Live data from Hacker News

You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

wsj.com

161–170 of 508 posts

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet strangely, the loudest voices AGAINST doing away with tipping in favor of a wage are often wait staff themselves.

This seems like such a non-issue, I'm not sure why articles are written about tipping. Wait staff love tips because it gets them paid significantly more than if they worked a retail job. After visiting Europe, tips are necessary for good service. The rudeness and lack of service was culture shock.

>After visiting Europe ...

All Europe was like this?

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#162

I dislike the tip-at-purchase-time paradigm. I haven't even seen my order yet, how am I supposed to evaluate how much of a tip it warranted? But that gets to the heart of it really: tipping is more about subsidizing payroll than rewarding good service.

Tipping on a digital device (iPad register) also doesn't make sense because the tip money is going straight to the bank account the owner connected to the point of sale software.

It goes to the workers though. Are you claiming that the owners are not distributing them back?

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#163
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever worked at a restaurant or in a tipped position? It constitutes a HUGE part of your take home pay for two reasons: - If you are a waiter, tips will be multiples of your hourly pay. - Tips will be under the table, saving you another ~25% easily. So if you make a tipped hourly wage in Ohio: - $4.15/hr * 7 hour shift (5pm open to 12pm close): 29.05 - Wait 6 tables, each with 3 seated parties, that tip you e…

> - $4.15/hr * 7 hour shift (5pm open to 12pm close): 29.05 Shouldn't you compare to the minimum wage at least? Or you could compare to a standard wage similar to what would be paid in other countries.

Shouldn't you compare to the minimum wage at least?

Not in the state of Ohio, apparently. In many states, waitstaff can be paid below minimum wage, because tips!

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is: why not build the cost of those activities into the price of the food itself, instead of leaving it to customers to figure out?

Because the employer wants to display a low price to attract you into the store, labor protections in the US tend to be weak, and employers tend not to like transparency about their labor costs - it's an uninteresting distraction to most consumers and a free gift to the competition. There's a first mover disadvantage and if the relationship between employer and staff is adversarial then employees generally lack lever…

I'm confused. If the point of your commenting is that tipping is the best way to achieve the desired outcome (of employees being paid for unseen labor), then I would have expected your original comment to explain that, instead of just vaguely hinting that they do indeed deserve to be paid more. I didn't think anyone was disputing the latter.

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding you.

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#165
post #17

No guilt. No tip. Never. If they want more than the listed price they should raise the listed price. Social customs/expectations/guilt/whatever be damned. I never tip. Never have, never will.

I agree with the principle behind your choice, and even consider it laudable. However, in my opinion, your behavior is badly misguided - in fact, I'd characterise it as a naive and childish attack on innocent people. Sorry, I know that's pretty insulting, but it's my best attempt at a full and honest, but measured description of my opinion. Part of why it's so harsh is because, reading your posts, I don't think you suffer from a misunderstanding, but are rather expressing malice that, while justifiable, is being applied in a knowingly untargeted manner.

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a lot of states have a lower minimum wage for tipped employees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage

Employers have to make up the difference if tips don't get them there though. No one should be making less than min. The issue is that min wage isn't really enough.

"Employers make up to min wage if you don't get tipped enough" is the biggest joke, because if you don't get enough tips by the end of the night a few times, employers will often slowly push you out by only offering you unfavorable shifts, or outright fire you in states with poor labor protections.

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#167
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Srsly. Is this actually a problem for anyone?

It is a problem because not tipping is seen as a massive faux pas in the US, and it is very possible to get publicly shamed for hitting the no tip button even if, like the article says, you are being handed a ready-to-go item.

[deleted]

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It does deprive the server of a living wage. Then maybe the server should tell the customer how much they need to be tipped? "Welcome to AppleBees. My name is Trevor and I need an additional $24.89 in tips today so that my employer isn't obligated to pay me the minimum wage for this state." Also, should I be under-tipping waitstaff that I think are rich enough?

Employers have to make up the difference if tipped employees don't make enough tips to meet the minimum wage. However, minimum wage is often not a living wage.

> Employers have to make up the difference if tipped employees don't make enough tips to meet the minimum wage

This is not true in all states. Kentucky has no provision for this, e.g. (I worked in restaurants through college, so I have hands on experience here.)

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#169
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet strangely, the loudest voices AGAINST doing away with tipping in favor of a wage are often wait staff themselves.

That's because it would make it harder for them to continue committing tax fraud.

The vast majority of tips these days are paid via cc, so no, not it at all.

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#170
post #39

The 'politics' of tipping aside, one thing that really grinds my gears is that they calculate the tip after taxes are applied. I feel that the tips should be calculated based on the exchange I had with the establishment/person and that the taxes should considered separate from our interaction. Like, here's the 20% tip on the 100$ I spent. Not, here's the 20% tip on the $100 + 5% tax, $105 total. I know why they do th…

If there's anything I've learned through a decade of browsing Reddit, there's nothing to be gained on a discussion revolving around tipping.

Feelings will be hurt, people will talk over each other, and no one goes on doing anything different than they did before.

Might as well as be debating tabs vs. spaces while we're at it.

Post reply on HN