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Restaurant workers quit at record rate

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Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#361

Post by dendriti »

stevejb wrote: post #319
yepthatsreality wrote: post #4

The restaurant industry has known the solution for a long time but everyone wants to pretend it would be too difficult. Stop the tipping guilt trip placed on the public, raise your prices 20%, and pay your employees a livable wage. The public will still show up to eat in your restaurant.

Guilt trip? I have never felt this ever. I pay a tip proportional to the service. 10% bad, 15% average, 20-25% for very good. As an American living in Australia, I really do miss tipping. I think that on average the restaurant service here is a lot lower. At most restaurants at the medium level (e.g. $25 hamburgers) you pay in advance, and then a waiter will bring the food to you when its ready. Do you need more wate…

If the biggest downsides to paying workers a living wage you can think of are asking for ketchup and fetching yourself a glass of water at a midrange restaurant... I think that's a fine tradeoff.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#362

Post by bluGill »

sokoloff wrote: post #175
refurb wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The folks I’ve talked who were wait staff preferred tips. They made $10/hr ($80 per shift) but could pocket $200 in tips on a good night. Doubling their rate to $20/hr would be a pay cut.

I’m quite sure that less than 100% of cash tips are reported as income to the IRS and state revenue departments.

There are a few exceptions who report it all I'm sure. However a good waiter/waitress can make as much as a good software engineer working less hours. Good is key though, most don't have the personality to rake in the tips. It is a pleasure getting good service where the 25% tip is deserved, it is painful having to give a 10% tip for bad service.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#363

Post by [deleted] »

gnicholas wrote: post #247
yepthatsreality wrote: post #4

The restaurant industry has known the solution for a long time but everyone wants to pretend it would be too difficult. Stop the tipping guilt trip placed on the public, raise your prices 20%, and pay your employees a livable wage. The public will still show up to eat in your restaurant.

> Stop the tipping guilt trip placed on the public, raise your prices 20%, and pay your employees a livable wage. FYI, one of the reasons restaurants don't do this is the tax impacts. When someone tips 20%, there is no sales tax assessed on the tip — the full 20% goes to the worker. If you increase prices by 20%, that is subject to a sales tax (roughly 10% where I live), which amounts to a 1%-2% increase in the total…

[deleted]

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#364

Post by tolbish »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #356
yepthatsreality wrote: post #4

The restaurant industry has known the solution for a long time but everyone wants to pretend it would be too difficult. Stop the tipping guilt trip placed on the public, raise your prices 20%, and pay your employees a livable wage. The public will still show up to eat in your restaurant.

This has been tried many times, you are ignoring the reasons it did not work. The employees hate it because they make less money, forcing the restaurant to go back to tipping. It was effectively a pay cut for employees. It is not wage/revenue neutral because it changes customer behavior. Generally speaking, Americans are more generous when the money goes to directly to a service person than to a faceless business tha…

How much money did they make with raised wages and no tips? Was the wage still not comparable to other jobs?

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#365

Post by nickff »

_delirium wrote: post #259
gnicholas wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stop the tipping guilt trip placed on the public, raise your prices 20%, and pay your employees a livable wage. FYI, one of the reasons restaurants don't do this is the tax impacts. When someone tips 20%, there is no sales tax assessed on the tip — the full 20% goes to the worker. If you increase prices by 20%, that is subject to a sales tax (roughly 10% where I live), which amounts to a 1%-2% increase in the total…

> most workers do not fully report all of their tips, which saves them both income and payroll taxes I wonder what percentage of tips are still cash tips, which is the only case where you can get away with that. I imagine the percentage of tips that are on a credit card (or even app like Doordash/Seamless) vs. cash has been increasing over time, but I can't find solid numbers.

Most credit and debit card tips are paid out to servers with cash from the register at the end of the day. The amount of the tips is recorded, but the recipients are not, and taxes are not assessed against the tips. Technically, servers are supposed to declare the cash they receive as income, but it is accepted practice not to do so.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#366

Post by the-dude »

bluGill wrote: post #318
the-dude wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until there is only Walmart and Amazon left.

It isn't hard to start a new business. There are a ton off niches that Walmart and Amazon don't server well. Find one and serve it, then use profits to expand into the much larger (though lower margin!) areas that Walmart or Amazon serve. Good luck - it is not easy to run a business.

Just wait until either Amazon or Walmart or both block your account for reasons.

No soup for you.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#367

Post by bluGill »

Invictus0 wrote: post #189
dud7d7ueu wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People become servers because of the tips not in spite of them 9/10 times. Of the servers I've known every single one chose serving because it beat the hell out of the other available low-requirement options they had. Complaining about tipping is easily one of the most counter productive forms of woke culture I encounter on a regular basis.

Suppose I don't care about the workers and I just want the actual price I'm going to pay printed on the menu, with no additional charges and fees at the end? Does that make me "woke"?

I care about service. It is a pleasure being able to reward good service.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#368

Post by Kluny »

ac29 wrote: post #326
conductr wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The employers aren’t raising their wages either They are. It takes time but they are. I work in a business that is having a hard time hiring entry level healthcare workers because Walmart and Amazon warehoueses is now paying $15-20/hr when it was only $12 pre-covid. Walmart and Amazon would only raise wages if they truly had a labor supply issue, which they do, we all do.

I'm curious where in the US are healthcare workers getting less than $15/hr and what kind of work it is. Even the sort of jobs that require no certification, no degree, and no experience seem to pay quite a bit more than that.

Possibly home-care workers, people who look after invalids with the type of arrangement where they drive to several different houses and provide a couple of hours of care at each. It doesn't require any particular qualification, but it's difficult and draining work that is not usually well-paid.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#369

Post by bluGill »

yesenadam wrote: post #346
stevejb wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guilt trip? I have never felt this ever. I pay a tip proportional to the service. 10% bad, 15% average, 20-25% for very good. As an American living in Australia, I really do miss tipping. I think that on average the restaurant service here is a lot lower. At most restaurants at the medium level (e.g. $25 hamburgers) you pay in advance, and then a waiter will bring the food to you when its ready. Do you need more wate…

The waiters "don't care" about what?! Things you expect from another country's customs? That is a strange way of thinking. And complaining about a country because you have to ask for sauce if you want it sounds so.. entitled. Although I'd never pay $25 for a burger. (Sydney here)

It is nice getting a servant for just an hour to take care of you. Though culture is of course a factor, sometimes you miss the pleasures of home.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#370

Post by apozem »

ericbarrett wrote: post #73

Wages/insurance/tips are an ongoing concern of food service work, but I want to set that aside and talk about the other half of the article. Customer entitlement is out of control and anybody who works with the general public will tell you it’s gotten even worse since the pandemic—and it wasn’t trending in the right direction before. Flight attendants, park rangers, government clerks, the anecdotes are everywhere, in…

More anecdata: my wife is a veterinarian and deals with endless angry customers who think she’s trying to rip them off or waste their time or is just plain wrong. I don’t know if there are more, but there are a lot.

But, she has an out fast food workers don’t. She tells the worst offenders, “If you’re not happy with the care you’re receiving, we’d be happy to give you Fido’s records so you can take him somewhere else.”

They shut up when you remind them you don’t have to fix their sick dog.

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