As the Gordon Gecko character famously said in the 1987 film Wall Street, "greed is good". Somehow, we have a sneaking suspicion that you don't agree.    Now, consider this, research shows that 80% of restaurant jobs provide poverty level wages, while up to 20% of the jobs in the industry provide a livable wage. You know which skin tone occupies most of those 20% worth of jobs, right? Hey, we know you're not okay with that either. Why? Coz we know you're sitting (or shall we stay standing on your feet all night) on the wrong side of that great color and pay divide.   On this latest episode, Host Eric Levine, explores the racial and economic inequalities (and yes, the greed) that exist in the restaurant industry which, by the way as he points out, is the second largest and fastest growing sector in the U.S. economy. Yes, Americans are a hungry (and an overweight) people. And you'd think that with nearly 1 in 12 Americans working in the restaurant industry, politicians and the left, and left leaning politicians would take it on themselves to address the sad truth that 7 of the 10 lowest paying occupations reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are in the restaurant industry.   It's all masked as the "Gig Economy". But let's face it, your "gig" ain't all that fun. It's just code for avoiding paying minimum wages, benefits and vacation. It sounds so sexy if you're drinking lattes in Brooklyn, but if you're washing dishes in the Bronx, it's not so pretty.    Contact Eric Levine at: [email protected]

Listen you guys who own and manage restaurants, don't think that offering your hostesses and female servers your dick and unlimited use of your Amex card is the kind of investment in your business they're looking for. Would you make the same offer to Jose or Marco? No! Then why do it to Cassandra?   On this episode of Tip Not Included, Host Eric Levine is joined in the studio by Stephanie Trevino, a woman who's worked across the biz for years and yes, has been offered "investment opportunities" that she's been smart enough to turn down. Like many, Stephanie stumbled into the restaurant world. With a broken tailbone and looking for a job where she needed to stand, Stephanie got her first restaurant gig as a hostess. Years later, and armed with a wealth of war stories, Stephanie, based in NYC, is now the Sales & Marketing Manager for an international restaurant chain.   In their sit down, Eric and Stephanie traverse the restaurant landscape, highlighting how women who want to start their own operations either need a power lesbian behind them or one of them is on their knees; paying for an overpriced taco (it's all about the glamour, dahling), and the lunacy of an industry that pays its employees 30% less than they should be paid and expecting customers supplement the rest.   And if you ever wanted to know which celebrities worked where before they became household names, listen in. Eric reveals the former employees for Lady Gaga, Chris Rock, James Franco, Jennifer Hudson, and more.   Plus, Eric asks you - what's your fear of failure? Think about it. Coz at the end of the day, as he correctly points out, you should be more scared of mediocrity.   Eric would love to hear from you. Contact him at: [email protected]

You're in the middle of dinner and head to the can to take a dump. You're pissed off because your boss has been on your case all week for a screw up in accounting that has nothing to do with you.   You get yourself cozy on the toilet but can't get your boss out of your mind. Your bowels start contracting and you take the shit of the century. And it has your boss' name on it. The turd is so big in fact that when you flush, the whole toilet backs up and the shit water starts overflowing on floor. You high five it out of the men's room before your new Cole Haans get wet. You verbally abuse the restaurant manager for having sub-standard plumbing. You expect some kind of compensation. He says he'll comp you a dessert, and brings you a chocolate float since it's the first thing that comes to mind.   Welcome dear friends to the Purge Cafe. Where customers get away with all kinds of - pardon the pun - shit.   Homophobia, Racism and Sexism are all on the menu at the Purge Cafe. Want a side order of Xenophobia, perhaps? Coming right up.   On this episode of Tip Not Included, Host Eric Levine, sits down at the best table in the house and shares with us what it's like to work in this kind of joint. Lash out at someone outside of the Purge Cafe and you'll be taken to court. But inside the Purge Cafe, it's anything but PC, and anything goes.   Can you imagine working in an environment like that? Where customers seem to have the Health Department and ICE on speed dial, just in case? Well, it's pretty shitty.   Email Eric Levine at: [email protected]

