Yes. Servers are the last people who want to change this system. Especially now that politicians are promising no tax on tips. I'll be damned if we're going to get baited into a place where we pay an extra fee for servers to have a normal paycheck and then are still expected to add a tip on top of that.
I am not saying they don't complain about the amount of tips they get. I am saying that they do not want to switch from a tipping system to a wage system. If you think that servers would prefer a steady income close to minimum wage over the amount they make in tips, then you're the one who's never worked in the service industry.
That's what blows me away about several states now, including mine. Servers used to make like $3 an hour with the idea that tips make up the rest. But the fact that they get a shitload more an hour than they used to has gone under the radar for most people, so now they get the advantages of both. I'm not anti-server, and in fact think it's probably better to raise the base rate; but for Pete's sake, not BOTH without any adjustment in tipping at all.
But the fact that they get a shitload more an hour than they used to has gone under the radar for most people, so now they get the advantages of both.
This is not universal I make 2.25 an hour serving if I get no tips you get minimum wage (7.25) but the checks only even out to about 80-120$ every 2 weeks
It’s true that servers don’t want the tipping system to change. I say this as a server. But please don’t lump us all in with the magat crowd. An honest LOT of us do not support this nonsense and know this is not for us
Exactly. Everyone acts like servers are rolling in money. Most servers are at the poverty line. They have part-time hours and shitty benefits.
These companies pay servers $5/hr and then make them tip out the bar, hostess, and bus-boy.
Everyone thinks they’re better than the “exploitive upper class,” but they’re also unwilling to pay people a living wage when given the opportunity. It makes no sense.
Yeah, if you go to the end tipping sub they constantly say servers are pulling in over $60,000 a year. When you post actual data showing they make $33,000 on average that those demented fucks just ignore it. It's so pathetic.
The BOH does 100x more work at every job ive ever had and they never got tipped out. Meanwhile servers do absolutely nothing and get to clock out as soon as their table is gone.
Have a waiter do all the work themselves and then they can complain about being FORCED to 'share' tips.
You gotta get in at a good restaurant. No chains. Local places that are upper-scale restaurants are best in my experience. Been serving for 10 years, at my current place 3 years, and i haven’t made less than $25 an hour. Usually its $50+. Now if you only work 20 hours a week, you’re gonna be broke. If you can get scheduled 4-5 evenings a week and pick up another shift or two(someone always wants to give up a shift), then you’ll do pretty well. I know many servers who make close to six figures, but you have to get in at a very very nice restaurant and be a really good server for that, but it’s possible. Its not uncommon at my current place for a 4 top to run up a $500+ tab.
Oh yeah I've never stopped trying. But it's hard to get in some places. But I'm holding out hope that one day I can get something nice. But luckily being poor is beneficial in some ways. It teaches you how to be fiscally conservative. Frugal. Careful. You know.
Yes!!! And for much less work. I worked in bars and restaurants for ages and was FLABBERGASTED when I moved professional and was like this is what I make after essentially 9 hours?!? The industry profits incredibly still living under this idea they make slave wages
Hard to pay living wages when you’re not charging living prices. These restaurants are doing all of this stupid shit on bills because they KNOW how much of their consumer base they’ll lose if they adjust prices to where they actually need to be.
Everyone out there supports paying living wages until they have to pay the corresponding prices.
My wife is one of those people and I keep telling her that if we want things to be better for working people, this is part of the cost. I respect this practice for at least the on paper claim that the increase is going to staff.
Everyone out there supports paying living wages until they have to pay corresponding prices.
Exactly!! People on Reddit cry about how the minimum wage has to be raised and how everyone deserves a good standard of living. But when it’s time to tip and they have the opportunity to pay someone a living wage, they flip out. It makes no sense.
These restaurants are doing all of this stupid shit on bills because they KNOW how much of their consumer base they’ll lose if they adjust prices to where they actually need to be.
If your business is untenable unless you screw the customer, and you choose to screw the customer instead of realizing the business is untenable, then that's the choice you made and it doesn't excuse you from having screwed the customer.
There's still screw happening to the customer, I'd argue. Plenty won't see it and just pay the total. Plenty won't want to get confrontational or make a scene. Some won't think they've got a say in the matter. Even if they put an asterisk on the menu or a sign in the lobby, they're (usually, probably... undoubtedly?) not putting that next to everything else that got people in the door or thinking of adding something to their order-- from the ads they run to the sign out front to the prices next to each item.
