In the current system it will not change unless it is forced by things like this or progressive policies. You want them to just keep it going how it is?
World cup is too short term to change it, will have to be slow policy push for minimum wages.
If you want people to strike then support them, misleading them into thinking you’re going to be paying them for their time and labor (tipping is expected in the US, which is why in many states it’s legal to pay servers barely more than $2/hour) is just a dick move. Or just be upfront with them and tell them you’re not going to be tipping and get served accordingly. Or go to a place where non-tipped workers are employed. There are a lot of options that aren’t ‘shit on someone working for $2/hour and tell them it’s for their own good’.
For instance in Atlanta, the minimum cash wage for a tipped server is $2.13 per hour. If tips combined with wages do not reach the state minimum of $7.25, the employer must make up the difference.
It’s built into the price of the meal. It’s more systemic than making the customer pay the wait staff. The profit margins on food are razor-thin, despite “offloading” wait staff salary and no one in the restaurant getting healthcare.
If you’re not going to tip, then don’t go out to eat. Going out and not tipping exclusively hurts the staff.
Functionally no, there are a handful of restaurants in places like NYC and LA that have tried it, but part of the problem is that the servers want tips as well (you’re gonna have a hard time getting rid of something which the people being affected want).
I said this elsewhere, but any job can ask for tips but that doesn’t mean they’re making the $2 minimum wage. The cashier at McDonalds and the Barista at Starbucks are making minimum wage. In most cities those positions are making more than minimum wage because of market competition (Ziprecruiter says that the average McDonalds employee in Atlanta makes $12/hour, not that that’s a living wage either).
People who are making the $2 minimum wage generally make a lot more than that, and more than the McDonalds or Starbucks employee, because of tips. Tips are generally tax free, the positions are low skill, and if you don’t like this type of work or pay you’ll generally leave pretty quickly so the position is self selecting.
Here’s the math for two situations:
1.) You’re a bartender at a lunch pub with 12 spots at your bar, your shift is 10 am - 5 pm, you open at 11 and you’ll have on average 50% of the spots taken every 30 min. 7hr x 12 spots x 50% x 2 per hour = 72 customers. The average order will be between $15 - $30 with tip being $2.25 - $4.50 or $3.375 average. So 72 customers x $3.375 + $2 x 7 hours = $257/day x 5 days = $1,285 per week on average. Of that, you only pay taxes on $70 worth.
2.) You’re a waiter at an Outback Steakhouse, you have 5 tables, your shift is from 3 pm - 10 pm, you’re only really getting business from ~4 - 10 pm. During those hours your tables are 3/4 full and flipping every 45 minutes. 5 tables x 6 hours x 0.75 amount full x 3/2 flip rate = 33.75 customers. On average they are spending $50 - $100 each with tips of $7.50 - $15, average $11.25. So 33.75 customers x $11.25 + 7 hrs x $2/hr = $393.68/day x 5 days = $1968.40 per week on average. Again, you’re only paying taxes on $70 worth.
Now, here’s the catch, this is an average. On Tuesday it’s raining and you made $60 because no one came in, but then Friday the football game is on and you made $500. Maybe this restaurant isn’t pulling in customers so you’re not making money so you go work at a different restaurant.
It’s a bit of hyperbole, but it’s not too far off of the truth. In the past you only paid taxes on tips you claimed, so if you got all your tips in cash you perhaps didn’t claim them all (or maybe just enough to hit the minimum wage). If you got tips on credit or debit card then they were automatically counted. Last year they passed a rule that goes through 2028 in which you can deduct up to $25k of tips from your income. You still have to pay payroll taxes on those tips, but come tax time you can deduct up to $25k and get those taxes back. So if you made $60k including tips, maybe $10k of those tips were in cash, you can deduct $25k for tips and then the standard deduction is another $16k and you don’t claim the $10k in cash. $60k - $25k - $16k - $10k = $9k in taxable income.
Mostly correct. You do have to pay taxes on tips that the government knows about, which means any credit card tips and reported cash tips (which can be lied about of course because there’s no paper trail, but reporting $0 cash tips is highly suspicious).
