Excerpt from the article:
Schenker says that after his years in the service industry, he has watched tipping evolve into a major part of his pay.
“If there is some means of tipping that’s available to you, that should signal to you that workers there aren’t being paid enough,” says Schenker. “Tipping is sort of an acknowledgment of that fact.”
To Schenker, customers who don’t tip are not understanding that businesses treat tips as a baked-in part of workers’ wages.
“They subsidize lower prices by paying employees less,” he says. “If you aren’t tipping, you are taking advantage of that labor.”
He was so close… Especially for someone who says himself does not make much money.
I’ll reemphasize the point, I feel, other posts are making, but you might be to close to see it.
The burden of paying the laborer is 100% on the owner. The idea of making customers tip and saying “That’s how it is now and if you don’t tip you hurt the laborer” is a false statement. The burden is still on the owner. Period. When you keep stressing the system with underpaid workers and expect customers (who are also underpaid workers) to pay for that then it hurts EVERYONE.
You are explaining that it hurts the workers. I got it. It hurts EVERYONE because the owners are trying to move their burden to us.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, direct your blame at the correct groups. Having the customers and the staff mad at each other and blaming each other distracts from the actual cause of these frustrations.
I’m only mad at those who are trying to disrupt the system that lets me support a family of five on one income. There is ONE industry that’s figured out a way to make a living wage work for everybody and I think that’s worth defending.
Getting rid of tipping would mean higher prices for the consumer, worse service, lower pay for workers, and for what? Because the owners “should” be paying? Worse outcomes for the sake of an ideological nitpic.
If you are making enough to support a family of five then maybe I should switch careers. Damn.
For the record, I know the system is already in place and I tip accordingly. There appears to be an uptick on what I would consider unwarranted tips. If I’m coming in the pick up food, what service am I tipping? The front don’t share tips with the back. I only wanted work out of the back of the house.
This push for higher percentage tips is crazy too. I’ve seen 20%-30% range as a “normal” suggestion on the receipt…
No the system, that I spoke of earlier said 20% is for amazing super outstanding service. 10% is if they just show up and bring food. The range should be in-between that instead of trying to push the percentage higher and then producing opinion articles saying if you don’t tip then you are part of the problem. No the problem is still the owners. Always have been.
Adam Ruins Everything explains it nicely; it really needs to be the responsibility of the business to pay their workforce. https://youtu.be/q_vivC7c_1k