31–40 of 456 posts
Excellent article. Shame so many wealthy people are cheap on tips. Always round up on the tip - the people relying on them need that extra $1-5 dollars more than you do. And if you can't afford those extra few dollars than what are you doing going out in the first place?
> Places like this rely on high school students for jobs like working the counter and delivering food. This sentence should be amended to “Places like this rely on people to accept low wages and low quality of life at work”. The whole article can basically be cut down to that sentence.
For what it's worth, the usual "high school jobs" are not a problem when done by actual high schoolers as side gig to fund phone, beer, weed and gas. They don't need to pay rent, food or health insurance so what would be a non-living wage for an adult is luxury money for high schoolers. The problem is when actual adults who have to take care of adult things (rent, food, health insurance, car payments, ...) have to re…
Welcome to the terrible world of tipping. Subsidize the wages so the employer doesn't have to. I got out of my way to avoid any type of business or service that has tipping. It's getting so bad out there I've seen people talk about getting asked for a tip in a drive thru. Do I tip when I eat out? Yes. But that's cut down to a minimum now. I think we're headed towards a breaking point. Profits and cost of living canno…
While I agree, I remember bartenders making $10/hr + tips when I worked in a restaurant... in 1998. I could make $10/hr washing dishes (always the most hard-to-staff position) but wouldn't do so until after the restaurant died down because I made more busing tables with tips.
Let's just call this type of employment what it is: wage slavery. People are used to there being a class of people willing to take these jobs.
Am I reading the author right that he’s expecting people to tip on the movie ticket portion of their check? If so, I’m not at all surprised to he ended up disappointed when people didn’t do that. It would never occur to me to do that, before or after reading the article.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Shame so many people think it is a customer’s job to pay anything more than what they are asked to pay.
I find it hilarious how Americans think restaurant/bar staff is almost exclusively entitled to getting more money than what they signed up for, courtesy of the customer. Do you give other minimal wage workers tips? Cashiers, cleaners, random shop staff? If not then shut up.
Restaurants that have tried to go tip free, even the highest end ones, like Eleven Madison Park and Danny Meyer's Union Square Cafe, have rolled it back as customers see the prices as being "too high." Tipping is basically an optical illusion. If you don't tip, you are ruining it for everybody else.
> Places like this rely on high school students for jobs like working the counter and delivering food. This sentence should be amended to “Places like this rely on people to accept low wages and low quality of life at work”. The whole article can basically be cut down to that sentence.
> When I was a 16 year old kid working as a “Courtesy Clerk” for Albertsons Grocery store, we got a 15-minute break for every 4-hour shift and an hour lunch for an 8-hour shift. Shouldn't this be enforced by law?
Yes. One of the big problems we have now is that companies are either reframing their work Uber-style to get around regulations or flat-out ignoring them. Going after violations like that or e.g. the endemic wage-theft at small businesses like restaurants would be a great use of civic money since most of the people affected by lax enforcement have limited power to push back.
I am always baffled when I read about the tip culture in the states. I find it so belittling for workers. It seems to incentivize a mentality of "the customer is always right", with workers putting an extra effort to always smile and be nice in the hope for a fair tip.
Restaurants can really barely afford to stay open in my (small) region, frankly they are seen as a service to a town not a net extractor. I know the finances behind my locals and can tell you they would not be able to stay open if workers were not also compensated via tips, and workers would not be there without the requisite pay. Tips end up being the difference between having a restaurant or not.
I am always baffled when I read about the tip culture in the states. I find it so belittling for workers. It seems to incentivize a mentality of "the customer is always right", with workers putting an extra effort to always smile and be nice in the hope for a fair tip.
Restaurants can really barely afford to stay open in my (small) region, frankly they are seen as a service to a town not a net extractor. I know the finances behind my locals and can tell you they would not be able to stay open if workers were not also compensated via tips, and workers would not be there without the requisite pay. Tips end up being the difference between having a restaurant or not.
> When I was a 16 year old kid working as a “Courtesy Clerk” for Albertsons Grocery store, we got a 15-minute break for every 4-hour shift and an hour lunch for an 8-hour shift. Shouldn't this be enforced by law?
many states go no further, including Texas, which explicitly does not require break time