Whether it's a fast food chain or an elegant restaurant with a sommelier pouring your vino, watch out people for a little stringy thingy.   You think a pube or two got there by accident?   Think again.   On the latest episode of Tip Not Included, Host Eric Levine talks "Servers Revenge" and highlights the myriad of ways Servers (and Chefs and Bartenders) get even with unruly and obnoxious customers. Not to mention "the ex" who walks in with way too much attitude and a new plaything.   If you over-patronize your server, as Levine points out, that decaf may be regular coffee, and that veggie burger probably came from Elise the Cow (and by the way, may have been kicked around before being put on the bun). That colorful cocktail you ordered? Well, that might have have a little added ingredient inside. Let's just say, the angrier the server, the more the phlegm. Or piss.    And don't be surprised that payback also happens among those working in a restaurant. How about the bartender who was so enraged at a chef that he swooshed said chef's drink glass with a grotty toilet brush before adding a little of his own pee (for added flavor, of course).    Which takes us back to pubic hairs and what else we find downstairs. There's a good chance you've eaten something that was touched by testicles . . . Guys in the kitchen probably find that a thing. In Levine's research, he found no food was touched by a woman's anatomical counterpart.    His fact finding continues though, and he'll surely be offering updates on future episodes.   To contact Eric Levine, write to him at: [email protected]        

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Tipping. It's a power play. It's that dynamic that says "I have the money and you'll be my servant". It's that dynamic between server and servee, hooker and hookie that makes, um, strange bedfellows. And when you're going to pay after a roll in the hay, do you still have to tip if you can't find your sock? Even if it was one from a four-pack you bought marked down at Marshalls?   In this episode of "Tip Not Included", Host Eric Levine dissects this most complex of human rituals - tipping not the loss of a sock - and poses the question whether it's a modern day incarnation of the slave trade, or merely entrepreneurship at its best. Indeed, it's that centuries old practice that even baffles people with fancy degrees who probably never waited tables. And it's not hard to see why, especially considering who we tip and who we don't. We'll tip the Valet for parking our car, but won't tip the Vet for cleaning our cat's anal gland.    As Levine points out, tipping has sadly created a class divide between the tipper and the tippee that allows employees to shift the wage burden to customers and hides the real cost of dining.    So should we do away with tipping altogether? Listen in to the episode for that and more. Plus, Levine features the new segment "What I Hate About Being A Server" - voices from those waiting tables that you'll find shocking, funny and truly unbelievable.   Contact Host Eric Levine at: [email protected]

Next time you're on the road and pass a Ford vehicle, think about the company's founding father. Yes, we're talking about good 'ol Henry.   He wasn't a perfect man and some of his views were vomit-inducing. But, what he did do is pay his employees $5 a day which, in 1914, was over twice the amount other auto makers paid their workers. Ford did so, in part, so his worker bees could ultimately afford the cars that bore his name and rolled off his assembly lines. Not bad either, that he reduced the work day from 9 to 8 hours.   Would Henry Ford be called a capitalist today? A socialist? Would Bernie, Elizabeth, Kamala & Cory, oh yes, and Beto, all support a guy like him? Who knows.   This is just one of the topics covered on this episode of Tip Not Included where Host Eric Levine welcomes back Server & Artiste, Telly Clemente for round two of a discussion that focuses on wages (below minimum wage we should add) paid to servers today. As Telly aptly points out, when a server gets some money in her (because most of them are women) pocket, it gives her a false sense of freedom since the majority of servers tend to blow their cash (mostly made off tips). These gals are really shooting themselves in their calloused feet.   With an absence of equity in an operation, what's a woman to do who waits tables and has to endure the sick jokes of her restaurant patrons? Well, for one thing, like Telly, they can start saving their dough. They can also pursue their other passions - as Telly has done and who closes the show with her singing prowess, giving us a number we can only imagine would be a tune even Henry Ford would approve of.   Contact Eric Levine at: [email protected]

