It’s not my fucking job to make sure your workers are paid appropriately. I came here for a fucking steak and some freedom fries. I paid for my fucking food and I just want to eat it in peace. Stop turning your problems into my problems.
But here’s the thing, it ain’t the owners’ problem either. They’re winning. The whole reason they do this is to externalize labor costs and do ad hoc market segmentation, except it’s based on customers kinda being dicks. When you don’t tip in the US, you have sided with the owners and have said to the server, “you are worth minimum wage.”
Agitate the rest of the day. Tip at mealtime.
Wrong
The owners are the bad actors here. They enjoy increased margins in an environment where additional salary top ups are somehow the customer’s problem.
Pay your waitstaff you cheap fucks
The owners are the bad actors but the only person getting screwed when you don’t tip is the server.
Don’t want to tip, don’t eat out. It’s pretty simple.
Or, don’t eat places that don’t pay their workers
I mean, that’s a better choice than “fuck my waiter, specifically and today, while not affecting his bosses’ bottom line at all.”
Yep. Continuing to patronize that establishment, whether or not you tip, perpetuates tipping culture.
To be fair, the workers dont want the livable wage either. 20% tip is much better than what they would get paid.
I wish this exposed tipping culture for what it is, but America is so deep in capitalism that you’ll hear more complaints against this.
It’s so fucking stupid
Just raise the prices by 20% and also pay the staff 20% more.
But fuck workers’ rights and living wages, right?
They wouldn’t need to raise prices that much.
During the Obamacare debate the Papa John’s CEO was upset that he would have to raise pizza prices a few cents to pay for the health insurance his workers need. Wealthy people are psychopaths.
For some reason I thought I remembered seeing an article about Papa John dying. Apparently I was mistaken.
Bummer…
Tipping is fucking stupid but it is the current system for how US waiters earn a living. So to fuck them over and not tip does nothing to change the system and only leaves them overworked with no money.
Think materially and tip your servers. Believe me they would like it to change too. It isn’t them that keeps the system in place. Big business has the money to lobby against our human and material needs.
Servers don’t want the system to change as they make more money with tips than they would from a “livable wage”
Former euro server here. Got a livable wage plus tips. Not the mandated kind, just the extras people would leave. That would net me 5 euros per hour above my livable wage.
Yeah definitely not arguing against earning a livable wage via being paid that livable wage by the employer. That should be the system. But sadly that isn’t the system and not paying a tip in the states isn’t going to do anything to change the system.
For example, the unhoused crisis is caused by the same ultra rich classes that keep tipping around. But I’m not going to pretend that the unhoused aren’t people with real immediate needs. I will give them money when I can. I will vote and push for change as well. Material concerns of the moment are more important to me than strict idealism.
Yeah I’m absolutely on board and quite in favor of what you argue. The institutionalized out sourcing of wages is absurd.
I can’t be against tipping as a concept, as I live in a place where it works, but the us system irks me.
But we can and should be more social. Helping oneself instead of borrowing the selfishness of the upper class.
Y’all living privileged idealogue navel-gazed lives can do what you want I guess. We here in the working class are tired, overworked, and are trying to survive the day.
You’re more frustrated at people that don’t leave tips over the fact you are seen as less than a person by the owners that pay a pitiful wage. Look to the people that came before you, look up Mario Savio.
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Just go eat at McDonalds then.
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This is generally false. Most waiters would see more consistent income with fewer instances of subjective nonsense like ideologues who don’t believe they have to follow the basic cultural rules of the place in which they visit. There is an exceptional subset of waiters that would make less for sure but they are in a minority.
I put livable wage in quotation marks because it wouldn’t actually be a livable wage. The pay would likely be 1-2x minimum wage which is still not livable in most places
People most definitely want to be paid by their employer rather than tips. This isn’t a bottom up movement keeping tipping in place. It is ultra rich people invested in the restaurant industry that keep it around. The same people that use the National Restaurant Association to effectively lobby against minimum wage hikes to meet that “livable wage” and pro-unionization regulation.
Not once you consider healthcare, taxes, and social security.
The presence of a livable wage doesn’t affect any of those though?
The employer still pays FICA on tipped revenue, and paying for insurance has nothing to do with their wage
Nope. It’s not my obligation to pay their wages directly. They can accept no tip, they can lobby for a living wage from their employer, or they can find a different job. I am okay with all of the above.
The only way change happens is through action, not just crying about it. If you want change, stop tipping.
ah yes, put the onus on the people just trying to survive while still patronizing the restaurant that the owner continues to make profits on.
If you feel this strongly, you should boycott all restaurants that make their servers rely on tips.
