this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2024
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Who's the cheap one in this equation?
.... the customer who is paying the owner of the restaurant for the food AND is obligated by social convention to pay extra to the waiter who is underpaid.
or
... the restaurant owner who doesn't mind living in a world where we have normalized underpaying restaurant workers to the point where we pass down that responsibility to the customer who is already paying for the food.
Pay your workers a proper wage and get rid of the idea of tipping.
The owner is evil, but anyone who doesn’t tip a waiter that earns too little to be able to afford to live is an asshole.
As someone who works in the service industry, this is the argument that I see all the time. "We aren't going to subsidize your wage because your owner is an asshole." Weird, you have no problem being a patron of his establishment. Do you think that your refusal to tip somehow hurts him? Because it doesn't. It only hurts the staff. My argument always has and always will be that we increase the cost of menu items by 18% and then split that additional 18% with the staff. However, that idea always falls flat with the owner because, "We'll be the most expensive restaurant in town. No one will come here." Which is a valid concern. And so, we are at an impasse. He can't afford to pay me what I'm worth, and he can't increase the cost of the menu or he'll outprice his customers, and I can't quit because it's not better at any other restaurant. In the end, in any direction, the customer is going to pay more, either as a tip, or just for the cost of the food, or they'll pay with worse service because the experienced staff can't afford to work there anymore. Refusing to tip isn't a protest, it's just being cheap and making yourself feel better about it. If tipping went away, prices would have to increase, and either way, the buck stops with the consumer. Want to eat cheaper? Cook at home. I'm sure you'll be just as good as any of your favorite restaurants with their specialized equipment and cooks with a decade of experience.
I hope all you downvoters have something of value to contribute... Oh, no, you're just downvoting to show your solidarity with the rest of the cheap-os? Ok, enjoy your meal.
So... If i read this correctly.... The net difference is zero? Except when I'm being an asshole and I dont tip.
So in the end, this boils down to offering the option of being an asshole to your customers.
As an european I always find this discussion weird. And when visiting stateside I never really can "gauge" what I should tip. Am i in a joint which underpays the server? Is (s)he fine? Is 10% enough? More? Should i just make it whole? I just never know. I sometimes even have resorted to just bluntly ask the server or a patron what is customary. (my weird accent helps getting an honest answer)
It's quite honestly a shit fest. There is an amount on the billl... But that isnt the real amount, except when you're an asshole. And if you over tip you're still an asshole, just a stupid one, and if you're undertip you're also an asshole.
Come to think about it: it really boils down to which kind of asshole do you want to be.
It's a VAT, but it's a choose your own VAT, and it's based on what the service is worth to you. The customary amount is 20%, but a lot of people go between 15% and 20%, with my average take home being around 13% because of the people that don't tip. So, choose your VAT. In the end, when adjusted for the cost of living, eating out in the EU is about the same as eating out in the US and adding a tip. The tip is just already included in the meal cost. If we could all agree to do that in the US, then it would be fine, but we can't, so it isn't done. It's part of the establishment at this point, and change is something hard to sort out across 330 Million people all at once.
Only thing that stands out to me is the percentages you've listed. I was always taught (and most of my peers seem to have been as well) that the normal tip for average service was 15%. Poor service (that is in the waiter's control) gets 10%, and good/great is 18-22% (but usually 20%).
I was born in the early 90s if it makes a difference.
Varies regionally. For example, San Francisco techies should be tipping 20% (for typical sitdown service).
It used to be that way, but now standard is 20%.
I was also taught that egregious service (like bigoted remarks from the waitstaff or getting told to go fuck yourself) gets 1¢ to assure you aren’t just someone who doesn’t tip
No idea why you're being downvoted so much, you're absolutely on point for US restaurants. I've served in them, I've managed them (still didn't fucking get paid doing that)
And this press the union button bullshit above is insane. Restaurants have like a 5% success rate already, if they can just yeet entire Starbucks/Walmart locations on a whim, how the fuck do you guys think that's going to go with a restaurant?
Unionizing may be the best route, but we have to stop pretending it's a walk in the park to do.
I'm getting downvoted by the same people who think that it's OK to pirate all the current running TV shows and movies. Everyone is selfish, everyone wants it for free.
There's no problem with piracy if you never ever ever intend to subscribe to a streaming service though. Give me the option to pay for DRM-free .mkv files with differing qualities and bit rates and I'd consider not pirating, provided the prices are reasonable.
Whatever helps you sleep at night.