221–230 of 344 posts
> The FTC alleges Amazon changed the way it paid drivers in late 2016, lowering the hourly rate and then used customer tips to make up the difference. Amazon continued to tell drivers they were receiving all of their tips, even after receiving hundreds of complaints from drivers, the agency said. How is this not simply theft? Why does this attract civil charges and not criminal ones?
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Tips are fundamentally broken. If you didn't know about tips, and someone offered you a job and said, "I'll pay you crap wages, but you can ask the customers for more money. Don't worry, they'll pay or their friends won't like them," you'd think it was a scam because it's such an obviously terrible deal. Tips are an awful way to incentivize good service. I'm neither qualified to judge my server's performance, and I'v…
Can we talk about why service is astronomically better in the US than countries with very high worker protections and base wages like Denmark? I'm genuinely curious what you think the factors are in their difference because when I live in Denmark (as I do now) it feels like the waiter could give less of a s** whether the service is good or not whereas when I live in LA or NYC I feel like I am the golden child of thei…
In the US you have cashiers bagging stuff for you and not being allowed to sit down (!!!).
Just do away with tips. It's a terrible and stupid system. If you want to do it as a customer, go ahead, but it should never be considered as part of the employee's compensation. If people aren't willing to do the job for the hourly wage alone with no tips, raise the wage until they are.
Agree with the first part, but would rephrase this second part as: If people aren't able to live off a minimum wage salary to do the job for the hourly with no tips, raise the minimum wage until they are.
This isn’t an issue people can solve on their own by changing jobs. It’s a systemic problem where the minimum wage has been stagnating for years, while the cost of living has been skyrocketing, and thus felt most by non-knowledge workers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tips are fundamentally broken. If you didn't know about tips, and someone offered you a job and said, "I'll pay you crap wages, but you can ask the customers for more money. Don't worry, they'll pay or their friends won't like them," you'd think it was a scam because it's such an obviously terrible deal. Tips are an awful way to incentivize good service. I'm neither qualified to judge my server's performance, and I'v…
Can we talk about why service is astronomically better in the US than countries with very high worker protections and base wages like Denmark? I'm genuinely curious what you think the factors are in their difference because when I live in Denmark (as I do now) it feels like the waiter could give less of a s** whether the service is good or not whereas when I live in LA or NYC I feel like I am the golden child of thei…
I’m curious why ‘good service‘ is important for you? Have you worked a service job yourself? It’s long gruelling hours.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can we talk about why service is astronomically better in the US than countries with very high worker protections and base wages like Denmark? I'm genuinely curious what you think the factors are in their difference because when I live in Denmark (as I do now) it feels like the waiter could give less of a s** whether the service is good or not whereas when I live in LA or NYC I feel like I am the golden child of thei…
Expectations. In Europe we expect the waiter/etc to be a fellow person with good days and bad days and we don't expect hand holding. In the US you have cashiers bagging stuff for you and not being allowed to sit down (!!!).
Just do away with tips. It's a terrible and stupid system. If you want to do it as a customer, go ahead, but it should never be considered as part of the employee's compensation. If people aren't willing to do the job for the hourly wage alone with no tips, raise the wage until they are.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
what tips though? Who tips an Amazon delivery person?
Amazon Prime Now has a 'tip' section with a recommended amount of money to give the driver. It works out to about 10% of the price, I think, generally?
And jesus, if this is not late capitalism then I’m not sure what is. Through the phenomenon of tipping everyone becomes a Caeser-like philanthropist, making life or death choices based on the perceived suffering and performance of their precarious underlings. Meaning waiters, and other service industry workers, compete for crumbs by trying to make other people feel like "the golden child of their day", in a system that systemically undervalues and underpays them (that's putting it very lightly).
David Graeber has a great name for service workers, he calls them 'the caring classes'. [1]
In another article he writes about the British working class:
"In other words, the historical defeat and humiliation of the British working classes is now the island’s primary export product. By organizing the entire economy around the resultant housing bubble, the Tories have ensured that the bulk of the British population is aware" [2]
In a talk he gave he says despite technology increasing the productivity and therefore some wages, "in the caring sector the exact opposite has happened. Digitization is being used as an excuse to make lower productivity so as to justify the existence of this army of administrators" [3], in Britain this has created a "cheerful, creative, and subservient working-class population who, drawing on centuries of tradition, know exactly how to be butlers" [2]
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/26/caring...
[2] https://thebaffler.com/salvos/despair-fatigue-david-graeber
[3] http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/managerial-feudalism-r...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tips are fundamentally broken. If you didn't know about tips, and someone offered you a job and said, "I'll pay you crap wages, but you can ask the customers for more money. Don't worry, they'll pay or their friends won't like them," you'd think it was a scam because it's such an obviously terrible deal. Tips are an awful way to incentivize good service. I'm neither qualified to judge my server's performance, and I'v…
You're absolutely right, given the premise that we tip to incentivize good service. In reality, we tip so businesses can advertise an $18 meal for $14.99.
In the UK tipping is very hit or miss. Especially now that cash payments are becoming rare. I've noticed that food delivery drivers will be half way down the street by the time I open the door these days. They obviously don't expect anything. If there is a service charge on the bill I typically don't leave anything in particular, and I'd prefer it this way.
laughs in European.
seriously though, how is this STILL a thing?