Only seven states currently bar “subminimum” pay for tipped workers like bartenders and restaurant servers, but activists see 2024 as ripe to expand the tally to as many as 20.
Ordering from a place that you know pays workers in tips and not tipping makes someone more of a bitch. You’re not changing anything because without legislation there will never be enough people to make it happen. The system is too established. At this point claiming to be working towards change by not tipping is just making an excuse because you weren’t ever going to tip and it’s not fooling anyone.
Definitely. In my country, tipping aren’t expected but it’s a pleasant thing to receive in service industry, in US of A, tipping is expected and people will vehemently defend the status quo.
Well, server employees will, because they don’t want to deal with the loss of pay and/or the upheaval in their salary intake. No one likes a negative change to how they make a living and pay the bills.
Having said that, generally speaking, is it people, or ““people”” (aka corpo shills/bots) that are defending the status quo? Certain corporations have a big interest in maintaining the status quo and shaping the narrative towards that end.
It’s expected because waiters can’t make minimum wage without it. It’s not defended because people like that waiters are paid so little, it’s defended because they’re paid so little and politicians, until now, have seemed to have no interest in changing that. Like so many things in this country, the people have to come up with a patchwork solution just to keep others alive because the politicians don’t care.
So yes, I will defend tipping until this is fixed everywhere in the U.S. And I doubt it will be fixed any time soon. I’ll be surprised if it’s even fixed in these five states.
It has already become your culture, like it or not. Whether you tip or not, employer has to make up the different if the tip doesn’t add up to the minimum wage, so you’re essentially subsidising the employer as of now. Fixing the minimum wage will not get rid of tipping culture either, and exploitative employer knows that, so they will continue to pay the bare minimum and expect the customer to foot the bill.
I wonder if everyone reaction will change if we change “Tipping” to “Subsidising”, because that’s what the current status quo are.
This hits the nail on the head. Exploitative employers will always only pay the absolute minimum they can get away with. If you’re going to have a federally mandated minimum wage, then that wage will need to be adjusted frequently.
Has it been adjusted frequently?
In my country we don’t have a minimum wage. Wage ranges are determined by the market and negotiations with unions. It gets really easy to figure out which employers do the bare minimum and which don’t.
Sure, because it’s easier to have the same policy everywhere than to not know whether or not you should be tipping depending on the state you’re in. I think that makes sense. Do you really want people from Washington going to Oregon and not tipping because they think they don’t have to?
You absolutely can defend the status quo until things are fixed and work for things to be fixed. Maybe you think a change should come at the expense of waiters feeding themselves or their families. I do not.
You absolutely can defend the status quo until things are fixed and work for things to be fixed.
It hasn’t so far, and human nature being what it is, makes it a safe bet that it won’t. Having said that, I hope I’m wrong.
Also, its ethically wrong to put the onus on the customer to support the status quo, that’s the employer responsibility to take care of their employees in all ways, and an employees responsibility to not work for any boss that won’t do that.
Maybe you think a change should come at the expense of waiters feeding themselves or their families. I do not.
YES! Tortuuure them, make them SUUUFFEERRRRR!!1!!11!!! /s
If the guy in the next stall asks me for a roll of toilet paper (because he’s out), I’m going to give him a roll, as a civic duty to take care of each other.
If the guy in the next stall asks me to come over and wipe his ass for him, he’s on his own.
That’s a lot of words to say you don’t give a shit if a waiter can’t afford to feed their kids as long as you don’t have to give them any of your money. I hope you don’t go to restaurants if you feel that way.
That’s a lot of words to say you don’t give a shit if a waiter can’t afford to feed their kids as long as you don’t have to give them any of your money. I hope you don’t go to restaurants if you feel that way.
You’re being intellectually dishonest in asigning motive to me, via a strawman or otherwise, without knowing me.
For the record, I do care, truly, but I also won’t be held hostage by corporations via my caring. Its ethically wrong.
We’re not defending the status quo we’re stuck with it. But yes, going to another country and ignoring their customs would make people look at you like an asshole because you’re being an asshole unless you genuinely didn’t know. We’re not dancing around delighting in tipping people. We just know that not tipping hurts absolutely nobody except the server. Maybe you’re comfy with making someone else suffer to prove a point but I’m not.
You put too much emotional charged word into my mouth, thing i did not said, and that’s really tells a lot how you feels about tipping culture in US and will never spare a thought on why it’s as it is. I in no way should be responsible for the wellbeing of another’s employees, that is the responsibility of their employer. Not tipping isn’t making someone else suffer to prove a point, that’s like saying me not being a doctor is making someone else suffer. That’s some ridiculous kind of mental gymnastic.
