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uh what is this >?
basically a promotional flyer for the Trump 2024 campaign
What’s so revolting and obnoxious about @[email protected]’s trolling is low wages and high tips are precisely in line with #Trump principles (and in fact right-wing conservatives in general) and contrary to the principles of the liberals who are repulsed by Trump & his repugnance.
How am I trolling?
My bad, you’re not. Insinuation that Trump would somehow solve the low wages due to tipping didn’t come from you.
I have to wonder what is going through their heads to think this would be in any way helpful to their cause. It’s literally saying “hey I’m screwing you out of money in the name of Trump.”
That’s definitely going to win over prospective voters.
But consistent with Trump’s complete lack of ethics.
I would remember that guy, and spit in all his food when he came back.
Nobody but your boss has to give you the pay you deserve
If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat out or order delivery. Just because the tip system is a terrible system doesn’t mean you have an excuse to fuck over the victims of it.
Until there’s a national strike on tipping that could lead thousands of tip reliant workers to quit (like the writers strike), be a decent person and have some sympathy. Instead of eating out and not tipping, don’t eat out. The restaurant gets the same amount of money whether you tip or not, I guarantee they don’t give a shit.
I have sympathy for underpaid workers. But I don’t think I’ll change my tipping attitude just because you said such and such. Actually your commands sound a bit condescending.
“I have sympathy for underpaid workers.”
…but they should feed me while I do nothing to help them, instead I’ll be here actively enriching the people exploiting their labor.
“But I don’t think I’ll change my tipping attitude just because you said such and such.”
I’m sure that sounded cool in concept, but basically all this says is that you find the idea of changing your mind due to dialog silly. How sad.
“Actually your commands sound a bit condescending”
Oh wow, I hope my analysis doesn’t come across like that. You might stop tipping - oh, wait…
All good points. But since tipping is supporting this broken system, and not tipping seems to be worse, what do you suggest then?
I could just not go out, sure. Just stay out of it. If enough people do that, this wil lead to less customers, more employers closing their business, more employers loosing the job they couldn’t afford to quit. I don’t see how that helps either.
So I’m listening. What do you suggest?
I wanted to highlight
Instead of eating out and not tipping, don’t eat out. The restaurant gets the same amount of money whether you tip or not, I guarantee they don’t give a shit.
This isn’t a “just said”, it’s a fact. Not tipping isn’t a protest, it’s a self-imposed discount at the expense of the worker. The business owner makes exactly the same money, the only one who suffers is the underpaid worker.
I disagree. My business transaction is with the restaurant owner, not the staff. The price I see on the bill is the price I am required to pay. Anything extra is not obligatory, no matter how engrained it is in the US and Canada. Guilting patrons into subsidizing poor wages only enriches the restaurant owner.
Did you not read what I said? The restaurant owner is equally enriched whether or not you tip. Tipping is factored into the menu price; if tipping was not expected, the menu price would be higher to cover appropriate wages.
If you disagree with the system, limit your patronage to establishments that don’t utilize tipping and pay appropriate wages. By not tipping, you are exploiting the system at the expense of the worker; I repeat, the restaurant owner is equally enriched, only the worker suffers when you exploit the expectation of a tip to provide yourself a price lower than would be available if the system was not predicted on tipping.
Are all patrons the Monopoly Man? No. So stop trying to shame people for having a little enjoyment in their lives.
We both want the same thing: better, thriving wages for people doing an honest day’s work.
Tipping ‘culture’ has gone too far. We all agree. It doesn’t mean not going out for special occasions because of a flawed system.
If by “enjoyment” you mean having someone wait on you at a restaurant, I’m not shaming people for having enjoyment, just for taking it without paying. Same way I’d shame them for any other form of enjoyment at the expense of others.
There are restaurants that explicitly inform their customers that they pay their staff a higher wage and tipping is not expected. If you don’t want to tip and still want your enjoyment, eat at those establishments shame-free.
