Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes

apnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

911–920 of 1001 posts

Re: Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes

#911

Post by acdha »

mikhael28 wrote: post #570
acdha wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Push for those laws. Patronize restaurants which pay well. Until that’s universal, tip generously anywhere you aren’t certain pays their works great wages. Good intentions don’t help anyone make rent.

I used to work as a janitor for minimum wage. I never got a tip. How was that fair? Did I not provide a service? You sound like someone who used to work as an employee who received tips.

I wasn't saying that was fair, and have supported raising the minimum wage every time it's been on the ballot. A key difference is that in most of the U.S. restaurant workers have a much lower minimum wage with the expectation that tips will make up for that. That's why I mentioned the difference between what you should do before anything changes and afterwards: if someone's base pay is $2.30/hour and tips are supposed to bring that up, not tipping is probably costing them money their budget is based on.

None of that says that we shouldn't be trying to get both jobs to be more humane.

Re: Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes

#912

Post by jmorenoamor »

jacktribe wrote: post #99

I've just opened a coffee shop in Los Angeles last month, and we don't take tips. We only use self-ordering iPads (I've custom coded an iOS app w/ Stripe Terminal for it), and we don't accept cash either. We've had a few customers baffled by the no-tipping policy, and still insisting that they leave a tip. Some even left cash on the counter or on the table. We had to chase a few of them down to return their money. Al…

I would not run after anyone or fight my customers. Just put it in a jar and twice a year donate it to a good cause.

Re: Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes

#913

Post by cptskippy »

jacktribe wrote: post #626
mnky9800n wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't feel like you responded to my comment. If you are paying a reasonable wage, profit sharing is a bonus. You are creating tipping with extra steps.

Profit sharing only works if you stick around long enough. In the service industry, and especially amongst young people, it's common to pick up a job like this for a few months and make some money, then move on to something else. And that's okay, not everyone wants to make a career out of making coffee. It's still a good formative experience to have, while earning some money, and there's no reason why you shouldn't d…

> In the service industry, and especially amongst young people, it's common to pick up a job like this for a few months and make some money, then move on to something else.

By making that assertion you're absolving yourself of responsibility and shifting the retention issue entirely to the employee. You're completely dismissing the possibility that your retention issue is due to a customer culture you fostered or created, a poor work environment due to a manager or toxic employee, the demands of the job vs compensation, or any other factor.

> Ultimately, money is a motivator and pretending like it's not does not make tipping go away.

Money is a motivator but not necessarily for the right reasons and it has diminishing returns. Tipping culture has evolved from a mechanism for customers to thank staff into a means for staff to make up for insufficient wages. They're effectively panhandlers.

If an employee relies upon a tip to makeup for wages, they aren't paid enough and are being exploited and abused.

Today, not tipping is a punitive measure that allows customers to diminish an employee or staff's wage at the customer's discretion and without any insight or feedback provided to the employer. People feel compelled to tip because they thing employees aren't paid enough, not because service was above expectations.

Re: Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes

#915

Post by freejazz »

kelnos wrote: post #631
freejazz wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That is a pretty fringe worry of tracking that places a major burden on the business. Taking cash? It's illegal in NYC not to... Not sure how fringe that is.

It's not illegal because of tracking worries, it's illegal because cashless businesses discriminate against the large population of under- and un-banked people who live in NYC.

And?

Re: Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes

#916

Post by djur »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #831
djur wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't bribe someone because you think they deserve a bribe. That's not a bribe, it's a gift.

I ought to clarify: I meant that waiters don't deserve their wages and don't deserve to work if they think that spoiling customers' food is an acceptable reaction to a low/nonexistent tip.

Sure, but that's not a principle I'm willing to eat snotchos for. Paying the bribe is the rational choice, even if the vast majority of recipients would never dream of messing with your food.

Re: Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes

#917

Post by nojvek »

Tipping is like every place expects an additional 15% tax and they look at you funny if you don’t give it.

Regardless of how good or poor the service is. 11% to Uncle Sam, 15% to the workers.

It’s become the fabric of life. I really do enjoy when I don’t have to tip. Even though the amount is slightly higher and the 15% is included in base price.

Re: Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes

#918

Post by ciupicri »

TylerE wrote: post #422
oefrha wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you show the full price with taxes upfront, that's an astonishing level of integrity. It’s funny, what you see is what you pay doesn’t require an astonishing level of integrity in much (most?) of the world, it’s just standard practice; instead, tacking on hidden fees not on the price tag would be unthinkable.

It’s really complicated in the US because we charge about 4 different kinds of sales tax (federal, state, county, city), and differing rates depending on the type of good, or even the time of year. So like a chain store can’t include taxes in things like print ads because you could have two locations a few blocks apart that literally have different tax.

Though the stores themselves should display the final price, the one that you pay at the register.

Re: Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes

#920

Post by barbariangrunge »

parallel wrote: post #405
barbariangrunge wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish you would take cash. Every other method of payment gets tracked and is used to profile people

Is this where cryptocurrencies come in? The convenience of a cashless transaction without the tracking.

Crypto is a permanent distributed transaction list. I’ve never understood how that was marketed as private
Post reply on HN