What tipping does is continuing the justification of paying them subminimal wage and demand the customer to foot the bill and hope it will make more than the minimum wage as employer might have to pay their worker more if the wage + tip didn’t add up to minimum wage. That’s some late stage capitalism stuff right here you’re supporting, or rather, “stuck” with.
I told you in plain words how I feel about tipping culture. How you choose to interpret that is your business.
I don’t need you to lecture me about what goes on in my own country or about how we feel because you’re not even talking from experience. Go ahead and “fight capitalism” by stiffing people on tips if it makes you feel better. You’re not helping anyone though so stop fooling yourself. You’re just being cheap.
Well if you say so, i don’t need you to lecture me about being “generous” either. Take your opinion elsewhere if you don’t want it to be challenged in a conversation.
Unless “we” change it via legislation, that’s never going to happen. Let’s explore how it would play out as an individual restaurant initiative:
Restaurant raises staff wages, raises prices to cover the increase. Even if you disclose it on the menu, customers don’t care: they see prices 20% higher, they choose to eat somewhere with cheaper menu prices. This is frequently what happens when restaurants try to do that.
If the restaurant increases server wages less than what they would make in tips, the servers will leave for another restaurant. The benefit of tips is that the harder you work, and more tables you take, the more money you make. Good servers can make $50+ an hour if they hustle.
Literally every other contractor. But that’s irrelevant to the point.
This is the way it is. Whether or not it’s a good system, it’s the system which exists. Changing the system will require a transition. If that transition comes from individual restaurants changing their policy, they will have 1) staffing issues as no server will stay when they could make more elsewhere, 2) customer issues as customers will prefer restaurants with lower menu prices, even if the total is the same.
This isn’t a value judgement, or a defense, this is a statement of fact. The only change that will stock would have to come from legislation. Societal systems have considerable inertia.
Why are you so stuck on that? Other industries not doing it doesn’t matter. It’s the system in place now and would take a big effort from everyone (aka legislation) to change. That’s the point. They’re not even defending the tipping system.
Many services… Maid service in hotels and hotel services in the industry as well. Taxi/goods delivery(not just food, but things like target 2hr delivery)…
I’m not saying it’s good… And I think the fundamental problem exists in these jobs as well… Typing should just not exist. Japan, for example has no tipping… It’s ducking fantastic.
Maid services are not dependent on my tips for their weekly wage. There’s no possible way.
Taxi/goods delivery all depend; if they’re working for a place specifically then they’re usually employees whereas if it’s Uber/lyft then they’re contractors however recently legislation in NYC makes it so that they have to earn a minimum wage and be less reliant on tipping for their pay.
Tipping shouldn’t exist, but there’s no other industry where it’s so out of hand as the food service/restaurant industry. Why am I paying extra money to the plate runner when it should be going to the chef who cooked my food (if I tip anyone at all)? The plate runner didn’t offer food suggestions. Didn’t answer any questions. All I did was order.
What’s next? I tip the kiosk on my table for taking my order? I tip the robot waiter for running my plates out? Bartender? Ok. Maybe I can see that, especially if I order a complicated drink. But just pouring a beer from the tap? Ehhhh.
Name one industry with security theater like air travel. Name one industry with lobbying like politics. Name one industry with subsidization like agriculture.
The tipping situation is a product of a problematic history, but it is what it is. The entire system is based on it. Saying something is unique has nothing to do with the process to change it.
Security Theatre is an overreaction to a single event. Most of it can also be trashed. Also, the air travel industry didn’t have security theatre for nearly a century.
Lobbying? Very similar to shareholders and boards of directors. Other governments also have varying amounts of lobbying, so it’s definitely not intrisic to the system.
Lots of industries get massive subsidies: Oil & Gas, Aerospace, Healthcare, Nuclear, Research, Energy, Automotive, Semiconductors, Real Estate, IT, many big corporation have squeezed a subsidy out just by threatening to leave a state! To some extent, every public service is a subsidy, just where the government owns the ‘company’. Some governments (probably) don’t do subsidies, but lots do, and one could argue that some system like subsidies is necessary for a well functioning government & country.
However, I agree that the uniqueness of a practice says very little about how good it ultimately is for anything.
My point has nothing to do with whether a practice is good or not. It’s about how deeply entrenched the practice is, and the practical complexities of uprooting the practice. Bad practices still require significant consideration in undoing.
My point is that “we should do away with ___” is an impotent sentiment by itself. Who is we? How are “we” going to actually do it? What does the transition period look like? What are the consequences? These are questions that, pragmatically, must be taken into consideration when implementing any large change, totally independent of any value judgement of that change.