If you disagree with tipping culture and want to incentivize business owners to pay their workers a thriving wage for their hard work, then stop spending money on establishments that utilize tipping, encourage your friends to do the same, and write the business owners to tell them why. Another shame-free option.
If you go to an establishment where tipping is expected (and menu prices are therefore lower) but choose not to tip, then:
- The business owner benefits by making the same money they would have if you had tipped, no incentive to change
- You benefit from a lower price
- The server works just as hard, but now does not get honesty compensation.
This does not incentive the owner to raise wages. You are exploiting the expectation of a tip that set the low menu prices. If you honestly wanted the server to make a thriving wage, your options are to pay that wage yourself or go to an establishment that does (and consequentially has higher prices to cover this higher wage).
Yes, you should be shamed. There’s no excuse for enjoyment via exploitating others.
Candy being enjoyable doesn’t entitle you to steal it if you can’t afford it. Not agreeing with “candy pricing” culture doesn’t excuse it.
I don’t care if your doctor or your barber or your banker gives you candy for free, that doesn’t entitle you to take it for free from the store. Taking something without paying is theft. Labor is no different. If you can’t afford it, go to a restaurant that doesn’t use it.
Right, lemme just go on a hunger strike to should stop the most predatory Capitalists in existence /s
Are you incapable of feeding yourself?
You do know there are many places to get food without table service, right?
I see what you mean, but I’m not the one fucking over the employees.
On the short term you are right, but as long as customers keeps tipping, the system works well enough for nothing to change.
The more people stops tipping, the closer we get to change.
And I’m sorry that the change will hurt the employees, but it’s not my battle. And tipping does not support the employees battle, just this days income.
Tell me another way I can support their battle, and I’ll listen.
(I tip when the employees seems to rely on it, or if I feel extraordinarily well serviced.)
If you can’t afford to live without tips, don’t volunteer to become a potential victim of a terrible system.
If it wasn’t so depressing I might find it funny you think people work in bad environments because they want to.
Minimum wage is not a livable wage, I shouldn’t have to tell you this. Your arrogance is genuinely disgusting.
And I find the arrogance of telling people if they can’t afford to tip, they shouldn’t eat out disgusting. If they can afford it and are just being cheap, that’s one thing, but you don’t get to act all morally superior while being arrogant the other direction.
If you can’t afford something you shouldn’t buy it. Just because you don’t agree with the system doesn’t mean you get to ignore it and then justify it by taking a moral high ground.
You know the servers wages are dependent on tips and you choose not to pay them. THAT is the social contract. Whether you agree with it or not.
If you cared about changing the system you’d take steps to change it without screwing the workers. You’re just being cheap.
I tip. But there’s a difference between “I know the system is terrible, but I rely on tips and would really appreciate it if you’re able” and “Don’t go out if you can’t afford to tip.” The second is arrogant and condescending. Not being an asshole goes both ways.
No. It’s not. Don’t go somewhere you can’t afford (including the tip) is not arrogant.
That’s actually inaccurate.
You can be charged for theft of service for refusing to tip someone. It’s happened.
I’ll take Things That Never Happened for 100, Alex
And you would be, again, factually incorrect.
You’re welcome to provide a source. A cursory internet search for “theft of services tipping” yielded no results other than social shaming.
Narrator: They did not have a source.
Go ahead then, back it up. Share an article or something about it. Hell, share three of the same event.
Then it’s not a tip, it’s wages the customer is expected to pay.
Who the fuck is downvoting this?
Servers making bank.
14 people
You’re not wrong.
But they also didn’t answer the question. They said how many, not who.
Restaurant owners
You’re not wrong, but anyone who leaves shit like this or the stupid church dollars as a tip is a special kind of asshole.
this should be illegal
Yes, restaurants should be required to pay a proper wage.
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In that case it would be at least $16 an hour.
I would argue for more though, based on what tipping historically brought wages to.In the end it’s the employers responsibility to pay employees.
