221–230 of 618 posts
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Servers, often, seem to think it's our (the customer's) obligation to compensate for the sins of their employer. "Many restaurant owners illegally don't actually follow this law". "Report them to the DOL". "I don't want to do that. You should tip me to make sure I have a livable wage instead."
Perhaps this would happen less often if people didn't just spread hopelessness
It’s crazy that this still happens in the US. Tipping is a thing of the past. Pay for your meal and have the restaurant pay their people for their work. End of story.
I agree with your post. But.. I'm from the UK and travel in the US a lot and US service is much better. I've never had to chase up the check or had to go and search for staff to serve me after sitting there for ten minutes. These are common occurrences in the UK for me. Ideally, tipping wouldn't exist and everything would be priced in, but pragmatically, incentives grant extra benefits to both parties. Potential for…
Good service is common in industries where tipping doesn’t happen. What makes restaurants special that their workers can’t provide good service if all of their pay comes from their employer just like everyone else’s?
What confuses me most is when you are given the option to give a tip before any service has been given. On deliveroo, for example, I have the option to tip the driver while I'm at the checkout. Why would I give a reward for good service when I have no idea if the service is even good? There's already a rider fee as part of my bill, so it doesn't make any sense to me to give them more money at that point
we can literally get the state to say it is illegal for the point of sale system to have that or sell that to merchants
we can tie it to business codes that dictate which type of business it is to payment processors
control behavior by regulating the intermediary
the beauty of this philosophy is that it works under any system of government: don’t worry about the rights afforded to merchants or individuals, don’t burden them with the law at all, only intermediaries!
poof, tips at the point of sale system before receiving service disappears as fast as it came, short Square (now Block)
we can go deeper too
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California doesn't have a special minimum wage for tipped professions? When I was waiting tables a long time ago I think my pay was $1.95 an hour. It was usually just enough to cover tax on tips (the ones we admitted).
> California doesn't have a special minimum wage for tipped professions? NO STATE has a "special minimum wage for tipped professionals". MOST STATES allow tips to be * credited* towards wage, but NO STATE allows an employee to be paid less than minimum wage. There's a "special minimum wage THAT EMPLOYERS MUST CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS a tipped professional' S WAGE ", but that's a very different thing than "the minimal amoun…
You're not wrong that, in states with a lower tipped minimum, the tips act as a credit. But you're ignoring what the power imbalance in those situations can do to an employee, and you're ignoring the fact that in states like that, tips paid by customers are effectively subsidizing the employer out of paying minimum wage.
And I don't think that it would be surprising that wage theft is more common in places where the tipped minimum is set lower than the general minimum.
As a customer, I would much rather know that the employer is paying the full fair minimum wage regardless, and any tip I leave will always be on top of that. I don't want to be paying a part of the employee's wage that the employer would otherwise be paying.
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> If the employer does not make at least $x towards an employee's wage, the employer is guilty of wage theft. See what your server's reaction is if you tell them to report this wage theft. They won't. They'll just suggest you tip them to compensate.
They should. It's easy to report. Doesn't matter if nothing happens right away, because the more reports that accumulate the higher priority it becomes. So instead of trying to tell me how fruitless this is and just give up to endless arguments, maybe report wage theft if you know about it. You can do it anonymously. You can do it for people that tell you. It's not a hopeless situation. Hell, lawyers take payment aft…
And it's not like restaurant owners don't talk among themselves. Getting blackballed isn't great.
Bottom line is that you seem to think that there's zero reason why people are shy about reporting wage theft. And yet so many people don't want to do it. Maybe try a little humility on and accept that maybe there are reasons you don't know about or don't understand. It's very easy to tell people what they should be doing when you don't have to walk in their shoes.
What confuses me most is when you are given the option to give a tip before any service has been given. On deliveroo, for example, I have the option to tip the driver while I'm at the checkout. Why would I give a reward for good service when I have no idea if the service is even good? There's already a rider fee as part of my bill, so it doesn't make any sense to me to give them more money at that point
What confuses me most is when you are given the option to give a tip before any service has been given. On deliveroo, for example, I have the option to tip the driver while I'm at the checkout. Why would I give a reward for good service when I have no idea if the service is even good? There's already a rider fee as part of my bill, so it doesn't make any sense to me to give them more money at that point
Drivers can tell if you don’t tip and all of the experienced ones will decline your order.
Though these apps have done a lot of work to conceal the amount the driver actually gets until delivery is completed.
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Tips subsidize profits, plain and simple. But, America runs on poverty, so this is in line with the broader socioeconomic strategy.
> Tips subsidize profits, plain and simple. Nah. Profitability for the business would be higher without tips. I take x% of gross income as profit. No tips means I can charge the customer more, which means a higher gross income, which means more profit. When tipping is involved, the money slips through without allowing the business to take its cut. Good for the server, but not good for the business. However, as theore…
Also consider that customers will get sticker shock: even though they are ultimately paying the same price, seeing 20% higher prices on the menu will make them spend less. Yes, it's dumb, but human psychology is dumb, so there we are.
(Folks in Europe are used to the listed price being what they pay. In the US businesses don't generally list tax-included prices, but businesses that do include tax in their prices end up looking -- in the eyes of customers -- as more expensive than those that don't, even when the final prices are identical.)
It’s crazy that this still happens in the US. Tipping is a thing of the past. Pay for your meal and have the restaurant pay their people for their work. End of story.
I agree with your post. But.. I'm from the UK and travel in the US a lot and US service is much better. I've never had to chase up the check or had to go and search for staff to serve me after sitting there for ten minutes. These are common occurrences in the UK for me. Ideally, tipping wouldn't exist and everything would be priced in, but pragmatically, incentives grant extra benefits to both parties. Potential for…
I've had these things in the US. In fact the service generally I've had is all for show, people being really "fake nice" and / or overbearing but then forgetting drinks or food items you ordered.
At least in the UK you can genuinely not tip someone without worrying about them being unable make rent..
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Which made a difference 2 or 3 decades ago. But today, who's getting tips in cash? Not many. Customers are paying for everything with credit cards or contactless, save for the occasional cash-only coffee shop or restaurant.
> But today, who's getting tips in cash? Every server who waits on me. I make it a point to carry cash and tip the waitstaff in cash even if I pay the bill on my credit card. 1) Tips on credit cards are a "dark pattern" meant to increase the house rake of the credit card handling companies. 2) Tips on credit cards are controlled by the owner and often never make it to the waitstaff. I can short circuit this by giving…