Remember the whole “no taxes on tips” campaign that MAGA tried to use to get more working folks on their side? That’s because much/most tips are taxed.
Oh I understand, but the no tax on tips thing did go through. Through 2028 you can deduct up to $25k in tips. You still have to pay payroll taxes, but you will get them back when you do your taxes.
And as someone who’s spent much of my career in a tipped position, all tips should be taxed. All income should be taxed. It’s what keeps society working.
Now, anyone in a tipped position should be taxed less, but we shouldn’t be targeting the source of the income. Take two people; a server making $60k and a teacher making $60k. Both should be taxed less than they currently are (and billionaires taxed much much much more), but saying the server should pay less than the teacher because much of their income is taxed is prioritizing the wrong thing in society. Eliminating tax on tips is wrong when the republicans proposed it, and it was wrong when democrats agreed. Lower the tax burden on lower brackets, and raise it on those in the much higher brackets. Don’t target the source of the income.
I absolutely agree, especially because the primary income of the extremely wealthy (unrealized gains on stocks and such) isn’t getting taxed properly either.
Asking from a place of genuinely not knowing; are there a reasonable number of places where non-tipped workers are employed in this sort of sector? If so, it might be really handy to put together a list, so people can more easily make the choice to go there, rather than stiffing staff who need the tips to survive.
Generally no fast food workers are tipped, it’s restaurant/bar only. And restaurants that don’t allow tips will generally advertise it. Off the top of my head I don’t know of any chains that don’t do tipping, but I also don’t eat out much.
I begrudgingly tip, but usually 10-15%, like it used to be. I don’t buy into the current bullshit narrative of driving up the expected percentages, especially as prices rise as it is. Some might say I’m still an asshole for NoT pAyInG tHeM eNoUgH, but so be it.
So many tipped workers fight to keep being abused in this way, and I don’t reward that, even if I support these post-slavery practices through cultural guilt alone.
You’re not going to change the fundamentally broken culture of the US by punishing a few service workers. We’re not talking about the current system being good or whether or not it should change, we’re talking about a bunch of tourists refusing to tip.
Yeah, actually. Waiting tables is one of the few, ubiquitous jobs you can get without higher education that has a reasonable chance to pay well.
This flight against tipping is crab mentality. You’re not doing them any favors, you’re just going to lower their wage to $18/hr flat, with no healthcare and still shitty part-time hours, and some corpo is gonna pocket the difference.
Workers in Europe weren’t handed the rights they have, in some cases people literally died fighting for them. The only tip I have for American service workers is “unionize”.
You think American workers haven’t suffered and died fighting for their rights? I know this information is not exactly front and center in history books for reasons of shame and intentional obfuscation, but American worker rights history is stained in blood just as yours is.
Lmao you think we were handed this? We’ve been fighting for our rights to unionize for literally decades on end. Our government works with companies to literally kill us if we don’t go back to work. Men women and children have died fighting for the rights we DO have.
Fuck off with this “you’re only getting this because you aren’t trying hard enough to unionize” bullshit. Our rights have been bled for by hundreds of thousands over the years.
Whose misleading who? I would say that in this case, it would be the people that are not up front about the expected price of a service.
If tipping is required up front, then include it in the prices (and I don’t mean as an half hidden fee tacked on the announced prices like American businesses started doing).
American service workers are putting the blame on the wrong people, the only ones scamming them are their bosses.
I would say that in this case, it would be the people that are not up front about the expected price of a service.
So when an employer is misleading you the correct response is to short change the underpaid employee, who will have it come out of their inconsistent, unreliable pay? Can’t relate.
The problem is the workers who get tips generally like it because they can potentially make a lot more than a comparable fixed wage. On a good night you can make several times over the base wage, and under-report cash tips on your taxes (or omit them entirely, but the IRS might catch that).
So a lot of workers don’t want tipping to go away any more than the restaurant owners do.
But base wage for those positions is also significantly lower than minimum wage because the tips are expected to compensate for it, so the ceiling is higher but the floor is also lower. So refusing to tip at all does kind of make you out to be the asshole.
