Tipping Is Not Capitalism: Arguments on Tipping

[Costanza]

“Following the custom in Japan, Sushi Yasuda’s service staff are fully compensated by their salary. Therefore gratuities are not accepted. Thank you,” says a bill at the Midtown Manhattan Japanese restaurant, which decided to do away with tipping this month.

Instead of leaving a gratuity at the end of the meal, Sushi Yasuda customers are now expected to pay a higher all-around bill, which includes a service fee.

Should other restaurants and bars follow suit? ​

Tipping Is Not Capitalism
By Steven A. Shaw, founder of eGullet and author of "Asian Dining Rules"

Sushi Yasuda, following the lead of most of the world's best restaurants, was right to do away with tipping.

I find that those who support capitalism -- and many who usually don't -- reflexively believe that tipping creates an incentive, controlled by the customer, for servers to provide better service. Were that true, there might be a market-based argument against doing away with it. But all the accumulated evidence and experience indicates that tipping disrupts rather than encourages healthy workplace incentives.

Managers should decide who gets paid more, not customers. This way servers won't have to resort to upselling or obsequious behavior.

The No. 1 activity the tipping system encourages is "upselling." Because most customers tip a standard percentage of the bill regardless of what happens during the dining experience, the most significant driver of a tip is the total cost of the meal. The more bottled water, coffee, alcohol, dessert and side dishes servers can sell, the more money they make. Neither servers nor customers actually enjoy this state of affairs, but the mythology of tipping as incentive is so firmly entrenched in American restaurant culture that most of us, regardless of our actual opinions, find it impossible to imagine a world without it.

Other bad behaviors encouraged by tipping include obsequiousness, which is one of the only activities other than upselling that studies show increases tips, along with servers who use their looks to win over customers. Many establishments encourage this practice, some more subtly than others. The restaurant chain Hooters is the most obvious about it, but every restaurant manager knows that when there are two equally skilled servers "on the floor," the more physically attractive and flirtatious one will generate more in tips.

Sushi Yasuda now explains on its receipts: “Following the custom in Japan, Sushi Yasuda’s service staff are fully compensated by their salary. Therefore gratuities are not accepted.” But this is not only the custom in Japan. It is the custom in other countries where I have experienced superior restaurant service, namely France and Singapore.

The best way to encourage quality service and a humane workplace is to follow the compensation structure of most successful, ethical corporations under the free-enterprise system: employees receive a living wage, as well as increased pay and career advancement when their superiors feel that they've earned it.

Tipping is not capitalism. It's a failed exception. And it's high time we end it.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/06/23/to-tip-or-not-to-tip/tipping-is-not-capitalism

 

[Costanza]

Arguments on Tipping- Tips Supplement Paltry Paychecks

The socialist counterargument:

Tips Supplement Paltry Paychecks
Ty Batirbek-Wenzel, a Web and graphic designer, is the author of “Behind Bars: The Straight-Up Tales of a Big City Bartender” and a new novel, “The Orchid Revolution.”

“Tip or Die.”

That was written in black permanent marker on a can that lived next to the cash register at the bar where I mixed drinks for over a decade.

The cash I earned tending bar, which involved 10-hour shifts on my feet and drunks vomiting on me, bought groceries, health care and peace of mind.

I've had to defend tipping more than a handful of times. I actually had to deal with an anti-tipping heckler while on book tour for my bartending memoir. I've had born-again Christians leave me pamphlets on finding God -- in lieu of a tip -- after drinking themselves into heaven.

Sure, I made decent money from tips; there was rarely a night that I didn't clear two or three hundred dollars. “You're making money hand-over-fist!” some would declare, as if I didn't deserve it. Care to look at my $30 weekly paycheck? Care to subsidize my health insurance? I didn't get any. Care to work over 10 hours a night on your feet and shuffle home at 5 in the morning? McDonald's workers had bigger paychecks, and I doubt they had to deal with people vomiting on them on a fairly regular basis.

Getting rid of tipping would be bad business. Prices at restaurants would rise if the burden of paying servers were turned over to the house. And then there is the question of motivation. Think it's hard to find your waitress now? Think your waiter was a little surly? Wait until their income is no longer linked to their performance at your table.

Of course, if all restaurants offered a living wage -- say, at least $25 per hour with health care and other benefits -- then this could be a game-changer. Until then, though, those five- and 10-dollar bills left on tables and bars across the country are paying for rent, doctor visits and child care. Without tipping in this current environment, I fear that we would be just a stone's throw away from inflicting the same kind of poverty on servers that is endured by the employees at Wal-Mart, to give just one example.

Tipping counters the actions of powerful restaurant lobbies that spare no expense in driving down wages to near poverty levels.

So until salaries are generous, tip or die.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat...r-not-to-tip/tips-supplement-paltry-paychecks

 

[Costanza]

Arguments on Tipping- Cash Incentives Motivate Workers

Cash Incentives Motivate Workers
Kelly Fitzpatrick, a chef at a catering company in Brooklyn, is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration and the Culinary Institute of America and has worked in restaurants from New York to Alaska.

In an industry of people-pleasing hourly workers, the act of tipping in restaurants must endure for the sake of both server and customer. Tipping is a way to motivate employees and distinguish good service, and it gives guests a sense of control over their experiences.

As someone who has worked numerous jobs in the service industry -- starting out as a grocery cashier in high school and later working as a bartender, server and now chef -- I have held positions that rely on tips as the primary source of income as well as salaried jobs. One thing is clear to me: tipping motivates people who work long, busy hours catering to the needs of others. It's the best way to ensure optimal service, and the practice is perfectly suited to the pace and culture of the restaurant industry.

Tipping gives servers immediate feedback, which many believe to be an essential aspect of employee retention and happiness. It's like a regular performance review -- with a monetary component -- that does not require an office or a formal meeting with a boss. Additionally, this fast cash element helps those of us not yet set in our careers to fill holes in our wallets left open while pursuing other entrepreneurial, academic or artistic ambitions. If this opportunity for fast cash disappears, the supply and variety of restaurant workers might well diminish as workers move toward more predictable jobs with better hours and fixed salaries.

While I am a strong supporter of tipping, I welcome a discussion that considers providing certain benefits like health insurance to servers in lieu of tips. The change at Sushi Yasuda will serve as a case study to determine the long-term financial feasibility of providing health benefits and the impact on customer service. As long as the jury is out, please: tip like you mean it.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat...r-not-to-tip/cash-incentives-motivate-workers

 

[Costanza]

Arguments on Tipping- Raise Base Wages

Raise Base Wages
Saru Jayaraman, co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of "Behind The Kitchen Door"

Much of the conversation in the news about whether restaurants should allow tipping misses a crucial point: regardless of a restaurant's compensation policy, all restaurant workers should receive a stable base wage that allows them to feed themselves and their families.

With over 10 million workers, the restaurant industry is one of the largest- and fastest-growing sectors of the United States economy. But it also provides the lowest paying jobs. This is largely because the federal minimum wage for all workers is $7.25, and $2.13 for tipped workers. These low wages are even difficult to sustain; my organization has lobbied consistently to keep them in place.

Most of the workers who earn the tipped minimum wage in New York and across the country are not employed by fine dining establishments like Sushi Yasuda. Seventy percent of those earning tips in America are women working at places like Denny’s and Red Lobster. Servers have three times the poverty rate and use food stamps at double the rate of the rest of the U.S. work force. In other words, the people who serve us meals cannot afford meals themselves. New research shows that over half of all tipped workers living in poverty are people of color, including blacks and Latinos -- pivotal voters in the 2012 elections.

Tips fluctuate from shift to shift, but rent and bills are constant. All restaurants should provide workers with a stable base wage that allows them to meet their basic needs, whether or not tips are accepted. Fortunately, there is good news on the horizon for restaurant workers. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 would guarantee non-tipped workers a minimum wage of $10.10 and tipped workers a minimum wage of at least $7. The bill would go a long way toward ensuring that all workers -- from Sushi Yasuda to IHOP -- would have a secure base wage to feed their families, as they feed us daily.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat...not-to-tip/tips-or-not-raise-the-minimum-wage

 

[Costanza]

Arguments on Tipping- It’s as American as Apple Pie

It’s as American as Apple Pie
Len Penzo, an electrical engineer, is the owner of the personal finance blog Len Penzo dot Com

In the United States, diners have been tipping their servers for more than a century. It's a time-honored practice that’s as American as, well, baseball and apple pie.

Tipping was originally intended as an incentive for rewarding and encouraging servers to provide exemplary service. Unfortunately, that now seems to be the exception rather than the rule, thanks to restaurateurs who have unilaterally stripped that valuable power from their customers.

For example, one of my biggest pet peeves with respect to tipping is the “mandatory gratuity” (talk about an oxymoron) that most sit-down restaurants routinely tack onto bills for large parties.

On the other side of the spectrum, and just as irritating, are restaurants like Sushi Yasuda that institute a no-tipping policy.

In both cases, otherwise well-meaning restaurant owners have meddled with the dynamic between diners and servers, thereby disrupting an extremely reliable control mechanism that customers depend on to help minimize the risk of an unsavory dining experience.

When properly administered, tips provide accurate performance feedback to the server, which is why restaurants that implement a mandatory-gratuity or no-tipping policy – regardless of the level of service – end up doing everyone a big disservice.

Think about it. Why would any server go out of his way to give excellent service when he knows he’ll be getting the same pay regardless of whether he busts his hump or takes it relatively easy by doing just enough to meet the minimum standards?

One of Sushi Yasuda’s co-owners said that the restaurant had decided to go with a no-tipping policy because that’s how it’s done in Japan.

The trouble is, this isn’t Japan, folks; it’s America. Like it or not, when it comes to dining out, tipping is the custom here – and for good reason.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat...ot-to-tip/tipping-is-as-american-as-apple-pie

 

[Costanza]

Arguments on Tipping- It’s Not Necessary in a Co-op Environment

It’s Not Necessary in a Co-op Environment
Erin O’Bryant is the president of the board of directors at Black Star Co-op Pub & Brewery in Austin, Tex.

Historically, restaurants and bars have foisted the proper remuneration of their employees onto the consumer. This practice shifts the worker’s focus from providing good customer service and having pride in one’s work to doing whatever it takes to earn a decent living. At best, the hope of a good tip motivates workers to provide quality customer service. At worst, tips can be demeaning to workers and can serve as a crutch for employers to continue exploiting their staff.

By eschewing tips and paying workers a living wage with benefits, our co-op pub and brewery supports the people who keep it running.

At Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery, we do not accept tips. We pay our workers a living wage with benefits. This policy works for us for a couple of reasons. One, we do not have table service. Had our business plan included table service, we would have needed to employ a larger staff. We could not have afforded to pay our workers a living wage and make a profit without having significantly raised our prices. Two, we’re a cooperatively owned business with over 3,000 member-owners. Proper worker treatment is one of the core values we developed with our member-owners; not every business has that level of built-in support.

In the beginning, people thought we were crazy to shirk the time-honored practice of accepting tips, but it was a concept we felt strongly about and wanted to try. We believe in owning and working for an establishment that supports the people who keep the organization running. Do patrons still want to tip our workers? Sure, because it’s ingrained in our society. We politely decline the tip and explain our fair remuneration practices, and then we encourage patrons to consider using that tip money to buy their table another round of beer!

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat...tipping-isnt-necessary-in-a-co-op-environment

 

[da_monumental_1]

Re: Arguments on Tipping- Raise Base Wages

The NY Times is late to the party.

Dan Ariel already proved this years ago.

 

[Costanza]

Re: Arguments on Tipping- Raise Base Wages

The NY Times is late to the party.

Dan Ariel already proved this years ago.

Which party?

 

[World B Free]

You CHALK Tipping up to THE GAME
...........just do it & keep it movin', peeps want reasons to be cheap

 

[SKATTA]

Its not that serious,its just a few bucks.

 

[Costanza]

You guys read fast.

And miss the point(s).

 

[tallblacknyc]

oh it's dat time of the month again..the old tipping debate..at least 5 pages.. on dis board waiters get treated better than god, if u insult them or claim u don't tip well the board damn u to hell

 

[Costanza]

oh it's dat time of the month again..the old tipping debate..at least 5 pages.. on dis board waiters get treated better than god, if u insult them or claim u don't tip well the board damn u to hell

This could be a little better than that if people can resist the urge to say "Ooh, I have an opinion on that," click the thread, and post the same shit they always say without even looking at the succinct material provided.

 

[Amajorfucup]

Re: Arguments on Tipping- Tips Supplement Paltry Paychecks

Tipping Is Not Capitalism
By Steven A. Shaw, founder of eGullet and author of "Asian Dining Rules"

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/06/23/to-tip-or-not-to-tip/tipping-is-not-capitalism

Atleast the capitalism argument is based in sound capitalist theory and principle.

The socialist counterargument:

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat...r-not-to-tip/tips-supplement-paltry-paychecks

This is not a socialist framework. This argument is from the perspective of a whining entitled barkeep who seems to think that he is owed tips because his employer underpays him and his circumstance is one which has forced him to work shit hours in shit conditions. He even gives a vague threat of poor service for those who dare not tip well. People like him deserve to be stiffed.

I don't necessarily agree with either but the former is easily the better articulated of the two. Personally I view it as a customary practice and as such I adhere to it when I dine out. Its that simple. If I am in an environment that does not hold it as customary practice I adhere there as well.

 

[sharkbait28]

This dude have a poll for everything.

Do you pick your nose? Arguments for and against:

• Yes... sometimes.
• Never... fuck I look like picking my nose man?!
• Yes... picking my nose is a way of life. Shit feels good and it frees up my nasal cavities and shit.
• No... noses are pure and holy, how dare you suggest such a thing sir?

 

[sharkbait28]

Re: Arguments on Tipping- Tips Supplement Paltry Paychecks

Atleast the capitalism argument is based in sound capitalist theory and principle.


This is not a socialist framework. This argument is from the perspective of a whining entitled barkeep who seems to think that he is owed tips because his employer underpays him and his circumstance is one which has forced him to work shit hours in shit conditions. He even gives a vague threat of poor service for those who dare not tip well. People like him deserve to be stiffed.

I don't necessarily agree with either but the former is easily the better articulated of the two. Personally I view it as a customary practice and as such I adhere to it when I dine out. Its that simple. If I am in an environment that does not hold it as customary practice I adhere there as well.

Agreed.

Raise Base Wages
Saru Jayaraman, co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of "Behind The Kitchen Door"

Much of the conversation in the news about whether restaurants should allow tipping misses a crucial point: regardless of a restaurant's compensation policy, all restaurant workers should receive a stable base wage that allows them to feed themselves and their families.

With over 10 million workers, the restaurant industry is one of the largest- and fastest-growing sectors of the United States economy. But it also provides the lowest paying jobs. This is largely because the federal minimum wage for all workers is $7.25, and $2.13 for tipped workers. These low wages are even difficult to sustain; my organization has lobbied consistently to keep them in place.

Most of the workers who earn the tipped minimum wage in New York and across the country are not employed by fine dining establishments like Sushi Yasuda. Seventy percent of those earning tips in America are women working at places like Denny’s and Red Lobster. Servers have three times the poverty rate and use food stamps at double the rate of the rest of the U.S. work force. In other words, the people who serve us meals cannot afford meals themselves. New research shows that over half of all tipped workers living in poverty are people of color, including blacks and Latinos -- pivotal voters in the 2012 elections.

Tips fluctuate from shift to shift, but rent and bills are constant. All restaurants should provide workers with a stable base wage that allows them to meet their basic needs, whether or not tips are accepted. Fortunately, there is good news on the horizon for restaurant workers. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 would guarantee non-tipped workers a minimum wage of $10.10 and tipped workers a minimum wage of at least $7. The bill would go a long way toward ensuring that all workers -- from Sushi Yasuda to IHOP -- would have a secure base wage to feed their families, as they feed us daily.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat...not-to-tip/tips-or-not-raise-the-minimum-wage

Saru Jayaraman is spot on. Raising the base wage is the only meaningful way to improve the poverty rate among tipped workers (food service workers have a much higher poverty rate relative to other workers).

Tipping is fine. Raising wages is absolutely crucial... and the arguments against it are really quite silly.

 

[Costanza]

Re: Arguments on Tipping- Tips Supplement Paltry Paychecks

Atleast the capitalism argument is based in sound capitalist theory and principle.


This is not a socialist framework. This argument is from the perspective of a whining entitled barkeep who seems to think that he is owed tips because his employer underpays him and his circumstance is one which has forced him to work shit hours in shit conditions. He even gives a vague threat of poor service for those who dare not tip well. People like him deserve to be stiffed.

I don't necessarily agree with either but the former is easily the better articulated of the two. Personally I view it as a customary practice and as such I adhere to it when I dine out. Its that simple. If I am in an environment that does not hold it as customary practice I adhere there as well.

I agree that the second article looks really weak following the first.

I guess I'd call the second article a socialist argument applied to a capitalist setting, that there is an obligation on the part of the customer to take sympathy upon the staff and supplement their incomes as opposed to their suffering the indignity of working at a Walmart or McDonalds.

The weird notion that, for a waiter, "income is no[t] linked to their performance at your table" unless it comes directly from the customer is capitalistic, I suppose, though stupid and short-sighted.

Personally I view it as a customary practice and as such I adhere to it when I dine out. Its that simple. If I am in an environment that does not hold it as customary practice I adhere there as well.

A chief custom of mine is disregarding nonsensical customs.

 

[da_monumental_1]

Re: Arguments on Tipping- Raise Base Wages

Which party?

Dan is a behavioral economicist. He found out that there is no incentive when tipping that results in better service.

 

[Costanza]

Re: Arguments on Tipping- Tips Supplement Paltry Paychecks

Agreed.



Saru Jayaraman is spot on. Raising the base wage is the only meaningful way to improve the poverty rate among tipped workers (food service workers have a much higher poverty rate relative to other workers).

Tipping is fine. Raising wages is absolutely crucial... and the arguments against it are really quite silly.

"Tips fluctuate from shift to shift, but rent and bills are constant."

That inconsistency is why it baffles me that people who have been forced to depend upon "normalized acts of kindness" aren't the most passionate arguing in favor of a regular, stable and fair wage.

The only part of Jayaraman's argument that I'm hesitant in endorsing is that I'm not sure different minimum wage standards for tipped and non-tipped jobs should persist at all.

 

[sharkbait28]

Re: Arguments on Tipping- Tips Supplement Paltry Paychecks

"Tips fluctuate from shift to shift, but rent and bills are constant."

That inconsistency is why it baffles me that people who have been forced to depend upon "normalized acts of kindness" aren't the most passionate arguing in favor of a regular, stable and fair wage.

It really doesn't make much sense to me either. I was a waiter for a while back in college... I do think there's a kind of class system among tipped workers that has a lot to do with what kind of establishment you're working at, your looks and ability to connect with people + overall hustle. Realistically some folks are going to fare very well in a tipped system.... the vast majority will get fucked though. A hot chick waiting tables or tending bar at a trendy restaurant is going to have a very different experience from the homely mother of 3 working at Denny's. But yeah given the insane poverty numbers any defense of this bullshit system from workers involved in the industry comes off as pretty retarded.

The only part of Jayaraman's argument that I'm hesitant in endorsing is that I'm not sure different minimum wage standards for tipped and non-tipped jobs should persist at all.

It seems like a decent start considering the wage floor is like $2 an hour. I agree though.

 

[Mo-Better]

I tip according to the service and food not by the tip scale.

 

[Costanza]

Re: Arguments on Tipping- Tips Supplement Paltry Paychecks

It really doesn't make much sense to me either. I was a waiter for a while back in college... I do think there's a kind of class system among tipped workers that has a lot to do with what kind of establishment you're working at, your looks and ability to connect with people + overall hustle. Realistically some folks are going to fare very well in a tipped system.... the vast majority will get fucked though. A hot chick waiting tables or tending bar at a trendy restaurant is going to have a very different experience from the homely mother of 3 working at Denny's. But yeah given the insane poverty numbers any defense of this bullshit system from workers involved in the industry comes off as pretty retarded.



It seems like a decent start considering the wage floor is like $2 an hour. I agree though.

No argument at all from me there...

 

[Costanza]

Re: Arguments on Tipping- Tips Supplement Paltry Paychecks

Dan is a behavioral economicist. He found out that there is no incentive when tipping that results in better service.

The point was that half the parties, or articles, argue the opposite.

Dan would apply that to repeat customers?

 

[Cock Head Jones]

i wouldnt mind paying higher foodprices and doing away with tips.

on one side...
if we do away with tips and leave the responsibility of paying servers on their employers, groups who get stereotyped as bad tippers would prolly see better service in the long run.

on the other side...
i like tipping cuz it gives me a way to give back to the people that hold me down at the spots i frequent. i get better service because of it.

 

[playahaitian]

i wouldnt mind paying higher foodprices and doing away with tips.

on one side...
if we do away with tips and leave the responsibility of paying servers on their employers, groups who get stereotyped as bad tippers would prolly see better service in the long run.

on the other side...
i like tipping cuz it gives me a way to give back to the people that hold me down at the spots i frequent. i get better service because of it.

^^^

agreed.

You COULD still tip if you wanted but I think if it was not EXPECTED...

No tip line on bills etc.

and the staff recieved a fair wage, I think it would be positive inthe long run

 

[Costanza]

Bump

 

[Costanza]

Tipping Is an Abomination
Here’s how to get rid of it.
By Brian Palmer

When wealthy Americans brought home the practice of tipping from their European vacations in the late 19th century, their countrymen considered it bribery. State legislatures quickly banned the practice. But restaurateurs, giddy at the prospect of passing labor costs directly to customers, eventually convinced Americans to accept tipping.

We had it right the first time. Tipping is a repugnant custom. It’s bad for consumers and terrible for workers. It perpetuates racism. Tipping isn’t even good for restaurants, because the legal morass surrounding gratuities results in scores of expensive lawsuits.

Tipping does not incentivize hard work. The factors that correlate most strongly to tip size have virtually nothing to do with the quality of service. Credit card tips are larger than cash tips. Large parties with sizable bills leave disproportionately small tips. We tip servers more if they tell us their names, touch us on the arm, or draw smiley faces on our checks. Quality of service has a laughably small impact on tip size. According to a 2000 study, a customer’s assessment of the server’s work only accounts for between 1 and 5 percent of the variation in tips at a restaurant.

Tipping also creates a racially charged feedback loop, based around the widely held assumption—explored in an episode of Louie, in the Oscar-winning film Crash, and elsewhere—that African-Americans tend to be subpar tippers. There seems to be some truth to this stereotype: African-Americans, on average, tip 3 percentage points less than white customers. The tipping gap between Hispanics and whites is smaller, but still discernible in studies. This creates an excuse for restaurant servers to prioritize the needs of certain ethnic groups over others.

Irrelevant or insidious factors will dominate the tipping equation until quality of work becomes the main driver of tip size, but that’s unlikely to happen. And tip size isn’t the real problem anyway. The real problem is that restaurants don’t pay their employees a living wage. The federal “tip credit” allows restaurants to pay their tipped employees as little as $2.13 per hour, as long as tips make up the shortfall—which turns a customer into a co-employer. Although federal and state law requires restaurants to ensure that tips bring employees up to minimum wage, few diners know that. (Hosts/hostesses, bussers, and food runners, who receive a small fraction of the servers’ tips, often fall short of minimum wage on some nights.) The tip credit has turned the gratuity into a moral obligation, and we ought to cut it from our statute books with a steak knife.

The only real beneficiary of the preposterously complicated tip credit is lawyers. Imagine what it’s like for a company running restaurants in multiple states. There’s no tip credit in some states, like California and Washington, where tipped employees must be paid the full minimum wage. Hawaii allows the tip credit only if the combined tip and cash wage surpass the statewide minimum hourly wage by 50 cents. New York and Connecticut have different minimum wages for servers, hotel employees, and bartenders.

Then you have to consider time that employees spend on activities not likely to yield tips. Applebee’s, for example, has suffered a series of legal setbacks in lawsuits brought by tipped employees seeking back pay for time spent cleaning toilets and washing glassware.

The laws regarding tip sharing and tip pooling, which occur in virtually every restaurant, are even more complicated. Federal law allows mandatory tip sharing, but only among employees who customarily receive either direct or indirect tips. That means servers, bussers, food runners, and hosts and hostesses can be required to pool their tips with each other, but not with managers. Unfortunately, the line between service and management is fuzzy in many restaurants, and differences between state laws further complicate matters. A California judge ordered Starbucks to pay $105 million in 2008 for forcing 100,000 baristas to share tips with supervisors. Last week, the New York Court of Appeals reached the opposite conclusion, ruling that New York law allows the arrangement. Chili’s has also lost a multimillion dollar judgment over tip sharing.

The entire mess is begging for some certainty and predictability. Restaurants need a clear set of rules to follow. Servers should have a steadier income stream. Hosts and bussers, who have relatively little interaction with customers, ought not to be involved in tipping at all. Customers need more clarity as well, instead of worrying at the end of a meal if the waiter, or your guests, approve of your 17 percent tip.

I’d like to propose a solution. First, ask your state and federal representatives to abolish the tip credit, which would turn tips back into actual gratuities: something given free of obligation. Second, announce your tipping practice to your server as soon as you sit down. Virtually every other employee in America knows how much they’ll be paid up front, and somehow the man who sells me shoes and the woman who does my dry cleaning still manage to provide adequate service. I have no doubt waiters and waitresses are the same. Finally, tip a flat, but reasonably generous, dollar amount per person in your party. Around 20 percent of Americans, mostly older people, tip a flat amount already, so it’s not exactly revolutionary. A server’s pay shouldn’t be linked to whether or not you have room for dessert.

http://www.slate.com/articles/busin...tomers_and_restaurants.html?wpisrc=most_viral

 

[pookie]

^^^

agreed.

You COULD still tip if you wanted but I think if it was not EXPECTED...

No tip line on bills etc.

and the staff recieved a fair wage, I think it would be positive inthe long run

Minimum wage law is the body of law which prohibits employers from hiring employees or workers for less than a given hourly, daily or monthly minimum wage. More than 90% of all countries have some kind of minimum wage legislation.

I never understood why these places don't have to follow this law.


I always say if a waitress want a tip she better put on a thong and get on the table

 

[The Catcher In The Rye]

 

[Costanza]

Just sharing a few threads on capitalism since I did a search:

You take these trolls too seriously. What capitalistic society doesn’t have a caste system?

[when it's your first time engaging with Costanza]

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (Eight part series)

Capitalism's Destruction of Black & Brown Communities: Gentrification in America

Pushed out She’d lived on this historically black D.C. block for 40 years. Now the city she knew was vanishing, and so was her place in it. By DeNeen L. Brown Washington Post SEPTEMBER 21, 2019 She was moving slowly, but she needed to speed up. Her blue sandals clicked on the hardwood floor...

www.bgol.us

Fred Hampton on Racism & Capitalism

Fred Hampton, assassinated 50 years ago this week: We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don't fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity. We say you don't fight capitalism...

www.bgol.us

Richard Pryor on the relationship between Capitalism & Racism

New in Capitalism: Uber-like Surge Pricing for Food

Wendy’s Wants to Start Uber-like Surge Pricing in 2025 Wendy's will use new digital menu boards to change your burger's price based on overall demand. By Maxwell Zeff Wendy’s will start experimenting with surge pricing, much like Uber and Lyft, as the company rolls out digital menus to all its...

www.bgol.us

New in Capitalism: The News

A fresh example of why not-for-profit news is essential to any healthy society:

www.bgol.us

Black Capitalism Won’t Save Us

Black Capitalism Won’t Save Us Celebrities like Killer Mike and Jay-Z equate black ownership with liberation—but you can’t end racial inequality with consumerism. By Aaron Ross Coleman, a journalist covering race and economics and a 2018 Black on Campus fellow. The Nation May 22, 2019 Last...

www.bgol.us