Tipping is dumb af anyways. Why is it my job to make up the remaining of their salary when businesses easily could just pay them more but don’t because they know the customers will just do it for them
not “could” but “are legally obliged to, by federal law”
Because it comes from a history of slavery. Pushing it on to you, the customer, to pay the underpaid employee so the boss man doesn’t have to.
Tipping is dumb, but tipping in Trump propaganda 10x dumb.
10x asshole move, I’d say.
Basically like saying “I think tipping sucks and your boss should be rolling your pay into the meal. So I’m not going to tip you. That said, I’m also going to vote for the party that supports your boss offloading employee pay onto customer tips.”
confused_jackie_chan.jpg
That’s way too complicated for them to understand. I’m not joking. We should all be very afraid of their weaponized stupidity. Idiocracy is here.
if you’re wanting to protest those businesses, you might wanna start with not buying from them in the first place.
Not always that easy is it, if you want to go out you have to find a place that advertises their no tipping policy. It’s go and don’t tip or stay at home or else take part in a shit system.
No, see if you go and dont tip, you’re still taking part in the shit system, just with a side of hurtin workers. The owners making just as much money and doesnt need to change what he’s doing.
No.
If employees are earning below the minimum wage then the employer has to pay the difference.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/compliance-assistance/handy-reference-guide-flsa#3
So yeah, if anyone’s feeling guilty about not tipping then don’t. This should be a discussion between employees and their employers. Not customers and employees.
Thing people forget is that the employer will just fire the employee for “lack of performance” or some bullshit.
There are virtually no worker protections in the US, and, as consumers, we need to stop feeding the greedy beasts that run restaurants.
And don’t forget, wage theft totals more than all other theft combined: https://www.epi.org/publication/epidemic-wage-theft-costing-workers-hundreds/
If the waiter is only making minimum wage in the U.S., considering what minimum wage is, that makes me feel sorry for them and even more inclined to give them a tip, because no one should have to survive on minimum wage.
Tipping seems to be a cultural thing in the States.
Here in the UK we take the Mr. Pink approach to tipping.
It stopped being a cultural thing decades ago. Now it’s about about companies not paying employees a living wage and America’s right wing constantly blocking legislation that would force employers to pay people enough to have shelter and food.
It actually started as an economic thing too, because businesses during the great depression weren’t able to consistently pay living wages.
It started much earlier than that and has roots in racism. https://time.com/5404475/history-tipping-american-restaurants-civil-war/
After the Constitution was amended in the wake of the Civil War, slavery was ended as an institution but those who were freed from bondage were still limited in their choices. Many who did not end up sharecropping worked in menial positions, such as servants, waiters, barbers and railroad porters. These were pretty much the only occupations available to them. For restaurant workers and railroad porters, there was a catch: many employers would not actually pay these workers, under the condition that guests would offer a small tip instead.
It was originally a way to be able to hire black people and not pay them
During the UK lockdowns, I tipped all the front line workers where I could. That’s it.
I’m not tipping someone as compensation for doing their job, that’s what their employer is for.
But you see, this approach is an international problem on both sides of the tipping argument. Are you against tipping and think the worker should be compensated by their employer? That’s great. Do you believe in this philosophy enough to actually seek out politicians who will make sure employers compensate the workers? All around the world, it seems that nobody cares that much about workers when it’s time to vote. Workers in countries where tipping is not customary earn a crappy salary that does not allow them to live without depending on the kindness of their families. Good luck making yourself independent of your parents on a typical salary a waiter earns in Spain, for example. Workers in the USA where tipping is all the rage don’t do much better. You can work in the retail industry and earn minimum wage, or sometimes slightly higher than minimum wage and live out of your car or live with your parents. You can work at a restaurant and depend on tips and live out of your car. You can be a visiting professor of sociology at whatever university and live out of your car. In Spain, you can have a PhD and ghost write for full professors and live out of your car or you can wait tables and not have a car and live with your parents. I mean, really. There is no difference in the end. Wages from work are low all around the world. They are low in democratic countries because people care more about some other issue and not about the people who bring food to their table at a restaurant, no matter what kind of tipping culture is predominant in that democratic country.
