How about just paying food service workers a living wage, so that tipping isn't critical for basic survival?
this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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No no, don't you know that it is your responsibility as a customer to make sure other people's employees make enough money to live? What are you, some kind of europoor?
Speaking for the rest of the world, who are saner, F%$^ your US uber etc software trying to normalise this toxic BS 'culture' in other countries.
People that get tips should make at least minimum wage like everyone else. The employer should not get to pay less because someone gets a tip.
I always try to tip in cash. First so the person getting the tip can decide if they want to declare it as income. Second so it goes where I intend it to go.
20% is a good tip. More is not necessary.
I always decline tipping on the screens.
Never pre-tip. Tipping should always happen after service. You won't get a refund on that tip if the service is bad.
Edit: A word
My fear of not tipping before I get my food/product is the fear of a resentful employee tampering with it before I get it. So then I'm left in a situation of feeling like my food is being held hostage if I don't give a tip. It really feels like a shakedown, and I don't appreciate it. It has made me stop frequenting places that ask for a tip before I even get my food.
How pathetic. So much mental gymnastics here to justify it all and avoid admitting that tipping to begin with is the problem.
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(8 replies)
Owners don't want to charge more for the food that people eat at Restaurants fearing it will tip the scale and less people will eat there, so they lowball the menu prices, and leave earning up to each individual server for each individual table instead of paying wait staff a living wage. This is further exacerbated by serving staff being allowed to be paid far less than the meager minimum wage in most, but not all (CA) states.
I don't believe that's really true. Don't get me wrong, I know they'll raise the food prices. But it's not because they're using lower wages to buy better ingredients. Don't let them convince you paying people a liveable wage isn't possible. Somehow other countries all around the world are able to do it just fine.
It was never not broken. It's always been broken and flawed. It simply went from bad to worse and SUDDENLY people wake up and realize it was stupid all along. The fact people ever bought into tipping of any kind and felt it was justifiable is pathetic. Anyone who defends tipping is an idiot. Paying fair wages, expecting the same service every time, and having clear prices makes way too much sense to ignore. Tipping has variability that makes no sense and is not justified.
It always amazes me how business owners are portrayed as greedy monsters instead of the pants pissing cowards they most likely are. If you need to raise the prices of your products to give your employees good wages, do it. And customers need to understand that better paid employees means higher prices.
That's the thing. They don't need to raise the prices to be able to give good wages, they just bribed all the politiciants to make restaurants to be excluded from minium wage requirement to able to pocket all the money themselves.
You make it sound like they're pocketing millions a week, when the typical profit margins for restaurants are less than 5% and max out at 10%.
Fifty seven million over 22 years is pretty tame. Especially considering that the National Restaurant Association has forty thousand members. It would have only taken about seventy dollars a year per member to get to that total.
First of all, OpenSecrets only list public money as dark money is by definition not known. Secondly, they literally have the best deal possible so they have no reason to spend more money now. They are the only sector that has an exemption from minimum wage laws.
Whatever way you may want to present it they have enough money to pay fair wages. And if they didn't they should close as not viable business venture.
Yet, they shouldn't raise their menu prices because they should have enough money to cover additional wages? With a 5% profit margin? By your reckoning every restaurant in America should be out of business. Yet, you also want our restaurants to follow the European model which serve smaller portions at higher prices. I've said this before and I will say it again. The ills of the US corporations can be laid at the feet of the consumer. CEOs get extremely large salaries and bonuses because they're the scapegoat. Consumers were satisfied with one person taking the blame for a systemic problem that would most likely continue after the poor bastard was fired, but hey at least the company heard you. Small wages for employees? Consumers won't shop here unless we offer what they want for the cheapest price. Even when certain restaurants offered more transparency for why it costs more consumers complain about having to pay for such things as employee healthcare.
Yet, they shouldn’t raise their menu prices because they should have enough money to cover additional wages? With a 5% profit margin?
I'm not sure where are taking that 5% as it's around 15% in 2023 and double or triple that for franchises.
By your reckoning every restaurant in America should be out of business.
No, but they should re-evaluate their business if they can't afford to pay a fair wage for their employees like every other business on the planet. There are plenty of other sectors that operate on lower margines yet they manage to pair their employees fair wage without subsidizing it with tips.
Yet, you also want our restaurants to follow the European model which serve smaller portions at higher prices.
While it's true that our US portions are typically larger the prices are also a lot higher. The same type of dinner in Europe on average costs around 3 times less while being 30% smaller. So this argument is pure nonsense.
The ills of the US corporations can be laid at the feet of the consumer. CEOs get extremely large salaries and bonuses because they’re the scapegoat.
No I'll lay it where it belongs. At the feet of NRA and their lobbying. Like I mentioned previously, restaurants are the only sector that is exempt from the minimum wage laws. That is insane and it's nice to see it starting to get reversed in multiple states. By the way, the same CEOs privately admit that their profit margins increased in states where minimum wage requirements were introduced...
Ok. Looks like you're using gross profit while I'm using net profit. And I'm not including franchises like McDonalds or Wendys because most of the profits are from franchise fees and the raw products that their franchisees have to buy at a markup. They also don't have employees that rely on tips and their portions tend to be smaller than a meal at, say, a Denny's which does use employees that rely on tips.
I'm using net profit. Clearly you didn't even bother to check the source.
I did pull up the link and it only showed the profits from a single corporation that owns Burger King and Popeyes. Brinker who owns Chili's and Maggianos has a net profit of 2.48%, Denny's has a net profit of 8.25%, Dine Brands which owns Applebee's and IHOP has a net profit of 9.03%. And these are established restaurants that have been around a long time.