If we all participated in a “tip strike” and stopped leaving tips, the front of the house staff that relies on it would quit. Eventually the restaurant owners would have to do something about it.
Unfortunately, it seems like the owners would rather add a gratuity fee than rise prices on the menu and pay a decent wage.
One can hope though that eventually, tipping would go away. Sorry bar tenders and servers. Some of you may struggle but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make meme
Servers like tips. They’re choosing this employment.
But then what do the owners get?
/s
The cash registers are ringing, the beer is flowing and the tables are full.
So there is money to pay staff, right?
Right‽
No, no, no. They just take the money! It’s the customers responsibility to pay the servants. Don’t you guys know capitalism?? /s
Should we pay an actual wage?
NO! ITS EVERYONE ELSE WHO ARE WRONG!
Fuck american tipping culture… Pay your staff fair…
#PAY YOUR FUCKING STAFF
America once again showing the world what a dystopian shit show it is. People are travelling to what they think is a developed country and so rightly assume all workers are paid a decent wage. Certainly European visitors would assume that. Highlights once again the need for a minimum wage and union support for workers.
Who still believes the US is a developed nation anymore?
Oh what ever shall we do? The cash registers are bursting with cash due to the influx of visitors… but they’re not tipping the servers.
I see absolutely no way that employers could make the situation fairer for servers, even if it were only for the duration of the event.
Gosh, if only there were some way!
Doing it for the event would set a precedent. Next you know, they’ll expect that to continue when it’s over. How am I going to make them bend over backwards for customers and bear all kinds of abuse with an apologetic deference just so they don’t risk their income? People might stop coming in to hurl insults at my employees while giving me money for the opportunity.
Fighting back against what? Pay your employees.
Pay wages wtf. Usa sucks so hard
How is adding a required 20% gratuity to a bill at a restaurant not false advertising? The restaurant advertises the food costs X dollars, then you get your bill and it’s now 20% higher?
Exactly, it’s not only deceptive but also ignoring the fact that many visitors are likely not earning on par with people in New York and are making decisions about where to eat based on the advertised prices.
All these bars and restaurants talking about how busy they’ve been and have massively increased business during the world cup. They’re aware of the tipping problem yet still somehow can’t find the cash to cover the difference so that their staff get a normal wage.
They could share some of their revenue windfall with the wait staff. But instead they complain to news outlets and add an automatic 20% markup without prior notice to extract even more money from the visitors.
And it’s already higher from the tax! Lol
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But they only want to buy the food, not the gratitude.
From the perspective of the rest of the world, the US is really weird about prices.
Agreed; in Europe the price on the shelf is what you pay at the register. In the US, sales tax still hasn’t been added in to the price displayed on the shelf so it’s anyone’s guess what the actual price is.
And dont forget to tip your walmart cashier 20%!
Protecting the waiters and barkeepers from what? If they just had normal minimum wage rules, and service was included in the price, they would not need “protection” from a self-inflicted problem.
Note that if a worker fails to get to minimum wage through tips, they are owed minimum wage by the employer.
However, minimum wage is pretty crap.
Your point stands that compensation should be baked in of course, it is just that normal minimum wage does kick in if the tips fail.
And tips are normally reported as a percentage of gross sales. Technically you can report less, but thats a good way to get catch a tax audit, and if the total tips reported from the restaurant fall too low the whole place will be audited. If your actual tips are short for the day the standard practice is to report the normal percentage and eat the loss.
No, that is not normal practice. If you do that, you aren’t just eating the loss of what your employer should have paid you, you would be paying taxes on money you didn’t make.
I had a manager at a bar try to feed me that line after a very slow shift and I refused. Anyone pushing that as standard practice either has been direly mislead, or is screwing you over for the company’s profit.
Wow, for real? This is a good argument in support of abolishing tipped wages. Is there anything you can point to for that being standard practice so my source isn’t just an internet person? It’s clearly not going to be written down anywhere, so I’m looking for an article or written testimony and not finding anything
That does not say over report your tips to the IRS if tips are so low they would have forced your employer to pay a higher wage.
I could see making that judgement call if the employer is a dick but customers are usually exceptionally generous tip wise, and you had an isolated slow night. However if day to day the tips are normal, then taking the hit for your employer is just a recipe for continued exploitation.
Not it doesnt say to over report your tips, but it does say that if you or your employer report under a certain percent of sales as tips, exactly what percentage they wont say, that theyll audit you, and that that percentage is at least 8%.
No one should tip anyone. Tipping supports wage theft. If no one tipped, business models that depend on tipping would find no one to hire, so they’d be forced out of business, or need to start paying something closer to a living wage. Yes, this would happen on the backs of those currently working such jobs, but if nothing ever changes, then nothing ever changes.