Unfortunately most people are just trying to survive and don’t really have the time or the energy to worry about the bigger picture.
Personally, I just split the difference and refuse to tip anywhere it’s not already factored into the wage structure. It’s not gonna change the situation but at least it helps hold the line.
That doesn’t make you some champion of the working man, it makes you a cheap asshole. You are taking advantage of their labor more than the restaurant owner.
Advocate for change, absolutely. Refuse to patronize restaurants that expect/require tipping. I’d even say it’s fair to stop buying into the tip-inflation (15% used to be standard, then 18, now 20+), that’s fair, stick to 15%.
Hell, since at most restaurants you pay after the meal, why even pay that? After all, you knew there’s a cost before you had the meal but “you can’t spare it.” I’m serious, you wan’t to make a point, leaving a note that says “pay your staff better” and no cash makes a stronger statement than simply not tipping.
Living -as I do- in the UK, I easily avoid giving any such slave driver my money.
I’m simply explaining why the rest of the world isn’t like the US, workers collectively fought for rights, simple as that. Either get on with changing it, or keep complaining about being stiffed (while pocketing off the books income in a lot of cases). Shrug
This discussion is about Europeans coming to the US and giving money to the restaurants themselves (the slave drivers) but not tipping the staff (the slaves). Absolutely support a decision to protest such a system by not patronizing it; but patronizing it but not tipping is just cheap. You’re not some savior of workers rights, you’re a cheap asshole. That is a harsh truth you need to come to terms with.
Collective action against tipping isn’t individual action against tipping tbf. Just needs yanks to build on this and push further to break down this shitty culture that only holds because consumers accept it.
Non tippers get a reputation around town and then are treated with bad service, largely ignored by the staff. Big tippers get treated to complimentary meals, desserts, wine, and more.
There is also the angle of poor servers being treated with low/no tips, the long term goal of which being to get them to treat customers better or drive them out of the business.
That would also require being unfortunate enough to be in the US for a protracted length of time.
While the UK is indeed a shit hole and getting worse thanks to Trump wannabes and other associated scumbags only a hair’s breadth from being out and out Nazis, it isn’t quite as bad as the US. Yet.
Edit: I have spent time in the states, but it’s direction in the last decade has put paid to me ever returning, for business or pleasure. Fuck that.
I live in Canada, not the US. We have tipping here as well, but we don’t pay restaurant servers $2/hr. They get the same minimum wage that everyone else gets. We still have tons of World Cup tourists refusing to tip and creating a big conflict.
I think some restaurants are moving to automatic 20% surcharges on the bill as a way of dealing with non-tippers.
If the servers don’t get tips anymore, they might simply strike for a living wage. The current system just makes servers even more dependent with every single tip that replaces what should be a wage. Somethings gotta give, it’s not the workers, and the bosses wont budge without pressure, so even if it’s hard, it might be the only way something really changes for the better.
They aren’t going to strike from this event. Wait staff don’t have insurance or savings. Restaurant owners can’t afford to pay living wages with benefits; the margins are razor-thin as-is.
Have you never heard of strike funds? If service workers can’t even pay rent they’re going to strike and walk out, breeding a crisis that will make tipping culture untenable.
Yea, the thing I don’t get about the “if I don’t tip the workers will unionize” crowd is that they can just not go to tipping establishments or just eat takeout. You don’t have to basically steal labor from the workers. If you think “them making less money is better for the market” then just don’t make them work for you and refuse to pay what is expected. Boycotting tipping establishments would help, but that doesn’t get people free/less expensive stuff so they don’t do that.
Even if I take them in the best faith possible, they’re just exploiting the workers themselves and blaming the workers for their exploitation. In that situation they basically take the place of the bosses saying “if you want a raise go work somewhere else”.
I also hate tipping culture, but it’s so rude to go to another country (during a rise in fascism no less!) and act like by not following their norms you’re having any effect on the culture other than making yourself look like bad.
Yep the the American job market is fucked, and it will be painful to change it especially when the people in charge are paid by the oligarchs.