I tip for exceptional service. If someone goes above and beyond what’s required of them, I leave a tip. I also tip if I make their lives more difficult that they should have been.
Dealing with our general public, during COVID definitely counts as both. Particularly with the number of people who couldn’t figure out how to wear a mask. At the same time, I also didn’t go out much during the pandemic, mostly due to the whole pandemic thing going on.
What is exceptional service? How is it different from bad service? As an introverted north european I never figured this out myself. For me good service means I don’t need to wait too long for my food/get the check but other than that I want to be left alone. I imagine I would find “good service” quite uncomfortable.
It’s generally context and individual specific. E.g. a bed delivery driver is paid to get it to your door. If they also lug it up the stairs to the loft room, that is exceptional service.
Another might be a restaurant team who deal particularly well with a food allergy. E.g. making specific checks of requirements, and going out of their way to make a dish in a safe manner. Rather than just saying it’s not an option.
Have you noticed all take aways have delivery charges in the UK since Covid? I assume it’s because few of us have cash about anymore so the drivers aren’t getting tipped.
Last time I tried to tip a delivery driver im the UK they said they can’t take it…
Given we pay for delivery though and it’s difficult to see what a driver could do above and beyond that isn’t just ‘doing their job’ that’s probably a good thing, provided they’re getting a decent amount of it.
It’s about how fast it got there for me in the past, which I know isn’t always in their control, but there needs to be some criteria.
It used to be quite the opposite. Tipping was big in Europe but not in the US.
That changed with Prohibition. When alcohol was banned, there was suddenly a large whole in the bottom line of restaurants across the US. They turned to having a tipped staff to stay open.
Sadly, when it was repealed, tipping stayed. It was since inflated from 10% to 15% to now over 20%.
Some have tried to get rid of it, but sadly it hasn’t worked.
It dates back further than that. It was a great way to not pay recently freed slaves as much as white people during the Jim Crow south.
The problem is that not tipping doesn’t punish the people creating the tipping issue, just making the people who are oppressed by it suffer more.
Disliking tipping is no reason to screw hardworking people over. Tipping is a fact of life, even if you think it’s dumb.
It really doesn’t have to be a “fact of life”, and it isn’t in many places, such as Australia and England – nations with very similar degrees of economic prosperity, and very similar cultures, to the USA.
People have tried and failed. But my point is, until that time you have to tip. I don’t care for people that don’t tip while arguing they are doing their server a favor. It is a disingenuous attempt to be cheap. A server’s paycheck should not be held hostage to a a war on tipping culture.
Ultimately, we need to tip people in the short term to keep them afloat until we can work with them in the long term to get America to the standard that most of the rest of the world takes, where tipping is a special case scenario only for exceptionally good work, and never to be needed or expected.
But it doesn’t have to be if the employers pay how they should
Sure but until they do a lot of those people need tips to get by and it’s far from as easy as “just get a different job”
Source: used to be one such person
Until they do? When is that going to be? When US government makes tipping illegal?
With unemployment numbers so low right now, this is actually the time to “just get another job”. In the USA, at least.
Have you tried?
What other job do you get when your experience is tipped work? Or do you go to school to take on debt that will set you back for a long time because the education system is shot too.
Fuck tipping, I’m not doing it.
Or, employers could pay their workers better.
Novel thought, right?
And you think not tipping your server today, before they get those wages, will make that happen?
Sorry, Mr. Pink. Being an asshole to your server does not make you somehow pro-worker.
Yes. By not showing up at all.
This is a fairly good bellwether to see who’s progressive and who’s a champagne socialist.
I’m always torn on this. I want to tip to help someone earn a living, but if enough of us stopped tipping employees would leave unless they were paid more. It does feel like adding suffering to the wrong people, but if out created change it would be nice eventually
A better solution is to flat out not patronize businesses that do tips
I like eating food though :/
There are all manner of grocery stores that sell that
I don’t see them saying they don’t tip, but arguing against the system in place. Which are two separate things.