I owned a small resto/bar in Spain. My employee’s minimum wage was dictated by a sectorial collective bargaining agreement. I had to pay them at least that amount, altough I could pay more for especially good/experienced workers. The base salary was almost 3 times minimum wage. On top of that I paid almost 50% of their salary to the social security system, which covers retirement and health system contributions ( the country has full universal care). Tips are customary, but in the 5 to 10% range, but never required. No server would dream of making an issue for not getting a tip. tips are a thank you, not an obligation.
No sobrevivió el covid?
Yes, I did, I was just rolling out delivery, and weather Covid quite well, but I realized I wasn’t cut out for that type of business. I was fun for a while, made good money, but it became a rut. I’m a serial entrepreneur (ADHD), so I keep jumping.
10 IF NOTHING CHANGES: 20 NOTHING CHANGES 30 GOTO 10This is not any programming language that I recognize and I am outraged
It’s faketran
fauxtran was right there
It was. I trully whiffed it there!
Basick
That’s a very myopic view of things. Let’s talk about child labor, for one. Child labor is wrong. But no family, let alone families, went “You know what, this is wrong. We’re not sending Timmy to the mines, no matter how many of us starve from the loss of extra income.” Your solution is that: That people should bypass unionizing, bypass striking, bypass political engagement, and should just jump straight into starving instead of working these jobs.
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Dipshit, my argument was that there is a better world than that, and we found it by collectively empowering people, not starving an already disenfranchised group under the boot of capitalism. If you think a bunch of servers not making rent is going to magically bring about a utopia, be my guest, just, Jesus. I hoped better of you, I guess.
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I mean, may be a hot take, but I don’t think people who usually send kids to work are such great parents. They maybe “have to”, because they can’t stop fucking and have like 15 kids, so of course Timmy needs to go to the mine, or else they couldn’t feed all of them
And people being selfish like that also translates to the server problem - if any underpaid server inherited a restaurant inherited a restaurant, do you think they would go “I’m gonna be different. I’m gonna pay my staff a fair wage, and allow them to have a union”? Lol, of course not. Probably all of them would think “I had to work for 2$/hour, now it’s your turn. I fucking to mine”. So yes, I do believe starving is the right solution, because I do not believe many of them care about a systemic change.
Buddy, all people can be selfish. That same argument applies to very industry under capitalism. And you think everyone starving is going to lead to some collective uprising? I’d love for you to read a history book; sure, starving people are truly the most altruistic.
All big revolutions ever were born from suffering
Username checks out
Accelerating your fellow workers deeper into poverty isn’t the way.
But paying your fellow workers wages, because their boss wouldn’t is?
You say that like the prices wouldn’t just increase by 15 to 20% if tipping wages became illegal.
Because that’s what they’re doing.
All you’re doing if you refuse to tip is taking money out of a fellow working class person’s pocket.
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You’ve wandered into the only group of liberals that doesn’t have any functional empathy.
These people think the prices would just stay the same if tipping wages were banned and it’s absurd.
No class solidarity at all.
But subsidizing their abusive employer is, right?
Wage theft is the largest type of crime in the US. A huge amount of employers are abusive, not all of them have workers at tipping wages.
Maybe instead of taking money out of another working-class person’s pocket, we need to actually have some class solidarity.
If you don’t want a tip, don’t eat there. But eating in a place like that and refusing to tip is just hurting other working people.
Ah yes, by buying my dinner with my money I, not their fucking boss, am taking money out of their pockets.
You see, this is the problem. You think solidarity is just a ticket to unbounded gains, so you encourage a pattern of behaviours that only contribute to the downward spiral. You’re not ready for solidarity, yet. You need to start with trust. If you don’t think your clients should be able to expect you to set prices that cover the cost of the exchanged goods and services, that they should instead guilt splurge so that your notoriously wage stealing boss, then you aren’t in a position to be serious about contributing to a movement of solidarity.
Supporters say the move is intended to protect American servers
Protecting the servers from the customers!!This is a joke, right? If you really wanted to protect American servers you pay them respectable wages.
Its protecting the restaurants from having to pay their staff.
It’s not “culture” it’s unfettered capitalism. Make your staff beg your customers for their wage instead of paying it yourself, great for bosses.
Came here to say this. All through the piece and the comments they act like it’s American culture or “tipping culture”, when it’s actually just a lack of labor protection regulations that allow for business owners to exploit their labor and customers that should outrage everyone. Especially on top of the exorbitant cost of Cisco frozen foods and tasteless produce that get sugar/fat/spice-bombed in order to bring it to life. Talk about successful propaganda. Corporations and the landlord class have picked this country clean.
