There are laws in place for service workers related to minimum wage. The employers have to make up the difference if tips don’t meet the rate for hours worked. It seems to me that’s not sufficient for the times.
Hypothetically, if everyone were to stop tipping in the U.S. would things be better or worse for workers? Would employers start paying workers more?
Hot take but I think tipping culture is one of the main reasons why Americans are suffering from such large class issues.
In Japan tipping is offensive because it puts the customer above the server when it’s a fair exchange between the two parties. It makes sense imo. For people to respect each profession it has to be treated like an equal value exchange. The server that brings my food is not my temporary slave but we have a social contract that they’ll be hosting me as the representative of the restaurant and “forced donations” completely ruins this exchange. It’s incredibly toxic.
Hot take but I think tipping culture is one of the main reasons why Americans are suffering from such large class issues.
It’s not a cause, it’s a symptom
So, all of the general points you make about tipping culture are valid, but it’s batshit crazy to say that it’s “one of the main reasons why Americans are suffering from such large class issues.” One of the main reasons? Are you fucking kidding?
The main reason is that it shifts payment of the wait staff to the customer, not the employer. That means the employer has less payroll, payroll tax, etc. and pockets the difference.
It’s a financial motive, not a classist one.
Tipping should be to reward personel for excelent service, not to enable companies to underpay their workers. Every worker should earn a living wage. When a company goes bust when they have to pay workers a living wage, they have no right to exsist and should go bust.
Good service should result in my continued patronage. This means the business is succesful and the employees deserve a raise. This is how it works for everyone else…
Why we’ve decided people delivering food to you should get a tip is beyond me. I don’t tip my mechanic, grocery store worker or the cleaner at the office. They all deliver a direct service to you as well, but they shouldn’t get a tip?
Exactly. When people work somewhere, they need to earn a living wage. When they give exceleny=t service, you can tip, no matter which business they’re in.
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I went to subway for lunch, and the machine offered 18%, 20%, and 25%
I gave zero because he’s doing his job; if I would have sat down and he served my my sandwich on a plate and refilled my drink, I’d have tipped
Yeah. I’m reluctant to tip anywhere that doesn’t offer table service.
My only exceptions are Housekeeping and Valet, but for food table service(I include delivery under this lable) is required for a tip. Takeout is a no go.
My only exceptions are Housekeeping and Valet
Out of interest, why? (I’m not American)
Tipping in the US pays for service (base rates typically only cover base stuff room, food, parking, etc). Housekeeping and Valet are both traditionally included alongside wait staff. Valets are a big one as it typically falls under a luxury service, just check your mileage before tipping as you may double down in gas/wear if your car is nice enough. For Housekeeping this is only really for Hotels (not motels and not long term stay hotels) and it covers daily sheet/towel changes, garbage removal, etc.
this is only really for Hotels (not motels and not long term stay hotels)
Forgive my ignorance but what’s different about motels and long stay hotels?
Topping your housekeeper in the first day or so of a hotel stay will drastically improve the cleanliness of your room going forward.
How do you know the same person will clean your room every day?
What’s a girl stay?
What about coffee baristas?
Why would they be any different? They don’t work a “tipping wage” and they aren’t bringing your food to your table or refilling drinks.
This is different. Counter service places do NOT make a tipped wage and so it is actually not necessarily to tip. I tip people who make a tipped wage like servers.
How do you know which employees make a tipped wage? Does it vary by area? (Not American, I don’t know)
Worse.
Without tips, the employer pays $7.50/hr. That’s not enough to live on, especially since food service workers are almost universally working part time.
With tips, the employer pays $2.50/hr, but tips can make up the difference to be somewhat more reasonable.
To abolish tipping, we need to:
- Abolish servers’ wage ($2.50) / pay full minimum wage.
- Double the minimum wage to $15/hr.
Just doubling the minimum wage isn’t sufficient. It’d need to be made to match inflation and cost of living as they rise in the future.
Everyone couldn’t agree to put a simple piece of fabric over their mouths in public to reduce the spread of a deadly virus. You’ll never convince everyone of anything. You’ll absolutely hurt workers. Period.
This is why it really bothers me when people comment that they refuse to tip anyone for anything. I get that you have a problem with the system. So do I. So do a lot of people. But all you’re doing is fucking over that particular server in the moment. You aren’t “sticking it to the man” or hurting their employer. You’re hurting the poor sod just trying to make their way.
Please continue to tip people who are paid a tipped wage, even if you don’t agree with the system. You’re not harming the right people when you refuse to tip like that.
(Disclaimer: Tipping people who are NOT paid a tipped wage is not necessary…like cashiers at counter service restaurants.)
In the past, I would have agreed but, in a lot of places the sub-minimum “tipped” wage has gone away and now tips are just bonus. I’m sure the worker likes the money, but it’s not like they aren’t getting a full wage. Tips in fact may be acting as an inhibitor to workers fully organizing and negotiating their wage with their employer.
I think it would still help even if only some people stopped tipping, you don’t need full coordination to make it a less viable business practice.
While Restaurant margins are low, raising them to minimum wage wouldn’t bankrupt them, but it might cause some employees to quit who were making a lot more than that. I don’t know if that’s your goal or not.
A better idea would be to coordinate a campaign to stop going to restaurants that do tipping. Don’t make the worker out in the work that way.
but it might cause some employees to quit who were making a lot more than that
Wouldn’t this, in turn, create a competitive advantage for restaurants offering higher base wages (and including what used to be tips in menu prices to begin with)? Or, if they are too stubborn for that, and good employees are lost to the industry forever and quality declines, maybe people go to restaurants less. In general I don’t like the food service business and go out of my way to avoid it altogether, but I think that paying into an exploitative thing like tips just because you and the worker have been put into that kind of manipulation isn’t the right decision. That said a campaign to stop going to restaurants that do tipping seems like a good idea also.