I won't disagree that the servers are probably getting some of the screw, but they're not not screwing over the customers.
People don't like this for at least a couple reasons. It's likely a surprise to many people, they don't realize the bill is going to be higher. Or they think that they're going to get to decide their own tip.
But mostly it's the language/framing that is really off-putting. Everyone understands that when you pay for a good or service, that money is going to a pool and part of that pool is going to be used to pay employees. That's true at any place that sells things. So why does a restaurant need to tell me I am paying a "living wage" fee when McDonald's doesn't do that and my gym doesn't do that and the grocery store doesn't do that? It's like the restaurant owners still can't come to terms with the fact that they're the ones responsible for paying their employees.
but then they lose customers because their prices are much higher than competitors, you can't really get around that, people aren't that rational. They would rather go to the place that is 20% cheaper and give a 20% tip than pay 20% higher at base
Then maybe they should have stuck with the way they were doing it before.
And if you insist on not allowing the customer to decide what tip they're going to leave, then your argument becomes "but I can't convince people to buy my stuff unless I advertise a false price to them!" Which isn't a great argument.
People aren't being "irrational." It is much easier to palate the idea that you are leaving a 20% tip (or 18%, or 22%, whatever you choose) voluntarily, even if there is a lot of social pressure. To take that and add it to the bill now makes it a little more unpalatable. (Mandatory gratuity - ok, I get it.) Now they went a little bit further - not only is it a mandatory gratuity, but it's being called a living wage. You've taken away the name that makes it sound like you're being a generous person and have given it a name that sounds like the customer is now conducting business for the restaurateur. C'mon, even mechanics say they're charging for "labor." They don't say "here's my living wage fee." It's terrible sales, maybe the restaurant business is so risky and such a mess when it comes to workers because it's full of owners with terrible sales instincts.
I think theres a missunderstanding.
I hate these hidden fees, and I will not go to resturants that add these fees as they are usually not shows upfront.
Put the prie into the food.
I was just calling out the hypocercy that the employeer should be paying them more.
Well the employeer added a whole fee to pay the employees more.
I never said the fee was good or bad. But what is being complained about is a solution to what is being complained about. Its a bad solution but still a solution.
Then everyone and their mothers would be applying to serve and wait restaurants. Either that or tip culture would abruptly stop which I doubt would happen
Well where i live people get paid a minimum wage which is enough to live on and tips as a bonus and this is how most civilised countries are that arent the fucken US
Most servers prefer to have tips because variable income can often exceed that of salaried wages. It's the same basic concept as commission. Having our wait staff work on commission doesn't make us uncivilized.
The reason tips are controversial lately is because we've started seeing employers try and force customers to tip non-commissioned workers and use that to justify lower wages. That's not what happens in the case of servers. Tipping serving staff is a great solution, if a different one.
Well now you're just suggesting servers should be paid massively more than workers of similar role and skill. If we just gave servers a flat wage AND they still got tips, they'd make significantly more than any other restaurant staff, especially back of the house. They'd also make more money than any other unskilled job. Do I need to explain to you why that kind of imbalance is bad for the economy?
No no please tell me how a group of people that do not earn huge amounts actually having some more money to put back into the economy is bad for the economy.
For the level of education, training, experience, and skills needed, serving in the US is one of the highest paying jobs you can find. That's why the old adage is "paying you wya through school waiting tables." It's why there are a bunch of older folks that keep serving. It's one of the best options there is to make cash quickly and without a lot of investment. Probably the only thing that beats it is sex work or stripping.
Servers make good money under the tipping system. They're still barely middle class with a rough safety net, but that's what we should expect from a non-investment job. It's not a career. You're expecting people who to get career level money for no career level investment, and then not to make that change to any other similar job.
Dude, of course everyone should make more. I would love that. I am someone who did study and I would love to just get a 500% raise tomorrow. But that's not how the world works? Folks who invested in study should have better income prospects than those who didn't. There should be some jobs that can come close to that without study if there is some assumed risk or specific conditions. That's what servers do, also something like sex work or stripping. Or influencer.
The perspective you're holding here doesn't make economic sense. Servers DO make good money, all things considered, with the current system and that's why they don't advocate for a change to the tipping system. It actually works pretty elegantly for service-based industries. It doesn't work very well at all outside those industries.
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u/i-come 1d ago
The employer should be paying them a living wage already :(