Stop acting like we’re in a meritocracy. We aren’t. Working harder does not grant you better pay, it gets you stressed out and taken advantage of for the same pay. They’ll tell you “if you don’t like it go work somewhere else”. And guess what, the places that do pay better don’t have openings because people know they are the better jobs so those jobs have very little turnover.
I agree, it isn't perfect by any means. But that's how every industry functions, its by no means unique to the service industry. Work hard enough to do as well as you can at the place you are, and if you hit a wall find somewhere else. It's been that way for centuries.
If you were making double a "living wage" under the US system, why would you be in favor of cutting that back? And that's assuming $25/hour as a living wage - that's more than what is being paid even in localities that are trying to pass better minimum wage laws.
It's a critical mass thing...there is a reason its called tipping "culture." It works in the rest of the world because servers don't have that choice.
Servers like tips and like to put in a sob story about their wage to make people feel guilty and round up, it's why tips keep going up and up. It could be managed just fine but you need to stop it across the board or else someone will just go to another restaurant to work. I know someone who chose to stay as a server with a college degree because he was making 50k a year before in his field, makes close to 90k now, a lot under the table so he gets cheap healthcare and access to tax credits for stocking away a high percentage of his income to retirement savings.
Also to be clear tipping culture goes beyond that's, we don't just tip as restaurants now for sit in. It's for takeout or self-serve eat in places now too, haircuts, someone doing your lawn, etc. Any service people look for a tip, even if they are the business owner.
Post COVID inflation may shift people's thoughts on this in the industry...time will tell. Right now restaurant going, at least in my area is wayyyy down because prices are just stupidly high. No way I'm going to buy a kids serving of pasta for $18 (plus tip) regardless of whether I can afford it or not. We just create the restaurant experience at home now with the kids for fun.
Some servers prefer this because the pay is more stable than relying on tips. I'm not a server but I knew someone who was and I remember them saying that both were good for their own reasons. Apparently the best place to work as a server is a fancy restaurant because they typically tip big
If you had a hint of basic human empathy, you all would be supporting fair minimum wage across the board. It's absolutely stupid to expect the customers to be responsible for a service worker's to be able to meet their basic needs. No other nations have this problem.
Do you tip other non-customer-facing workers who make minimum wages too? Like cleaners, custodians, warehouse workers, maintenance workers? Because if you don't, you don't have any empathy.
And don't talk about basic human empathy when you can't even sort out your gun and mass shooting problems that no other developed country has.
I do support a fair minimum wage across the board. I also agree that we need stricter gun laws, but I’m just one person. The U.S. government is stacked against the majority of the population because it grants more power to states where fewer people live so the Republicans have been ruling the Senate with a minority for basically my entire life. The U.S. is neither democratic nor fair. It is set up to ensure the conservatives can stay in power long past when they should even be relevant in the national conversation.
Do you tip other non-customer-facing workers who make minimum wages too? Like cleaners, custodians, warehouse workers, maintenance workers?
I have tipped cleaners and custodians on a few occasions but for the most part not being customer facing means there’s really no good way to go about doing that. So no, I generally don’t tip those so and it not because I don’t have empathy, it’s because the workers you described make ACTUAL minimum wage whereas waiters / waitresses make the far lower tipped minimum wage which has not gone up in over 30 years. Theoretically employers are supposed to cover them if they don’t make enough in tips to reach the minimum, but practically speaking labor has essentially no power in America so workers are regularly screwed over on things like this. Wage theft is all too common here. Get your facts straight before you judge us. Yes the system is stupid but you still have to understand it or you will misjudge it and more importantly you’ll misjudge the people who have little choice but to live with it.
Fucking bullshit. Minimum wage is minimum wage. It's legally mandated. You're talking about companies exploiting both employees and customers by expecting and demanding tips from patrons to subsidize their own worker's wage.
Why do you think those other non-customer-facing jobs gets paid minimum wage and don't need tips? Because as you said people generally don't tip them, thus companies are OBLIGATED to pay them minimum wage.
Theoretically employers are supposed to cover them if they don't make enough in tips to reach the minimum
... and you think somehow continuing giving tips will solve this problem?
You people keep on tipping it's simply not going to end because there is zero incentive to end it.
You're all gladly paying it, the workers are happy to demand and receive it, and the companies get to pay their employees substandard living wages because morons keep subsidizing them!
Cycle is going to stay a cycle unless you break it.
Which is why it's complete bullshit that the number keeps going up. If you say anything then tons of waiters chime in about how they make poverty wages and need the tips desperately to survive as if they aren't actually flourishing and there are tons of examples where places try to implement good wages and it doesn't work because tip-based wages make more than just good.
66
u/rmpumper Aug 28 '24
You wouldn't find anyone to work for you, because the waiters make more in tips than you would ever be able to pay in "living wage".