Again, this “argument” is totally irrelevant, but:
If that counts the same as TSA, then hair/nail stylists, massage therapists, valets, Uber (and taxi and limo) drivers, hotel housekeepers and concierges are all traditionally tipped.
But again, that doesn’t matter. The system is what it is. Changing it is an option, but that does have practical considerations associated with it.
They are tipped, yes, but no NOT rely on tips for their wages. No other industry pays under minimum wage and expects me, the consumer, to subsidize employee’s wages.
The only people who have the power to eliminate tipping are the customers. Even if employers randomly started paying servers $50 an hour, people could still tip…and many probably would to get that feeling of moral superiority. And that is sort of irrelevant anyway because how the fuck are the customers supposed to know the servers wage anyway? I literally have no idea what my server (or hostess or line cook or after hours cleaning crew staff) makes at the last place I ate at. Do you?
It’s really not complicated. If customers stopped tipping, and servers can’t support themselves and therefore they are forced to quit and move towards literally any other industry with a higher/stable wage. Then employers either go out of business altogether or, more realistically, raise wages to replace those workers who quit since the employer would like to keep making money instead of not making money. And thus, menu prices go up to account for the lack of tipping.
No one has ever been able to provide me a scenario where tipping ends without servers quitting due to inadequate/unstable income. But I’m certainly open to suggestions!
Thing is, no one would accept to pay what’s written on the menu if they charged enough to cover what people pay in tip, it’s all psychological manipulation.
Prices would need to increase by about 20% and you wouldn’t have a choice to pay it anymore, contrary to tips. Or you accept that servers now only make minimum wage.
To be fair, in the rest of the world there aren’t tipped establishments competing with next door no-tipping establishments. People are bad at math, a menu of $13 + tip options seems cheaper at a glance than a menu of $15 no tip options. We are talking about the country where the 1/3rd pounder burger failed after all
This is actually true and raises the most important practical point about it, in my view. Convincing people to give up tipping isn’t too difficult; I think we’re getting there. But transitioning to a tip-free culture is very difficult.
I drew my conclusion from training servers who served in other countries and listening to their comparisons. I’ve eaten in other countries. How exactly did you come to your conclusion?
Do servers make over 70k/year everywhere in the world?
That’s something people don’t realize in North America, restaurant servers make fucking bank! If they complain about not having money it’s because of the restaurant culture of going out after every shift.
Some restaurant servers make bank. Some don’t even make enough with tips to bring them up to minimum wage. Yes, the employer is supposed to top them up to minimum wage when that happens, but if I had a nickel for every labor violation in the US, well I’d be making a lot more than minimum wage.
This lack of fairness even within the industry, is yet another reason to end tipping culture. Some servers make excellent money but all too many make little. This is yet another institution benefitting a few well off at the expense of everyone else
What’s your experience in the restaurant industry?
Good servers make about half of what you think they make. Your number is reserved for senior sommeliers and chefs; the only way FOH hits that is by selling drugs to BOH or working 80hr weeks.
If it paid that well there’d be no staffing issues at all, think about it.
At my last job servers are making 300+ in tip every 8h shift and get their salary that’s way above minimum plus they have full benefits including a pension fund and the business still has a hard time finding staff because the restaurant industry in general is a mess including the people working in it that think grass is always greener elsewhere.
I’m just pointing out that saying “If they were paid that much we wouldn’t have trouble finding staff!” is bullshit. With even better conditions my previous employer has trouble finding staff.
There is a lot more to economy than some number in some currency. There are servers in many first world countries making wages where they are able to pay for their homes and have social services like healthcare, all while customers at their places of employment pay the listed price.
70k USD means nothing in isolation, without respect for local economy and cost of living.
Would fucking love it if we just got rid of tipping all together. Employers -not customers- should be responsible for providing employees good pay.
Factor the difference into up front price of the food/service and be done with it.
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But it should be a hard opt-in, no “decline tip” bullshit, social engineering is still at issue
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Not my problem to figure out their business model.
If their business model doesn’t work and they go out of business, isn’t that the point of capitalism?
Pure capitalism? Yes.
Ordering from a place that you know pays workers in tips and not tipping makes someone more of a bitch. You’re not changing anything because without legislation there will never be enough people to make it happen. The system is too established. At this point claiming to be working towards change by not tipping is just making an excuse because you weren’t ever going to tip and it’s not fooling anyone.
Definitely. In my country, tipping aren’t expected but it’s a pleasant thing to receive in service industry, in US of A, tipping is expected and people will vehemently defend the status quo.
Well, server employees will, because they don’t want to deal with the loss of pay and/or the upheaval in their salary intake. No one likes a negative change to how they make a living and pay the bills.
