Well then if $5 is as good as zero, then you’ll get zero.
if food service sucks so bad, quit and do something else
People who forget it’s not 2008 anymore: FIND NEW WORK? IMPOSSIBLE!!!
This is a big problem with the growing popularity of service fees. Instead of raising wages employers are adding service fees to push labor costs on to the customer; which is already what tipping is. So, they raise the cost of goods for more profits, add service fees to increase wages without increasing labor costs, and then the customer has to decide if they’re going to top or not. It’s a hell of a decision because the worker and the customer are both already getting fucked, and the customer then has to decide which one of them is gonna get a little more fucked than the other.
Labor costs are already entirely on the customer. Employers don’t pay their employees with money that grew on trees; they’re paying with a chunk of the business revenue, all of which originated from the customers to begin with. There’s no functional difference in the finances between abolishing tipping but bumping up all your prices or maintaining tipping, except that tipping represents one additional exchange of money, and people don’t like that. When people have already decided to buy something, it feels bad to be asked for money a second time, even if, in the alternative situation where that expense was included in the original price, they’d be spending the same amount of money.
When people have already decided to buy something, it feels bad to be asked for money a second time
Sounds like a functional difference to me that impacts the transaction. And the psychology involved is more than that because most people are manipulated by the up front prices and don’t properly factor in the more hidden secondary fees. Not to mention that when it comes to tips this second ask is technically voluntary and just against social and moral expectations to refuse, so it essentially rewards the people who don’t care about the employees and refuse it.
It is meaningful, I agree, but the objections should be on that basis, not that tipping represents some kind of gross economic injustice. I think, fundamentally, being asked for money feels bad, and people are trying to re-interpret that as some kind of injustice imposed on them, rather than acknowledging that it’s just a slightly different and mildly annoying way to distribute essentially the same cost. When you actually poll tipped workers, they tend to be against removing tips because it allows them to make substantially more than a fixed rate would.
I don’t want to blame the individual too much, but it’s really not that hard to factor in a potential tip into your decision making process, or to simply hit $0 on the iPad if you don’t think the interaction merited a tip (no, I’m not going to tip you for ringing up a bag of coffee that I picked up off a shelf at a cafe, for instance). My loose understanding is that customers have started to reduce or decline tips for a lot of these more trivial interactions, so I’d expect some kind of market equilibrium to emerge at some point. It does somewhat represent those more easily guilted or manipulated effectively subsidzing those who aren’t, which is perhaps a little iffy, but I’m not really gonna shed any tears over it.
Employers don’t pay their employees
We knew that, no need to comment about it.
An incredibly common complaint when people discuss tips is the perceived injustice of having to pay employees’ wages when the onus of that should be on the employer. It’s literally been brought up in this thread multiple times, including the comment I replied to.
So no, I’m not actually that convinced that people really understand it. While there is a social and psychological difference in tips vs raised prices that is meaningful, the economics are essentially the same, so appealing to some sense of economic justice really doesn’t make sense. People continuously talk about how employers simply need to abolish tipping and pay their workers more, seemingly unaware that that would be directly financed by higher prices roughly equal to the tips they’re already paying.
People need to learn to yell at their boss, not the customer, to get more money in their pocket.
It’s a nice sentiment, but the response is almost always something like “there are many doors in this building that you are free to use. Don’t let it hit your ass on the way out.”
Recently a coworker had a meeting about potential raises as he hadn’t received one in 5 years. They gave him $1/hr raise… for FIVE YEARS. They basically said “take the crumbs or fuck off.”
I’m baffled that this isn’t already a common thing in that industry. I mean that. I really do.
Everyone who has a job like that is screwing themselves over if they don’t have a union, imo. Unions help you get the good shit, like proper wages, paid sick days, paid vacation days, medical coverage, and more.
You’re only really hurting yourself if you forego unions for the sake of convenience. Maybe it’s a small fee per month, and maaaybe you might have to spend a couple hours over a few weekends to vote/negotiate/ratify, but it will be worth it if you find a good union.
They fight in your corner, and will usually even help you with lawyers, if they don’t already fully provide them for you. This can be very valuable if you don’t earn a ton of money and your employer happens to be an unreasonable arse.
I don’t get it, I really don’t.
I’m actually working on pushing my coworker out lol I keep asking if he has put applications out elsewhere and I frequently tell him not to stay.
He’s one of my best coworkers and I rely on him for a lot so it’s infuriating to see how little value the management has for him…
don’t forget the whole tipping before you even get what you ordered thing. all you did was take my order.
Cooks don’t care if FOH gets tipped. They typically get paid decently, and I’ve never worked a place that included BOH on tip pools or even tip outs, with the exception of bussers and runners at a couple places.
They aren’t risking their jobs and possible legal problems for something that doesn’t matter to them.
Some of us live in countries with a living minimum wage. But this tipping bullshit washes up on our shores anyway.
Why would you tip for a coffee? You make me stand in line to order, stand against the wall to wait for my drink, and you want me to give you more than the $5 you’re already charging for a latte? It’s insane.
Don’t worry though, I don’t stiff the baristas. I make better lattes at home.
