It's crazy how some workers actually defend the tipping system and blame the consumer. They're doing the work of their oppressors and can't even realize it. The business isn't subsidizing lower prices, they're lining the pockets of their investors and telling the workers to get mad at the consumers.
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Work Reform
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I find the ones that defend it are... Attractive. I've heard how some can make more in a weekend than I can in a 2 week period. None of em uggos.
Or highly highly personable. But also usually both.
I was a workhorse and could solo Saturday rush for a restaurant with an hour wait, but I’d have made way more if I could flirt and bs with people when it’s slow.
Unfucking believable. Not a single mention of the actual problem in that article. Not a single mention of who is to blame.
What is the actual problem that's not mentioned?
Billion dollar companies can pay their employees $2 an hour...
Why do you think they do this?
Because they're greedy and it's legal...
No it's because customers are happier this way and the service staff makes more than they would otherwise, in a way that responds to inflationary pressures.
Not only is this untrue, but it is disingenuous. I suggest you do more research about tipping and service wages in general.
It is absolutely true and I worked as a server for a decade, and still have friends working tipped jobs.
I disagree that customers are happier. People constantly complain about tipping. Those people are clearly not happy. Much of the world doesn't do the tipping model, so it doesn't seem like it is worthwhile for quality of service.
I do agree that staff are happier because they on average would make more (at least more than the paltry minimum wage most states have). But it comes at the cost of taking advantage of customers (basically trying to guilt trip them into paying more). I don't support such business practices. Not to mention it's not actually fair pay. You're not actually being paid for quality of service. You're paid for how much they like you, which leads to racial and gender pay disparities.
And the real winner? The business that gets to pay pennies to wait staff. They could incorporate the average tip into their prices and maintain the same pay. But they don't want to. They want to advertise low prices so that they can get the full value from low tippers. They often even outright push mandatory tipping with auto gratuities, which is peak sleazeball behavior.
People only complain about tipping online. In the real world, that doesn't happen.
I feel for this guy having to make a living with the meager pay of a barista, but setting the minimum wage to a livable level and pegging it to inflation is a much better solution. Hell, throw in some single-payer, universal healthcare, and take that item off everyone's personal budget while we're at it.
> throw in some single-payer, universal healthcare
When you do that, don't forget to include coverage for the stuff around your head: dental care, eyeglasses and mental health. Many countries forgot to include coverage for these things and it is a shitshow.
Stop making the customers pay your workers. They’re not our responsibility
I would feel less offended if on every bill they would just raise the price my 20% and give that to the workers.
I've dropped my average tip percentage back down to 15% (20% for good waiters / waitresses I see often). Complying with larger tip percentage is exactly what the business owners want us to do, and to think that it's going to stop at 25%? 30%? Their default tip range will just keep climbing.
Recognizing that the act of asking for an unsolicited tip as a requisite part of buying a coffee is making both customers and himself uncomfortable, acknowledging that his take home pay is so abysmally low that he depends on tips to make a living, and then after all of that, blaming the customer as the primary problem for not being willing to tip in the current economy/environment, is like making a 95 yard run and then tripping over your own shoelaces at the endzone.
I’ve worked minimum wage customer service jobs for a decade. I haven’t worked in jobs that rely on tips (though I have worked in a bar where tipping exists, but is way more normalized) but there’s no way in hell the customer is the answer to paying employees a livable wage—that’s just insane. The burden here shouldn’t be on the customer to subsidize the employer, this “economist” has it ass backwards. This is a situation that has to get worse before it gets better, I am not going to tip more to help the greedy owner undercut their employees
Tipping a barista while paying would almost always mean tipping BEFORE the service is rendered. This is not a tip, it is just an added fee.
True but other than sit down restaurants where do you tip after the service is rendered? I agree that it is just an added fee and we are just subsidizing capitalists.
I don't know how to fix it though. Not tipping does nothing but hurt the workers.
Barbers, taxis and full service restaurants. Aka the only places you tipped 10 years ago.
At some point the responsibility falls on the workers to unionize. I'm aware that is painful. It is also the only true answer because if we wait on the corporate overlords to benevolently raise wages to an acceptable living standard and disband tipping, we'll be waiting forever.
Not tipping does nothing but hurt the workers.
A business which can't afford to pay their workers a livable wage doesn't deserve to exist. If people stopped paying tips then that work no longer provides a livable wage and it becomes difficult for employers to find employees.
In the end they may even decide to pay their employees a livable wage. Some businesses have already done so.
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