I mean, you’re paying them either way. Businesses money for salaries comes from customers. It’s still silly and indirect, but it’s not like you wouldn’t be paying the workers’ salary anyway.
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You’re paying for both.
As a Brit this seems like such a ridiculous attitude to have.
When you go out for food you are paying for:
- Quality ingredients
- The knowledge and skill of someone to take those ingredients and make a nice meal out of them
If you’re dining in you also get:
- A nice place to sit with good lighting and a nice ambiance
- Someone to bring your food
- Someone to clean away your dirty dishes
If you are getting delivery you instead pay for someone to bring it to you.
The food itself is like 40% of what you’re paying for, the rest is just convenience and atmosphere.
That’s where we eventually started getting feezer pizzas instead of take-out. Compared to the pain in the ass of ordering food (assuming the place is even open), it was easier just to throw one in the oven, and way cheaper too.
Without tipping their entirely hourly wage has to come out of what you pay for the meal. Thus the price of your meal will go up to make up for what they used to get in tips.
Then the menu prices should be raised to pay a livable wage to the staff. If I can’t afford it I’ll eat at home. Don’t lure people in with the promise of one price and then guilt them into subsidizing your payroll off the book.
Tipping culture needs to go away, it’s not the norm elsewhere and it shouldn’t be here.
Yeah, people don’t likes hidden charges or surprise fees. It’s “optional” but not really if you want to be a part of society.
Good. Pay workers more.
And that is how it works in all other civilised countries. One should think it would be possible to work in the US as well.
I’d rather have that. Why is responsibility of covering wages shifting to the customer? And in return the blame? Sounds like a situation those in charge love, since instead of them being the bad guy they get to say “what an asshole customer right?” it’s their fault your take home pay is lower today.
Hiding behind the customer going darn then it’s out of my hands. Don’t got money to spare. Then they hop in their expensive car and drive to their expensive home instead of them being the ones to pay a proper wage for their employees.
Sounds like a misleading system all around.
Or, maybe, the owners of the restaurant make slightly less profit and pay their employees a living wage.
There are a small number of restaurants across the US that actually do pay their servers and other employees reasonable hourly rates, and make it clear to patrons that they don’t accept tips. Prices are still reasonable and customers do continue coming back.
I know it sounds really easy to get all huffy and self-righteous, but 60% of restaurants do not make it past the first year, and 80% go under in five years.
It’s hard out there. If the place isn’t making money, everyone loses their job.
Yeah, but then it shouldn’t really exist as a business in the first place according to the rules of capitalism, should it?
You’re not wrong, but my point is that we’re dealing with laws of math here. You can’t just go “Just accept less profit” when the majority don’t make enough profit to survive. That money has to come from somewhere.
My mom ran a couple restaurants at different times in her life. She’s a high school drop-out who has never had a great job so it isn’t like she’s some high class capitalist. Both restaurants failed within a year or two, and she came out each time quite a bit worse than she went in. The company in charge of the building locked the doors and kept all her stuff in lieu of rent. It’s pretty brutal. She lost all the money she put into it well beyond any money she might have made on the business itself, and she went into debt each time as a result of the failing business as well.
Or, maybe, the owners of the restaurant make slightly less profit and pay their employees a living wage.
And maybe landlord start handing over deeds to the people paying their mortgages. But we’re operating in reality and need to consider things that might happen.
If companies eat the cost of pay increases how will the executives afford that new yacht they’ve been eyeing?
It hides the true cost of the meal and allows both the employee and the employer to avoid taxes on this part of the “salary”
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Hopefully all of Trump’s supporters do this.
Can’t think of any better way to guarantee his defeat, if he’s even a free man by that point.
Technically if some idiot hands you one of those, you can have them citizen-arrested for counterfeiting money, right?
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citizen-arrested
Don’t do this. In almost every case it’s technically illegal imprisonment – leaving you at the mercy of a prosecutor.