One less painful way of moving away from tipping culture would be something like this: gradually increasing the base salary for workers, as I recall the minimum wage is below $3 for tipped staff. And then gradually decreasing the maximum allowed tip.
But the problem is: Show me a single state where the politicians would agree and then have the balls to go through with it while the oligarchs and supreme court will do everything in their power to keep the status quo.
Restaurants usually take the latter option. I’ve been to plenty of places that are down to the owner cooking and his wife serving, no hired staff at all.
Restaurants are never gonna pay more to the staff than they collect for meals sold. Most of the restaurant’s income (if they aren’t a fancy place that sells a lot of alcohol) goes toward paying for food, rent, and utilities.
Employer. Their employees will eventually quit, and it will get harder for them to hire new ones. Tipping does not help here, it lets the employers do what they’re doing now.
That’ll show those service workers for working in the US.
Don’t get me wrong I fucking hate tipping culture so much and am eternally grateful that I don’t live in the US but who are you really punishing here?
In the current system it will not change unless it is forced by things like this or progressive policies. You want them to just keep it going how it is?
World cup is too short term to change it, will have to be slow policy push for minimum wages.
If you want people to strike then support them, misleading them into thinking you’re going to be paying them for their time and labor (tipping is expected in the US, which is why in many states it’s legal to pay servers barely more than $2/hour) is just a dick move. Or just be upfront with them and tell them you’re not going to be tipping and get served accordingly. Or go to a place where non-tipped workers are employed. There are a lot of options that aren’t ‘shit on someone working for $2/hour and tell them it’s for their own good’.
And is $7.25 a livable wage in Atlanta?
Not even slightly.
But that doesn’t mean it should be the customer’s job to make up for the employer’s abuse.
It’s built into the price of the meal. It’s more systemic than making the customer pay the wait staff. The profit margins on food are razor-thin, despite “offloading” wait staff salary and no one in the restaurant getting healthcare. If you’re not going to tip, then don’t go out to eat. Going out and not tipping exclusively hurts the staff.
Staying in hurts them more when their place of business closes down due to lack of customers.
How tf am I supposed to know if their minimum wage is implemented properly
Functionally no, there are a handful of restaurants in places like NYC and LA that have tried it, but part of the problem is that the servers want tips as well (you’re gonna have a hard time getting rid of something which the people being affected want).
I said this elsewhere, but any job can ask for tips but that doesn’t mean they’re making the $2 minimum wage. The cashier at McDonalds and the Barista at Starbucks are making minimum wage. In most cities those positions are making more than minimum wage because of market competition (Ziprecruiter says that the average McDonalds employee in Atlanta makes $12/hour, not that that’s a living wage either).
People who are making the $2 minimum wage generally make a lot more than that, and more than the McDonalds or Starbucks employee, because of tips. Tips are generally tax free, the positions are low skill, and if you don’t like this type of work or pay you’ll generally leave pretty quickly so the position is self selecting.
Here’s the math for two situations: 1.) You’re a bartender at a lunch pub with 12 spots at your bar, your shift is 10 am - 5 pm, you open at 11 and you’ll have on average 50% of the spots taken every 30 min. 7hr x 12 spots x 50% x 2 per hour = 72 customers. The average order will be between $15 - $30 with tip being $2.25 - $4.50 or $3.375 average. So 72 customers x $3.375 + $2 x 7 hours = $257/day x 5 days = $1,285 per week on average. Of that, you only pay taxes on $70 worth.
2.) You’re a waiter at an Outback Steakhouse, you have 5 tables, your shift is from 3 pm - 10 pm, you’re only really getting business from ~4 - 10 pm. During those hours your tables are 3/4 full and flipping every 45 minutes. 5 tables x 6 hours x 0.75 amount full x 3/2 flip rate = 33.75 customers. On average they are spending $50 - $100 each with tips of $7.50 - $15, average $11.25. So 33.75 customers x $11.25 + 7 hrs x $2/hr = $393.68/day x 5 days = $1968.40 per week on average. Again, you’re only paying taxes on $70 worth.
