Okay, I will explain this outside of "corpos greedy"
It is meant as an incentive for good service. A waiter is especially attentive? They get a higher tip. Think of it as a performance bonus that office workers get.
Now, it is true they can be paid below minimum wage, however, if tips do not add up to 7.25 then they must be compensated from the employer. (This is rarely a problem. My sister, for instance, managed to make $25 an hour one shift due to tips).
It should also be noted that tips are no longer taxable, meaning every dollar in tips is more money than every normal dollar. And finally, you were gonna eat the price increase anyway, so atleast now you can guarantee your waiter is getting the money and not an executive.
Because, like I said, it is a tax free performance bonus. It isn't about a living wage, it is about good service being directly rewarded without executives or the government getting a share.
It's a interesting argument. But it's not socially and culturally acceptable to skip the tip even if it a bad performance. So really it's not really a tax free performance bonus.
Ehh, it is "socially unacceptable" sure, however ~50% of people think it is okay to not tip at all for bad service and most people will decrease their tip.
It isn't tip or no tip, it is percentage based. Sure, a bad service can be 0%, but if you normally give 15%, then dropping to 10% is still a decrease (especially since sometimes other factors are at play). I have only ever received genuinely bad service once and it was during a dinner rush at a popular place in Chicago.
And even if people do still tip the same on bad service, it is a more efficient way of moving money, removing the government (both with sales tax and income tax), and the executives (who would absolutely be taking a cut).
I'm just saying not at all a performance bonus. Or an incentive for good performance.
Because you are supposed to tip no matter what. 15% is the default. That you give for them to do their job. They do a good job, you give 20%. They do a bad job, you give 10%.
Thats not a performance bonus. That's all I'm clarifying.
Giordano's. I personally hated it, it was too busy, too expensive, and the pizza sucked. But, hey, everyone has a taste, and the others I was with quite liked it.
Waiter being paid decent salaries still have an insensitive to get tips since that will always be bonus cash. You really need to be a degenerate to think you must starve your employee and have them rely solely on tips otherwise they wouldn't do a good job.
It's the case in most European countries for serving staff to be paid above minimum wage. For example the minimum wage in the UK is £12.71 or $17.27 vs $7.21 in the US.
I work with within a industry supplier for the hospitality sector and know that my clients pay a minimum of £15 ($20.38) an hour to their waiting staff. And if my recent trip to the US told me anything is the cost of food is far more expensive than the US
It is meant as an incentive for good service. A waiter is especially attentive? They get a higher tip. Think of it as a performance bonus that office workers get
Not quite. Not tipping isn't really an option for bad performance. So it's not a fair comparison.
No I mean you have free will. You can do whatever you want. You can tip zero if you want.
People and society are going to call you an asshole for it. Even if the service is bad, tipping is the default. Lower tip is understandable. No tip is never justifiable.
That's America.
That's why it's not really a performance bonus parallel.
No, I think the parallel still holds. At least in my experience. The server is making the same amount of money as a Walmart employee or a McDonald's employee. Society's view is one thing and you should not be swayed by what is considered the "norm" if expectations did not meet reality.
All wages come from the consumers. The average costs would not change much if they were baked into menu prices rather than hidden in tips. I dislike tips myself because they're effectively a tax on empathy, but to suggest that it's some corporate loophole that makes them obscene profit is pretty mistaken.
A common problem we have nowadays is that people don’t seem to understand that words mean specific things. I understand some people think tax means “bad thing” generally, but it really is just a lack of understanding of the meaning of the word.
Sit-in restaurants, delivery drivers, and a few other roles get exceptions to the minimum wage, so the employer pays them massively less than something like a fast food worker gets. Tips are explicitly meant to cover that gap, it's even written into the fed min wage law that way. It's not universal, although plenty of other places recently DO try asking for tips despite not being in the same situation.
No one gets paid only the minimum tipped wage due to customers not tipping. Either the employee makes enough in tips to bring them above minimum wage or the employer has to cover the difference, either way they still make at least minimum wage.
I mean just for clarity no one is actually paid $2.15 an hour. If their claimed tips don't reach the state minimum their employer has to cover the difference. And also that's the federal minimums listed most states minimum wage is above that.
But it they got no tips then they would be paid the $7.25 minimum wage. I can see some people having the thought process of “why tip those minimum wage workers and not the others? If they are all going to make the same anyway”. Now I’m not saying that myself but that is something I have seen others say before.
The server minimum wage is $2.13 / hr. It was that 20 years ago when I was a server and bartender in college and hasn't gone up. If restaurants have fill in the gap from low tips to meet the standard minimum wage, you're likely to be fired. Too many slow lunch shifts in a row can be stressful wondering if enough people will even come in.
Another time on a holiday I had a large group no show on a reservation. I just didn't get paid that night.
You can make great money in the front of house, I did good on my bar shifts where I was at least guaranteed $10 / hr. I actually took a pay cut from bartending to start my medic career. The whole staff should get a livable wage. The tipped exemption for minimum wage needs to go.
They can certainly make you have a shit time though. I went to a bar in Chicago and tipped $1 on a $2 drink and the waitress went crazy at me talking about how she could become homeless. Totally killed the vibe.
All service employees expect it. But wait staff in the food industry are the only ones that aren't paid minimum wage. Now there are laws in place that employers have to make up the difference to minimum wage if their tips do not cover it for hours worked. But most just won't do anything about it because they don't know their employer is required to or they may get fired for underperforming. The whole situation there is pretty screwed up. But at the same time, sometimes they make ridiculous amounts of money in tips.
No they don’t do anything because they consistently make more than minimum. The first people to oppose minimum wage for servers are servers themselves.
That's why the ones that don't will get fired. You might get that full check but it would be their last. Did something I say imply that they usually make less than minimum wage? I mean my last sentence makes it pretty clear they tend to make far more.
Tipping is expanding to everywhere. And now many places have lowest tip option as 25% and make you manually tap "other" and manually type in a lower tip as someone who feels entitled to your donations watches you.
I was at a casino, spent my last few dollars and was about to leave. Waitress came over, so I grabbed 2 mini water bottles on my way out. She started yelling at me "THIS ISNT FREE" and followed me around the casino as I was looking for the exit 🤣 so I learned that while it may not be 'required' the staff might just flip shit if you dont pay up in some industries
The waitresses drinks at casinos are free. You're an AH for taking something without tipping (its a great way to have the server not come around again) and I learned that. But it's not stealing or illegal lol
Have you been to a casino before? Yall are acting like free drinks are a foreign concept. I fucked up and didn't tip, but to act like I was stealing is pretty absurd. I even googled it to double check if i was wrong, but no i was just an AH. Mob mentality here or just a mass of inexperienced people
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u/HappyPlatypus6034 2d ago
In the US do you have to tip checkout workers at grocery stores and such, or is it specifically service workers mostly?