I was in the restaurant industry for several years and I’ve never met anyone who was paid that difference. Sleazy restaurants just won’t pay it because most servers don’t even know about it. Even in more reputable establishments, when managers see tips are low, they don’t just stand around until they have to pay their servers more, they start slashing hours. A tipping strike would be distributive, but it would probably lead to less servers and worse service rather than end tipping.
The real issue is that propaganda has turned customers against servers, when the reality is that the restaurant is their enemy. The restaurant is paying a starvation wage and expecting you to directly subsidize their staffing costs. The National Restaurant Association spends millions every year fighting local legislation that would pay servers a living wage, while simultaneously forcing restaurant employees to pay for certifications they need to do their jobs. They’re pocketing money from both customers and servers while watching them fight over tipping culture.
There are a lot of servers who prefer tips, especially younger people who are more likely to live with their parents and want quick cash. But most older restaurant employees would prefer stability to quick, inconsistent cash. At the end of my time in the service industry, I had moved over to event bartending, where I was rarely tipped but made $30 an hour. If their was a large migration from a tipped wage to a living wage, most servers would see the benefit and get on board.
The problem is, in the absence of any legislation, the only efforts to change tipping culture come from individual restaurants, and they always fail. Many restaurants try a living wage and go back to tipped wage because they just don’t do as well. No matter how many times you explain that the server’s wage is reflected in the price of the meal, people see a $22 item that usually costs $20 and think it’s too expensive, even if they’re losing money tipping $4 on $20.
So, a tipping strike would certainly be distributive, but it’s more likely to hurt servers and customers than restaurants. Trying to get ballot initiatives to end the tipped minimum wage locally would be more effective, but be ready to fight the National Restaurant Association when they come to town (and believe me, they will).
Tipping is of course a major issue not just in the US, but in many other countries as well. There are a lot of good books written over the years on the subject. One was written by a career waitress that is worth reading and how it leads to the acceptance of sexual abuse of the waitresses.
It’s fun to think about changing it and everyone just stopping it. If this is an important issue to you try and change it. If no one fights for what is right and progress things will only get worse.
Next time, instead of tipping just ask the shop owner to raise the wages because the waiters do such a good job
How often do the owners of the shop show up where you live?
Tipping culture sucks, but good luck getting anyone who actively benefits from it to admit that. I’m looking at you, bartenders who spend ten seconds popping open my beer and expect fucking 25% of the fucking 8 dollars on top of taxes. Fuck you, you get ONE DOLLAR PER DRINK. I dont give a fuck if you think i’m a tightwad, fuck you shit’s expensive, and you’re lucky I’m even doing that. Go ahead, gimme that stinkeye see if I give a fuck.
It has been a long time but when I waited on tables for $2.xx / hour no one ever told me about any minimum I had to make or the employer would pay more. If that exists it is new and I wonder how common it is. If my tips were shit, I took that hit and got no help from the employer.
I was fortunate to be from a state where minimum wage for tipped persons was the same as everyone. I also kept that rate when I transferred to a state where tipped employees were paid $2.xx / hour. My mistake was moving to a different employer and the lower hourly rate.
A lower hourly rate for tipped employees is pure profiteering bullshit on the part of employers. It should be outlawed at the federal level. There is no good reason for an employer to get in the middle of an employee and customer. Customers tip employees, NOT employers.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/faq
You are a victim of wage theft.
The minimum wage for servers is around $2 an hour. If we stop tipping, our servers won’t make enough money to survive. Restaurants claim that they can’t afford to pay a living wage and offer prices people are willing to pay. Yay capitalism.
The employer by law has to pay the regular minimum wage if the tips don’t make up the difference.
It would be terrible for servers. Every server will report different incomes, but when I served tables I was paid way above a fair wage. I could never imagine an employer matching the $40+/hr I made bringing food to tables on the weekend.
Every server would quit and get a different job because no restaurant is going to match what they were making in tips, and it’s not worth the hassle to serve for what the restaurant could afford. Service quality would regress to the minimum, because there’s no incentive to provide prompt, high quality, friendly service.
Anyone who’s never waited tables vastly underestimates how much the tip incentive effects your server checking on you frequently, answering your questions and making recommendations, getting your food out quickly and ensuring everything is satisfactory, refilling your beverage frequently, bringing your check promptly, and doing it all diplomatically even when you’re being an asshole.
Frankly, I think American service expectations are a bit high, but if you’re used to it then all that would stop very shortly after the customers stop tipping. Think of the performance of every other minimum-or-near-minimum wage hourly worker. That’s your server. Anyone with the professionalism to maintain that kind of service will move on to Sales or something.
Hmmm where have I heard “No way to change this, says only country where this happens” before?
That’s a very simplistic view. Assuming that restaurants wouldn’t raise their prices to match the average people were paying before and pay their servers what they were being paid.
The difference in this scenario is that everyone would be paying the same price for the same meal and servers wouldn’t have to struggle through off days.
But yeah, definitely all restaurants would go out of business and it would be anarchy. You have a really shit view of minimum wage workers too. Almost every minimum wage worker I’ve worked with has been professional. If they’re not, they get fired. You know who hasn’t though? The millionaires who can afford to treat people like shit cause they won’t get canned.
Worse, monumentally worse. Expecting employers to make up the difference without legal force is so idiotic that it’s just a publicly accepted given that choosing not to tip is choosing to let the worker in question go hungry.
Workers are so hostile about backlash to aggressive tipping culture because they see it as the side of the equation that can be expected to have any empathy at all without the threat of legal consequences trying to wiggle out from being seen as that.