Now, here’s the catch, this is an average. On Tuesday it’s raining and you made $60 because no one came in, but then Friday the football game is on and you made $500. Maybe this restaurant isn’t pulling in customers so you’re not making money so you go work at a different restaurant.
Why are you only paying taxes on $70 worth?
It’s a bit of hyperbole, but it’s not too far off of the truth. In the past you only paid taxes on tips you claimed, so if you got all your tips in cash you perhaps didn’t claim them all (or maybe just enough to hit the minimum wage). If you got tips on credit or debit card then they were automatically counted. Last year they passed a rule that goes through 2028 in which you can deduct up to $25k of tips from your income. You still have to pay payroll taxes on those tips, but come tax time you can deduct up to $25k and get those taxes back. So if you made $60k including tips, maybe $10k of those tips were in cash, you can deduct $25k for tips and then the standard deduction is another $16k and you don’t claim the $10k in cash. $60k - $25k - $16k - $10k = $9k in taxable income.
Mostly correct. You do have to pay taxes on tips that the government knows about, which means any credit card tips and reported cash tips (which can be lied about of course because there’s no paper trail, but reporting $0 cash tips is highly suspicious).
Remember the whole “no taxes on tips” campaign that MAGA tried to use to get more working folks on their side? That’s because much/most tips are taxed.
Oh I understand, but the no tax on tips thing did go through. Through 2028 you can deduct up to $25k in tips. You still have to pay payroll taxes, but you will get them back when you do your taxes.
And as someone who’s spent much of my career in a tipped position, all tips should be taxed. All income should be taxed. It’s what keeps society working.
Now, anyone in a tipped position should be taxed less, but we shouldn’t be targeting the source of the income. Take two people; a server making $60k and a teacher making $60k. Both should be taxed less than they currently are (and billionaires taxed much much much more), but saying the server should pay less than the teacher because much of their income is taxed is prioritizing the wrong thing in society. Eliminating tax on tips is wrong when the republicans proposed it, and it was wrong when democrats agreed. Lower the tax burden on lower brackets, and raise it on those in the much higher brackets. Don’t target the source of the income.
I absolutely agree, especially because the primary income of the extremely wealthy (unrealized gains on stocks and such) isn’t getting taxed properly either.
Asking from a place of genuinely not knowing; are there a reasonable number of places where non-tipped workers are employed in this sort of sector? If so, it might be really handy to put together a list, so people can more easily make the choice to go there, rather than stiffing staff who need the tips to survive.
Generally no fast food workers are tipped, it’s restaurant/bar only. And restaurants that don’t allow tips will generally advertise it. Off the top of my head I don’t know of any chains that don’t do tipping, but I also don’t eat out much.
It’s going to vary wildly as to who is paired expecting to be tipped and who isn’t.
I begrudgingly tip, but usually 10-15%, like it used to be. I don’t buy into the current bullshit narrative of driving up the expected percentages, especially as prices rise as it is. Some might say I’m still an asshole for NoT pAyInG tHeM eNoUgH, but so be it.
So many tipped workers fight to keep being abused in this way, and I don’t reward that, even if I support these post-slavery practices through cultural guilt alone.
As soon as the “no tax on tips” passed my baseline tip dropped 5%.
What about the cooks? Hostess? Other back of house staff?
Aren’t back of house staff generally making minimum wage, not server wage? That’s what I had the one place I worked for a bit.
That’s my point.
You’re not going to change the fundamentally broken culture of the US by punishing a few service workers. We’re not talking about the current system being good or whether or not it should change, we’re talking about a bunch of tourists refusing to tip.
“things like this” don’t contribute to changing it all though it doesn’t matter when the owner still gets theirs thats all they care about.
Only collective action can contribute to changing this, this is a start. Up to Yanks to carry on which will create a crisis where workers strike.
Yeah, actually. Waiting tables is one of the few, ubiquitous jobs you can get without higher education that has a reasonable chance to pay well.
This flight against tipping is crab mentality. You’re not doing them any favors, you’re just going to lower their wage to $18/hr flat, with no healthcare and still shitty part-time hours, and some corpo is gonna pocket the difference.
Servers in USA don’t get 18.00 flat, usually.
