Or even to use this same example, why not blame the restaurant owner? They can choose to pay their waiters well and tell customers there’s no need for tipping.
This is the point that 50% of North Americans don’t understand. The restaurant owners have set the culture, and they exploit young people and customers alike. However, 50% of people think they’re entitled to eat out and therefore entitled to not tip, which only rewards the scummy restaurant owner for having exploitative business practices. Choosing to eat out and not tip makes tipping culture WORSE.
The idiot pro-tipping customers will still tip. They’ll try to sneak a tip and dumb shit like that. And I’m not about to blame a server for accepting free money.
But what price is fair? How is the owner supposed to just guess that?
I’d argue the wage that an employee voluntarily agrees to is about the fairest system possible: Make job posting, state the wage and job requirements, and people who find the wage fair then apply for it. I don’t see why this works fine in literally all other industries.
There’s nothing wrong with tipping. It’s the required tipping that’s the problem. What’s fair is a fair salary. Waiters are paid like $2 an hour because the restaurant owners are allowed to take tips into consideration, which is what I’m arguing against.
Or they could have been kitchen-staff. They are one of the biggest victims of tipping culture.
Essentially chefs are generally paid much, much less than wait-staff and it is very difficult to correct this balance. The reason is that in a normal business you would raise prices to afford to pay higher salaries, but since tips are percentage based this also raises the wages of wait-staff. This becomes a bigger and bigger issue the higher the tipping percentage goes. Restaurant margins tend to be razor thin as well, so raising prices would be the only way to raise kitchen-staff wages.
It’s one reason why many restaurants are struggling to find kitchen-staff, because even highly trained chefs can make 2-3 times as much working front-of-house. There are quite a few restaurants which are trying to fix this by banning tips, but it’s difficult due to resistance from customers and wait-staff.
Chain restaurant margins are not razor thin, to give an example, Olive Garden spaghetti costs about 30 cents total per bowl and is sold for $10.
I do not believe at all that the resistance is from customers or wait staff and everything to do with big restaurant chains refusing to pay a living wage, which also goes for kitchen staff who are also generally underpaid. Why pay your staff well if you can put the blame on the customers if they don’t tip?
As a back of house worker, nothing was more disheartening then hearing all the servers go “I only made $200 in tips today in three hours” and being like “I only made $40 because I worked three hours.”
So you’ve been a server and are aware of the uneven pay and the fact that if you don’t get good enough tips you’re making a starvation wage of minimum wage, and yet you still decide “fuck those people who are being exploited by restaurant owners because I don’t agree with tipping.” That’s heartless
Or even to use this same example, why not blame the restaurant owner? They can choose to pay their waiters well and tell customers there’s no need for tipping.
This is the point that 50% of North Americans don’t understand. The restaurant owners have set the culture, and they exploit young people and customers alike. However, 50% of people think they’re entitled to eat out and therefore entitled to not tip, which only rewards the scummy restaurant owner for having exploitative business practices. Choosing to eat out and not tip makes tipping culture WORSE.
The idiot pro-tipping customers will still tip. They’ll try to sneak a tip and dumb shit like that. And I’m not about to blame a server for accepting free money.
But what price is fair? How is the owner supposed to just guess that?
I’d argue the wage that an employee voluntarily agrees to is about the fairest system possible: Make job posting, state the wage and job requirements, and people who find the wage fair then apply for it. I don’t see why this works fine in literally all other industries.
There’s nothing wrong with tipping. It’s the required tipping that’s the problem. What’s fair is a fair salary. Waiters are paid like $2 an hour because the restaurant owners are allowed to take tips into consideration, which is what I’m arguing against.
Required tipping isn’t a thing. Tipping is, by definition, always optional.
Going to go ahead and guess you’ve never worked in a restaurant, because you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Or they could have been kitchen-staff. They are one of the biggest victims of tipping culture.
Essentially chefs are generally paid much, much less than wait-staff and it is very difficult to correct this balance. The reason is that in a normal business you would raise prices to afford to pay higher salaries, but since tips are percentage based this also raises the wages of wait-staff. This becomes a bigger and bigger issue the higher the tipping percentage goes. Restaurant margins tend to be razor thin as well, so raising prices would be the only way to raise kitchen-staff wages.
It’s one reason why many restaurants are struggling to find kitchen-staff, because even highly trained chefs can make 2-3 times as much working front-of-house. There are quite a few restaurants which are trying to fix this by banning tips, but it’s difficult due to resistance from customers and wait-staff.
Chain restaurant margins are not razor thin, to give an example, Olive Garden spaghetti costs about 30 cents total per bowl and is sold for $10.
I do not believe at all that the resistance is from customers or wait staff and everything to do with big restaurant chains refusing to pay a living wage, which also goes for kitchen staff who are also generally underpaid. Why pay your staff well if you can put the blame on the customers if they don’t tip?
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped
And I’ve also worked in a restaurant before. They are correct.
7.25 isn’t a living wage lol
That would depend on where you live.
You guessed wrong. I have a strong opinion against tipping specifically because of working in restaurants including as a server.
I did not like the inconsistent pay and would have preferred consistent pay. I’m sorry if that doesn’t align with your worldview.
As a back of house worker, nothing was more disheartening then hearing all the servers go “I only made $200 in tips today in three hours” and being like “I only made $40 because I worked three hours.”
Yep, having worked both sides is probably part of why I see tipping as so silly.
So you’ve been a server and are aware of the uneven pay and the fact that if you don’t get good enough tips you’re making a starvation wage of minimum wage, and yet you still decide “fuck those people who are being exploited by restaurant owners because I don’t agree with tipping.” That’s heartless
Yes, because I’m against the inconsistent pay I experienced and want it to end so others do not experience the same.
Heartless is continuing to encourage such a system.
You not tipping isn’t going to result in any fundamental change in the system, you’re just stiffing the people who are being exploited.