Political Memes

I’m a big supporter of tipping, which is incredibly unpopular, IME. I was a server for several years at all kinds of restaurants, which could explain why my perspective is different. The main benefits I see are these:

1. Working as a server is one of the few potentially well paid jobs that you can get without education or a lot of physical strength (some strength is still required, as well as a lot of endurance, but it’s not common to lift more than 50 lbs/~22,5 kilos). I knew diner waitresses in their early sixties without high school diplomas who were entirely fit for the job and made enough over their career to retire at 65, but if they had to get a different career, they would likely not have made above minimum wage.

2. Because the majority of their pay comes directly from the customer, tipped servers are more incentivized to tell customers the truth about things like specials offered to move bad product. One restaurant I worked at didn’t sell many martinis and kept the vermouth unrefrigerated. I used to tell customers, even though martinis have a great profit margin for the restaurant, because it made customers more likely to enjoy their experience, and therefore tip me better.

3. Servers have the potential to make much more than minimum wage under a tipped system, and cannot legally earn less (on a pay period to pay period or monthly basis). When I served at a fine dining restaurant, I made $30k working part time as a student. If the US were to eliminate tipping (I can’t speak to other countries), I think it’s unlikely that restaurants would pay servers much more than minimum wage or a couple bucks over that, given the reprehensible pay kitchen staff generally receive.

I do think it’s reasonable (and morally required) to tip kitchen/bar/expo staff out at the end of the night, but some restaurants will then try to pay them the tipped minimum wage, which is fucked.