Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

angelinatravels.boardingarea.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

641–650 of 670 posts

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#641

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

tghw wrote: post #564
DanBC wrote: post #530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tipping has been abused by employers to allow them to pay less than a living wage. People who refuse to tip are trying to prevent this abuse. Asking for employees to get a fair wage for the work they do should not be dismaying.

I'm not saying they shouldn't get a living wage before tips, they should. In fact, if we got rid of the minimum wage exceptions for servers, we would immediately revert tipping to what it was intended to be, incentive for good service. What's dismaying is how many people in this thread don't even want to have to think about how the person driving them is a human being, often just trying to make ends meet.

> What's dismaying is how many people in this thread don't even want to have to think about how the person driving them is a human being, often just trying to make ends meet.

The problem is, this argument could be applied to all minimum wage workers.

Should I tip the cashier at McDonald's or Wal-mart? They're not making a living wage and are probably struggling to make ends meet. How about the guy that pumps my gas (I live in Oregon where it is generally illegal to pump your own gas)?

And that's what really gets me about our tipping culture in the USA. We're so inconsistent about who we think we should tip. It's completely arbitrary.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#642

Post by dikdik »

ryandrake wrote: post #142
blhack wrote: post #89

I'd love if an economist of somebody with a better financial background could comment on this: When you're giving a tip, you're effectively giving money to the people who own the company (or participate in profit sharing). Tips allow employers to pay their employees under market rate. By paying enough tip to bring the employee's wage up to the market rate, you are subsidizing the company's profit, not the employees p…

Yea, I don't get where this idea came from that tipping is either good for the employee or good for the customer. The employee is getting paid a crappy wage and the customer is being guilt-tripped into making up for it. The only winner is the employer.

I waited tables in college at a medium priced restaurant. On my great shifts I would pull down $50/hour on my best nights, $25-30/hour on typical weekends, and $10-20/hour on weeknights. Like most servers, I did not report most of my tips so it wasn't taxed.

This was AMAZING for me, the employee. If I was an hourly worker, I doubt I would have gotten paid over $10/hour.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#643

Post by inimino »

inimino wrote: post #164
blhack wrote: post #89

I'd love if an economist of somebody with a better financial background could comment on this: When you're giving a tip, you're effectively giving money to the people who own the company (or participate in profit sharing). Tips allow employers to pay their employees under market rate. By paying enough tip to bring the employee's wage up to the market rate, you are subsidizing the company's profit, not the employees p…

There are cases where the employer is obligated to make up the difference if the minimum wage isn't reached by tipping. In that case, the alternative to you tipping the waiter $5 is that the restaurant charges you $5 more for your meal and passes that on to the waiter to meet the minimum wage requirement. If the restaurant eats the loss and doesn't raise prices, then you would be right, but restaurants already have t…

To whoever downvoted this, I'd be interested to hear your reasoning.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#644

Post by nomagicbullet »

dnautics wrote: post #196
ryandrake wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. That's the main advantage of the service--that you don't have to horse around with cash and tipping or fumbling around with a credit card in the back seat while the driver waits. If they ever added the expectation of tipping, I would drop them like a bad habit. The fares are super reasonable and I would be more than happy to pay even a little more if it meant not getting guilt tripped over a tip. Tipping i…

There's in app-tipping in lyft. The driver doesn't know whether you've tipped them or not when they rate their experience with you. Moreover, it's relatively difficult for the driver to disentangle who tipped them what from their daily report at the end of the day[0]. So you really can pay based on what your judgement of their service level is. [0] I did once got into a very friendly chat with the "owner of the world…

> Moreover, it's relatively difficult for the driver to disentangle who tipped them

> ...

> I was curious if he tipped. He didn't.

I'm afraid you just dismantled your own argument with your footnote.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#645

Post by nomagicbullet »

thesmallestcat wrote: post #160
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the implication here? The parent post paid more than they were required, if not then the business could charge more to cover their costs. This kind of thinking is precisely what's wrong with tipping in the first place.

The implication is that 20% the widely accepted minimum "good tip" rate, and consistently tipping 15% is consistently being cheap. Especially when you're a tech worker FFS. Let's break out of our echo chamber a bit. In the US, tipping isn't "paying more than required," it's basic manners. You can argue until you're blue in the face about how businesses are to blame, but the vast majority of society, who have no big b…

Accusing people of being "cheap" is the lamest insult anybody can come up with. Try again.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#648

Post by nilram »

lostboys67 wrote: post #478
nilram wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend is a cook who says that even at decent restaurants, cooks don't get paid much and they get just a minimal share of tips. So when I get takeout, I tip 10-20% and say "Thank-you, here's something for the kitchen." Sometimes I get thanks in return, sometimes just a sour look from a server who expected something more for putting my order in a bag. I have no idea what they'll do with the cash, but hopefully some…

Does the US not have the Tronc system?

The cash aspect was incidental. "Front of the house" workers here net a significantly higher take-home because they are the ones receiving the tips and what they pass on to others is typically discretionary. Even many of the best establishments will pay cooks subsistence wages. A few restaurants are going tipless, raising prices slightly and discouraging tips, so they can distribute pay more equitably, but then they can have problems retaining wait staff.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#649

Post by prawn »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #632
kelnos wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually having a hard time thinking of any service job in the US where it's not customary (and/or expected) to tip.

Fast food, cafeteria staff, receptionist, fast casual (Chipotle-like places), coffee shop (this is debatable), tech support, cable repair person, salesman, public bus driver, any cashier, bagger, phone support, librarian. It's so arbitrary though, order a Pepsi from McDonald's no tip, order a Pepsi from a pub, $1 tip minimum. Tip the person who hands you a bottle of beer but not the person who makes your sandwich. (S…

"It's so arbitrary though, order a Pepsi from McDonald's no tip, order a Pepsi from a pub, $1 tip minimum. Tip the person who hands you a bottle of beer but not the person who makes your sandwich."

As an outsider, it's all quite insane especially when the baseline isn't 0% but more like 15% for default service in many situations. Or a $1 tip for something ridiculously basic at a bar like getting post-mix soda or uncapping a bottle of beer as you said.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#650

Post by titanomachy »

zapu wrote: post #448
ClassyJacket wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you believe that in Australia and Europe, restaurants and taxis are non functional because they don't have tipping? I've eaten out hundreds of times in my life, never left a tip, and never thought I needed an incentive system directly between me and the waiter. Same with taxis. There are only so many ways to screw up bringing food to a table. I've never once though "wow that waiter really brought my plate to me ba…

View on Europe on HN seems to be a little skewed. We have tipping here as well, maybe not to the same extent as in US, but it's definitely present. Even sandwich or coffee places would have "tip jar" where people would drop their change when they pay cash, but it's not required or even expected. It's not like there is no concept of tipping at all.

I get what you're saying, but there is a huge difference between maybe leaving a couple Euro on the table if you happen to feel like it, vs being made to feel like a piece of shit because you didn't tip the expected $10 on your $60 dinner or taxi ride.
Post reply on HN