No, they don’t. But they usually do better than that now, with a free exceptions.
For the record the $2.13 min wage is bullshit either way. When the min wage is under $10 we don’t need a special exemption for servers.
Don’t go to the US
For many reasons.
Workers in Europe weren’t handed the rights they have, in some cases people literally died fighting for them. The only tip I have for American service workers is “unionize”.
You think American workers haven’t suffered and died fighting for their rights? I know this information is not exactly front and center in history books for reasons of shame and intentional obfuscation, but American worker rights history is stained in blood just as yours is.
Lmao you think we were handed this? We’ve been fighting for our rights to unionize for literally decades on end. Our government works with companies to literally kill us if we don’t go back to work. Men women and children have died fighting for the rights we DO have.
Fuck off with this “you’re only getting this because you aren’t trying hard enough to unionize” bullshit. Our rights have been bled for by hundreds of thousands over the years.
Exactly, so honour the people that paid for your rights with their blood, and fight your exploiter instead of picking fights with other workers.
And that’s why it’s moral for me to mislead someone who is paid $2/hour into serving me for money I’m not going to give them 😌
Sure is telling that nobody who thinks this will tell their server upfront they’re not tipping, lmao
Whose misleading who? I would say that in this case, it would be the people that are not up front about the expected price of a service.
If tipping is required up front, then include it in the prices (and I don’t mean as an half hidden fee tacked on the announced prices like American businesses started doing).
American service workers are putting the blame on the wrong people, the only ones scamming them are their bosses.
So when an employer is misleading you the correct response is to short change the underpaid employee, who will have it come out of their inconsistent, unreliable pay? Can’t relate.
Don’t make excuses, try harder.
The problem is the workers who get tips generally like it because they can potentially make a lot more than a comparable fixed wage. On a good night you can make several times over the base wage, and under-report cash tips on your taxes (or omit them entirely, but the IRS might catch that).
So a lot of workers don’t want tipping to go away any more than the restaurant owners do.
Then they also have to deal with people who see through the shenanigans and refuse to tip. Fuck em.
But base wage for those positions is also significantly lower than minimum wage because the tips are expected to compensate for it, so the ceiling is higher but the floor is also lower. So refusing to tip at all does kind of make you out to be the asshole.
Unfortunately most people are just trying to survive and don’t really have the time or the energy to worry about the bigger picture.
Personally, I just split the difference and refuse to tip anywhere it’s not already factored into the wage structure. It’s not gonna change the situation but at least it helps hold the line.
Unionise and change the situation, or lose. I’m not paying money I can’t spare because people refuse to help themselves. I repeat, fuck em.
So be upfront and tell them you won’t be tipping, and get the service you’re paying for.
Shouldn’t servers tell the customers how much service they should expect based on the amount they plan to give in that case then?
That doesn’t make you some champion of the working man, it makes you a cheap asshole. You are taking advantage of their labor more than the restaurant owner.
Advocate for change, absolutely. Refuse to patronize restaurants that expect/require tipping. I’d even say it’s fair to stop buying into the tip-inflation (15% used to be standard, then 18, now 20+), that’s fair, stick to 15%.
Hell, since at most restaurants you pay after the meal, why even pay that? After all, you knew there’s a cost before you had the meal but “you can’t spare it.” I’m serious, you wan’t to make a point, leaving a note that says “pay your staff better” and no cash makes a stronger statement than simply not tipping.
Living -as I do- in the UK, I easily avoid giving any such slave driver my money.
I’m simply explaining why the rest of the world isn’t like the US, workers collectively fought for rights, simple as that. Either get on with changing it, or keep complaining about being stiffed (while pocketing off the books income in a lot of cases). Shrug
This discussion is about Europeans coming to the US and giving money to the restaurants themselves (the slave drivers) but not tipping the staff (the slaves). Absolutely support a decision to protest such a system by not patronizing it; but patronizing it but not tipping is just cheap. You’re not some savior of workers rights, you’re a cheap asshole. That is a harsh truth you need to come to terms with.
