Outrage as Hooters workers reveal uniform charge

Hooters uniforms previously copped flak for being too short but now the establishment is sparking outrage yet again.

Hooters uniforms have previously come under fire for being too short and too skimpy, but now the infamous wings-and-women establishment is sparking outrage yet again.

TikTok user ‘kenzjee’, a Hooters employee, revealed how she and fellow staffers are obligated to buy their stocking worn underneath those iconic orange uniform shorts.

In a now-viral video, viewed more than 4.7 million times, the waitress divulged details about the pantyhose vending machine employees use, the NY Post reports.

“So people always ask me about our tights (stockings) machine and I have to buy tights today, so I guess I’ll just make a video about it,” she said.

Hooters workers reveals staff pay have to pay for their uniform stocking via a bathroom vending machine. Picture: TikTok/kenzjee

The cost of the stockings is $US5 ($A7). Picture: TikTok/kenzjee

The clip then shows a shot of a large white stockings dispenser with the Peavey Hosiery logo in the restaurant’s bathroom.

She inserted a crisp $US5 note into the machine and pushed a button that read “Suntan B,” which indicated the length of the stockings she wanted to wear.

She described in the comments why the machine had different buttons — “Suntan B, Suntan C, Suntan D” — noting that “B is the shortest, D is the longest.”

And lo and behold, a little pink box quickly dropped from the dispenser.

Kenzjee’s co-worker can be heard in the background stating, “Not them being $5.”

The Post has reached out to Hooters for comment.

Although the TikTok video went viral, some were confused over why the company would make employees pay for their own uniforms.

One asked in the comments section, “Why do you have to pay for them if it is part of the uniform? Cause in my opinion the boss should provide them for free …”

“It’s a company uniform, company should pay for it. Making money from your employees is bad business,” added another.

The TikTok user shows off the little pink box of stockings she received from the restaurant’s vending machine. Picture: TikTok/kenzjee

Kenzjee responded and explained why: “They have to sell tights (stockings) thru a third party company because tights are considered ‘under garments’ so they can’t provide them for us.”

Online, the third-party supplier seen in the bathroom, Peavey Hosiery, charges $US8.49 a pair for Suntan Hosiery.

Another pantyhose purveyor, Tamara Hosiery, claims to sell Hooters-specific stockings for $US3.79 or $US3.99 each.

It’s not the first time Hooters workers divulged the company’s dirty secrets. In December, a waitress who worked at the restaurant revealed the creepiest remarks she and her colleagues have heard from dining patrons.

In response to a guest who asked, “Are you on the menu?” the waitress told Insider at the time that she just fake-laughed to ease the tension. One eye roll-inducing comment she regularly hears on the job: “‘Why aren’t you smiling?’”

The waitress — who is a black woman and chose to remain anonymous — said that she often gets the comment, “I like me some hot chocolate.”

“‘I love me a nice, dark feisty girl,’ fetish-y phrases, I’ll get those sometimes,” she added.

The internet was also outraged in October when new “crotch string” uniforms were considered, but then scrapped, and again in January when one waitress complained about small tips.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission