is iconic in the South as a sit-down diner that stays open through just about anything.

The raises come at a time when some Waffle House workers have been outspoken about their struggles to cover basic expenses on such low pay. Servers from a Conyers, Georgia, store who are members of the Union of Southern Service Workers have gone on strike and delivered