Collective action against tipping isn’t individual action against tipping tbf. Just needs yanks to build on this and push further to break down this shitty culture that only holds because consumers accept it.
Non tippers get a reputation around town and then are treated with bad service, largely ignored by the staff. Big tippers get treated to complimentary meals, desserts, wine, and more.
There is also the angle of poor servers being treated with low/no tips, the long term goal of which being to get them to treat customers better or drive them out of the business.
That would also require being unfortunate enough to be in the US for a protracted length of time.
While the UK is indeed a shit hole and getting worse thanks to Trump wannabes and other associated scumbags only a hair’s breadth from being out and out Nazis, it isn’t quite as bad as the US. Yet.
Edit: I have spent time in the states, but it’s direction in the last decade has put paid to me ever returning, for business or pleasure. Fuck that.
I live in Canada, not the US. We have tipping here as well, but we don’t pay restaurant servers $2/hr. They get the same minimum wage that everyone else gets. We still have tons of World Cup tourists refusing to tip and creating a big conflict.
I think some restaurants are moving to automatic 20% surcharges on the bill as a way of dealing with non-tippers.
Those workers are the equivalent of scabs, even if they don’t realize it and don’t have bad intentions.
If the servers don’t get tips anymore, they might simply strike for a living wage. The current system just makes servers even more dependent with every single tip that replaces what should be a wage. Somethings gotta give, it’s not the workers, and the bosses wont budge without pressure, so even if it’s hard, it might be the only way something really changes for the better.
They aren’t going to strike from this event. Wait staff don’t have insurance or savings. Restaurant owners can’t afford to pay living wages with benefits; the margins are razor-thin as-is.
Have you never heard of strike funds? If service workers can’t even pay rent they’re going to strike and walk out, breeding a crisis that will make tipping culture untenable.
Yea, the thing I don’t get about the “if I don’t tip the workers will unionize” crowd is that they can just not go to tipping establishments or just eat takeout. You don’t have to basically steal labor from the workers. If you think “them making less money is better for the market” then just don’t make them work for you and refuse to pay what is expected. Boycotting tipping establishments would help, but that doesn’t get people free/less expensive stuff so they don’t do that.
Even if I take them in the best faith possible, they’re just exploiting the workers themselves and blaming the workers for their exploitation. In that situation they basically take the place of the bosses saying “if you want a raise go work somewhere else”.
I also hate tipping culture, but it’s so rude to go to another country (during a rise in fascism no less!) and act like by not following their norms you’re having any effect on the culture other than making yourself look like bad.
Let’s say all customers just stop tipping, then the workers will be forced to find another job if the restaurants don’t start paying a living wage?
Because they’re definitely in a job they need tips to survive in due to the availability of other jobs that don’t.
Yep the the American job market is fucked, and it will be painful to change it especially when the people in charge are paid by the oligarchs.
One less painful way of moving away from tipping culture would be something like this: gradually increasing the base salary for workers, as I recall the minimum wage is below $3 for tipped staff. And then gradually decreasing the maximum allowed tip.
But the problem is: Show me a single state where the politicians would agree and then have the balls to go through with it while the oligarchs and supreme court will do everything in their power to keep the status quo.
The restaurant will be forced to start paying a living wage or it won’t have any waitstaff left.
Restaurants usually take the latter option. I’ve been to plenty of places that are down to the owner cooking and his wife serving, no hired staff at all.
Restaurants are never gonna pay more to the staff than they collect for meals sold. Most of the restaurant’s income (if they aren’t a fancy place that sells a lot of alcohol) goes toward paying for food, rent, and utilities.
Employer. Their employees will eventually quit, and it will get harder for them to hire new ones. Tipping does not help here, it lets the employers do what they’re doing now.
Seriously. This is literally the kind of thing y’all call us “entitled” for.
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I dunno man at least I’m being the bossmans bottom bitch.
If you can’t see how fucked tipping culture is you’re too cooked.
It’s because you think you’re entitled to ignore norms you don’t like when you’re in a foreign country.
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I hope whatever is bothering you gets better
Yes, I too hope you get better.
There there
I’m being punished by being forced to tip.