Have you ever walked into your favorite bookstore and wondered why there are no glossy coffee table books featuring raunchy "come-ons" that restaurant servers get from their customers? Hey, all you big publishing houses, are you taking notes here? We hope so, coz let's just say Telly Clemente has enough, what she calls "memorabilia" to fill countless pages for what could become a best seller.    Telly is Eric Levine's featured guest on this episode of Tip Not Included, and has been collecting notes and numbers written on napkins, receipts (and maybe Viagra boxes?) from men, women, and yes, even couples, inviting her to enjoy some behind closed-doors activities after the restaurant closes.   But Telly is one smart and confident young woman who can identify a player a mile away. As an artist and musician, she's obviously got more important things to occupy her time with than arranging a menage a trois with one (um, we mean two) of her customers.   Aside from Eric's conversation with Telly, he raises his usual thought-provoking questions like why you don't seem to see any white bus boys (and isn't bus boy a derogatory term to begin with?). Plus, he reminds us that anything really worthwhile is going to shake things up (and just for the record, leaving your server a message inviting you back to your place is not one of them).   You can reach Eric Levine at: [email protected]

If you say you'd rather eat fish at that chi-chi restaurant that charges for ice cubes, you may want to think twice about your dining choices. While your patronage there may bring you bragging rights, it also may make you sick. A safer option just might be Red Lobster since they're the world's biggest purchaser of fish -- so you know what you're eating is always fresh.   This is just one of the golden nuggets that Host Eric Levine along with his guest, famed Attorney Peter Fields, lop out on the latest episode of Tip Not Included.   The pair also question why middle class white women don't tip on wine, why for bigger tips it helps for female servers to touch the shoulders of middle aged men, and, in this overly litigious society how every simple dishwasher who gets fired seems to have an attorney in his back pocket ready to sue!    Plus, Eric & Peter fling open the door on some of the most preposterous restaurant lawsuits, including the one where one disgruntled gentleman sued the fine dining pizzeria known as Papa John's for texting him too much, and the customer who sued Popeyes for giving him a spork instead of a knife. And then there was Subway who got sued for coming up short on its foot long. Hey, a porn star doesn't even get that much scrutiny!   For a conversation about as jaw dropping as R. Kelly's interview with Gayle King, this is one episode you won't want to miss!   Email Eric at: [email protected]

Clearly, more needs to be done to reward women at the executive level which is still dominated by men -- some of whom have time on their hands to engage with with women in seedy strip mall joints for a rub & tug. And what of those women who perform those acts who themselves are victims of human traffickers, forced to work in those houses of horror masked as massage parlors? What of their rights? Do they get minimum wage? Do they get overtime? Do they get bonuses?   On this episode of Tip Not Included, Host Eric Levine raises those questions and poses poignant points about females in the workforce.   Crazy to think how in 2018, women of color represented only 4% of senior executives. We're talking about positions like CEOs and Vice Presidents. Compare that to white men at 68% and white women at 19%. In one study, 532 African American women were surveyed who earned their MBAs from 1977 - 2015. Only 67 made it to an executive level position.   Eric covers all that, plus opens the mailbag. This is one episode you're not going to want to miss.   If you'd like to contact Eric and have your message read on air, email him at: [email protected]

Nancy Beetstra returns to Tip Not Included for another kaleidoscope conversation with Host, Eric Levine.   A proud member of the Wounded Warriors team, Nancy questions how is it that that some 200,000 veterans transition to civilian life each year, yet have a lower employment rate than the national average? This, despite bringing loyalty, commitment and a strong work ethic to everything they do. Restaurant industry, are you listening?   Also, Eric reaches into the mail bag this week to answer some of your burning questions, like whether hidden cameras in the break room are legal (hmmm) and whether work-place dating needs to be reported (check your company handbook).    And then there's the walloping $1.5 million paid to a KFC employee for company failure to provide adequate breaks for pumping breast milk, a subject on which Eric opines. Let the good times flow . . .   To contact Eric Levine, email: [email protected]