Maybe, but also only if it’s trying to be used as cash. Trying to pay for groceries, meal, depositing it at a bank, etc. would be an issue. Leaving it as a tip, while a scummy thing to do, isn’t on the same ballpark since it’s not an agreed upon transaction (i.e. no price for a tip is agreed upon by the parties), and you’d have to prove intent to pass it off as cash and not just a flyer/pamphlet.
, and you’d have to prove intent to pass it off as cash and not just a flyer/pamphlet.
If they left it in the tip jar / tip tray, it’s patent intent.
“America I love you but you’re freaking me out.” -The Menzingers
That’s some real fancy toilet paper!
This almost pisses me off enough to invent time travel, go back in time, kill my grandfather, and destroy the universe.
This almost pisses me off enough to invent time travel, go back in time, kill my grandfather,
and destroy the universe,sleep with my grandmother, become the mighty one, travel into the future, save the universeFTFY
At first I didn’t see any actual evidence that this was connected to Trump, so I figured everyone here was just assuming it was Trump based on how shitty this practice is. I definitely assumed the same.
(If you zoom wayyyy in his name is there, though.)
The whole situation with tipping is following a path of degeneration, which I wouldn’t dare to say we have seen the end. However, this reminds me of the millionaire of better call saul who wanted to secede from the US and had printed his own money xd
Is that illegal.
In other parts of the world, there is no tipping. This is because it’s expected for the employer to provide the employee a living wage, not statistics and an underground economy.
Wouldn’t the whole system make more sense as a commission based wage scale that is tied to the price of the items ordered? A base wage that meets legal requirements added to an incentive tied to a percent of each item sold?
The variable percentage would be tied to how much the waiter sold and what items, which would scale with both the amount of work (on large tables) and the skill of the waiter to help the business move product and give the customer a good experience.
The balance point being selling as much as possible while providing the customer an experience they want to return to.
Any hard selling and under serving keeps people from wanting to come back and hurts the business. Any lack of care in service prevents additional sales that can boost wage earnings and prevents the business from not selling stock before it goes bad.
Discretionary tipping is dumb, even if you are a capitalist. There is a balance that doesn’t stagnate the business or create exploitative labor practices. We just don’t do it because we are a social democracy that has a systemic misunderstanding of when capitalism is good and when it is bad.
It’s a terrible practice and ultimately hurts workers. It should be banned simply because it promotes worker tax evasion, which is not what I really care about here, but it’s a good reason to make it illegal. Making it illegal is only way to stop it in the US. It’s absolutely rampant. You pick up donuts At the dunkin store and they ask for a tip now.
it promotes worker tax evasion
this is the only argument I’ll hear in favor of tipping. People should cheat on their taxes until they pay as little as the wealthy.
Its more complicated than that.
For your average waitress or diner worker, tips are their living wage. But for people at nicer restaurants or who “hustle”, tips can be REALLY good income. This is why there is always so much push back any time some politician says “this is real messed up”. I think it was a somewhat recent story where the restaurant the South Park guys bought got rid of tipping and the wait staff were angry?
But, of course, the wait staff who don’t know how to work a table and the bus boys and the rest of the staff all get screwed over. Because yes, some places pool tips but skimming is 100% a thing and management is never going to stop it so long as they get their cut too.
The reality is that food needs to be more expensive at restaurants so that the profit margins cover living wages. The top salespeople will get screwed, but… they are already screwing over their co-workers so fuck 'em.
But now you have the people who benefit from being tipped getting angry AND the people who “could otherwise not afford to eat out” suddenly angry that the base price includes a living wage rather than the 2 dollar tip they leave on a 30 dollar order being the decider.
All that said: Outside of higher end catered meals in Europe, service at even a halfway decent restaurant in the US is miles ahead. Mostly because the staff knows that is how they get their bonuses. Still doesn’t justify screwing over bussers and low totem pole cooks but…
Tipping culture does not create better service, have you ever been to Italy? People tip because its the social norm, not because they like the service.
All that said: Outside of higher end catered meals in Europe, service at even a halfway decent restaurant in the US is miles ahead. Mostly because the staff knows that is how they get their bonuses.
