311–320 of 550 posts
Upscale and some midscale restaurants in NYC have seen a drop in demand since no-tipping policies have been applied. Its not clear if this is purely a product of pricing psychology, or if service quality at the upscale end starts to suffer with service staff having less incentive to provide top-notch service.
Restauranteurs at mid priced places want to capture more value. No tipping means that the waitress currently pulling in $20-30/hr makes $15, and they pocket the difference through higher prices and shrink-ray.
All of these ethical arguments, armchair economic dissertations and tales of tipping PTSD woe are nonsense. It's all about dollars and cents for yet another dying industry.
Any consideration of tipping has to take into account the fact that it lets owners shift risk to their employees (since more of a slow night will come out of their pockets instead of the owner's) -- especially when laws specifying that employers have to make up the difference if a wage with tips is less than minimum wage are poorly enforced.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is almost certainly going to rarely happen. Almost no server feels empowered enough to insist on this. And restaurant owners will start insisting on collecting and counting cash tips so they can fully account for the wages. No server wants their boss counting their cash tips. At least in Massachusetts, declared tips is self reported.
I've even seen something very shady recently - a nice restaurant that added a mandatory 20% "service fee" to our party of 7, had fine print that said "60% of your service fee goes to your wait staff." The implication is that not only is this restaurant, which we ended up paying ~$80 a person to eat dinner + wine + dessert at, screwing their customers with the mandatory service charge, they're also screwing their empl…
Probably not. In the restaurant I worked at was customary for the waiters to tip the kitchen and support staff. Owners were not tipped.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When a person walks into a restaurant in the USA they can waive a $20 bill at a waitperson and say if you do what I want, and if I like you, and if I'm feeling generous, I might give you some of this. So you also dislike bonuses for white collar professionals? Because it's exactly the same thing.
I worked in finance sales for about 3 years. Bonuses are fun but I have seen a lot of misconduct in the pursuit of a bonus. Maybe its just banking... I'm all for the no tipping and i happily work without a bonus. And i would expect other to as well. If you can't show up and be consistent in performance without a carrot then thats maybe not a great reflection of how you work and what you value.
Having worked in the restaurant industry for over 12 years, started as a bus boy at 15 years old, then waiter, then bartender and finally moved to General Manager of the whole place. I can tell you that tipping is absolutely necessary. I can say that the article is dead wrong about this. Tipping is the best thing that's ever happened to the US Restourant business. Especially at great establishments with repeat custom…
So... why not have startup devs get tips?
Or... wait... why not do actual profit-sharing at restaurants? Give monthly or quarterly bonuses based on profit-sharing calculations.
I sometimes get amazing service at mcdonalds/fastfood places. Had a few phenomenal experiences at a local wendy's last year. The service level has far more to do with the actual people involved vs whether they're tipped or not.
Maybe challenging tipping in court would be the best way to eliminate it. I'd be interested in reading the ruling no matter the outcome.
EDIT: Quick Google, Here's some research on the subject http://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?artic...
As an aside, I actually went to a pretty expensive restaurant where the busboy did most of the work. The only thing the waiter did was take our order, ask if everything was ok, asked if we wanted another (paid) drink (the busboy refilled our water several times), and brought us the check. They busboy did everything that wasn't money oriented. I asked him if he got tips, he said he got 10%. 10% of the compensation for at least 50% of the work! I noticed all the busboys there had something in common - they were all black teenagers. The waitstaff also wore button down shirts and ties and the busboys wore polo shirts. I was extremely uncomfortable with the situation.
The last issue "Chef's will love you" has a lot less to do with tipping or not (personally I'm against tipping and wish it would go away, but its not why back of house staff get stiffed). Back of house staff, in the US, cannot tip share. Its against the law. Assumedly this was originally meant as a worker protection, but in recent years, especially at higher end establishments, it acts as a wage limit for the people…
> Back of house staff, in the US, cannot tip share. Its against the law. Do you have a reference for this? I know of a few restaurants, in New York and Arizona, where the kitchen shares in the pool.
... my understanding is that provision generally excludes back of house staff (except busboys), but as usual the details of any particular situation require an actual legal opinion.
Having worked in the restaurant industry for over 12 years, started as a bus boy at 15 years old, then waiter, then bartender and finally moved to General Manager of the whole place. I can tell you that tipping is absolutely necessary. I can say that the article is dead wrong about this. Tipping is the best thing that's ever happened to the US Restourant business. Especially at great establishments with repeat custom…
But recently I moved home and paid $850 to movers for 6 hours of work(4 guys and a truck), the 20% of that would be $170. I paid $40 in tips and yet I felt guilty and I thought I heard some grumbling between movers. Similar thing happened when I took a cab from Denver to Boulder and paid nearly $120 and driver explicitly asked for tips and the only option in app was 20%.
I don't know about other people here but paying $170 tips on a service seems like a ripoff and is not practical unless you are already rolling in dough.
Personally for me - tipping is slippery slope. As a personal not born in US, I am always unsure how much I should tip. Heck there is a expected tip in TO-GO orders.