If your idea of good service is having a waiter with faked cheer jump at you every five minutes loaded with a jug of ice cubes to check if “everything is great”, then sure, the US style is miles ahead.
If you just want a professional to do his job as unobtrusively as possible, the European way is the one to pick.
Service in Japan and South Korea is better than in American restaurants and you don’t have to bribe the staff to be nice to you. The price on the menu is usually cheaper too.
Also, pooled tips are basically a slush fund for wages since the entire point of tipping is supposed to be to reward good service and if the tip isn’t going directly to the person who provides the service, what’s the point? Ditto for any tip on a service that hasn’t even been performed yet, such as delivery services.
I’m sorry but I have to take issue with “service is miles ahead”.
American table service is weird. It’s an uncomfortable experience for anyone who isn’t used to it. You can call it a cultural difference but it genuinely gave us a feeling of revulsion - the fake friendliness, the platitudes, the hovering near the table, the constant refilling, the fucking survey mid-meal, the attentiveness barely concealing the determination to extract your money and shove you out and get another mark on the door.
Perhaps because most of these things seem to primarily seek to recreate the experience of a slave owner and their chattel.
I’m an American and this stuff has always bothered me. I do hate having my drink empty, but I don’t need a refill when I have half left either.
It’s sad how much work has been put into convincing worker to buy this shit. It is not to their benefit. If you would make however much money after tips, you should still expect to make that same amount in a wage if we remove tips. It’s just a hurdle for everyone to jump through so restaurant owners aren’t held accountable to pay their staff. It’s also not uncommon for them to not make up the difference if the staff doesn’t make minimum wage after tips, which they are legally required to do.
Tipping is a racket. If it were in the workers favor, why would their bosses be so in favor of it? If the person who you’re working for is ever in favor of something financial, you should pay attention because you should probably be on the other side. If it makes them more money then it’s likely costing you money
The reality is that, for the people who “make it work”, tipping is a lot closer to being a sales person. You are talking them into buying the more expensive meal option or getting a bottle of champagne or whatever. And you are timing your check-ins just right so it feels like you are attentive rather than forced to interrupt someone the moment they take a bite to see if they like the food. And you know how to find the right tables to focus on because that group look like they have the right combination of money and awkwardness that they’ll tip higher so as to not be “jerks”.
Its pretty much the exact same bullshit that is used to discourage unionization in tech. When you are just starting out, collective bargaining is GOOD. As you get more experienced, you start to be able to negotiate much better terms for yourself… often at the expense of your co-workers. And thus, you become opposed to unionization efforts.
Because if you are a higher end waiter or waitress? You are potentially pulling in a LOT of bank. My ex was a waitress at the fancy French place in the rich people part of town and… she was pulling in low six figures. She ain’t getting paid that after a labor reform. But her co-workers also weren’t getting paid that and neither were the bus boys who cleaned up after “her” customers or the chefs who are implementing The Chef’s visions.
But, because there is an actual clear “bootstraps” route that people semi-regularly follow? Fuck my rights and wage now because I am gonna be rich in a few years and then will regret getting a living wage!
I worked at Pizza Hut in the 90s, and waitresses were usually making $200+ in tips for a 6 hour shift. This was in a state where they were paid full minimum wage of $4.95.
I delivered pizzas and made $5.50 plus an average of $30 in tips for a 6 hour shift.
Why do I think you’ve only gone to tourist trap restaurants in Europe? You should look at a guide before planing vacations.
Although it is true that service can be better in the lower end restaurants in the US. After all, one can afford to hire more when they pay them pennies.
The thing is, America is culturally really influenctial. Here in Germany we have a wide variety of jobs that typically pay minimum wage. Some are service related, others aren’t. It’s roughly 20% of the workforce.
But we listen to american podcasts, watch your movies, your series and so on.
So waiters tend to get minimum wage + tax free tips, while cashiers just get minimum wage. Granted, tips are more like 10% here. I hate tips being an expectation.