Having said that, generally speaking, is it people, or ““people”” (aka corpo shills/bots) that are defending the status quo? Certain corporations have a big interest in maintaining the status quo and shaping the narrative towards that end.
It’s expected because waiters can’t make minimum wage without it. It’s not defended because people like that waiters are paid so little, it’s defended because they’re paid so little and politicians, until now, have seemed to have no interest in changing that. Like so many things in this country, the people have to come up with a patchwork solution just to keep others alive because the politicians don’t care.
So yes, I will defend tipping until this is fixed everywhere in the U.S. And I doubt it will be fixed any time soon. I’ll be surprised if it’s even fixed in these five states.
It has already become your culture, like it or not. Whether you tip or not, employer has to make up the different if the tip doesn’t add up to the minimum wage, so you’re essentially subsidising the employer as of now. Fixing the minimum wage will not get rid of tipping culture either, and exploitative employer knows that, so they will continue to pay the bare minimum and expect the customer to foot the bill.
I wonder if everyone reaction will change if we change “Tipping” to “Subsidising”, because that’s what the current status quo are.
This hits the nail on the head. Exploitative employers will always only pay the absolute minimum they can get away with. If you’re going to have a federally mandated minimum wage, then that wage will need to be adjusted frequently.
Has it been adjusted frequently?
In my country we don’t have a minimum wage. Wage ranges are determined by the market and negotiations with unions. It gets really easy to figure out which employers do the bare minimum and which don’t.
Tipping is still expected here in Washington where the minimum wage for tipped employees is the same.
Sure, because it’s easier to have the same policy everywhere than to not know whether or not you should be tipping depending on the state you’re in. I think that makes sense. Do you really want people from Washington going to Oregon and not tipping because they think they don’t have to?
Can’t defend the status quo and expect things to be fixed, they’re mutually exclusive of each other. Human nature demands that.
You absolutely can defend the status quo until things are fixed and work for things to be fixed. Maybe you think a change should come at the expense of waiters feeding themselves or their families. I do not.
It hasn’t so far, and human nature being what it is, makes it a safe bet that it won’t. Having said that, I hope I’m wrong.
Also, its ethically wrong to put the onus on the customer to support the status quo, that’s the employer responsibility to take care of their employees in all ways, and an employees responsibility to not work for any boss that won’t do that.
YES! Tortuuure them, make them SUUUFFEERRRRR!!1!!11!!! /s
If the guy in the next stall asks me for a roll of toilet paper (because he’s out), I’m going to give him a roll, as a civic duty to take care of each other.
If the guy in the next stall asks me to come over and wipe his ass for him, he’s on his own.
That’s a lot of words to say you don’t give a shit if a waiter can’t afford to feed their kids as long as you don’t have to give them any of your money. I hope you don’t go to restaurants if you feel that way.
You’re being intellectually dishonest in asigning motive to me, via a strawman or otherwise, without knowing me.
For the record, I do care, truly, but I also won’t be held hostage by corporations via my caring. Its ethically wrong.
Not only that, but there’s a very strong case to be made that from a purely economic perspective, a tipless system is better for everyone.
We’re not defending the status quo we’re stuck with it. But yes, going to another country and ignoring their customs would make people look at you like an asshole because you’re being an asshole unless you genuinely didn’t know. We’re not dancing around delighting in tipping people. We just know that not tipping hurts absolutely nobody except the server. Maybe you’re comfy with making someone else suffer to prove a point but I’m not.
You put too much emotional charged word into my mouth, thing i did not said, and that’s really tells a lot how you feels about tipping culture in US and will never spare a thought on why it’s as it is. I in no way should be responsible for the wellbeing of another’s employees, that is the responsibility of their employer. Not tipping isn’t making someone else suffer to prove a point, that’s like saying me not being a doctor is making someone else suffer. That’s some ridiculous kind of mental gymnastic.
What tipping does is continuing the justification of paying them subminimal wage and demand the customer to foot the bill and hope it will make more than the minimum wage as employer might have to pay their worker more if the wage + tip didn’t add up to minimum wage. That’s some late stage capitalism stuff right here you’re supporting, or rather, “stuck” with.
I told you in plain words how I feel about tipping culture. How you choose to interpret that is your business.
I don’t need you to lecture me about what goes on in my own country or about how we feel because you’re not even talking from experience. Go ahead and “fight capitalism” by stiffing people on tips if it makes you feel better. You’re not helping anyone though so stop fooling yourself. You’re just being cheap.
Well if you say so, i don’t need you to lecture me about being “generous” either. Take your opinion elsewhere if you don’t want it to be challenged in a conversation.
What a toxic country. 🙄
Unless “we” change it via legislation, that’s never going to happen. Let’s explore how it would play out as an individual restaurant initiative:
Restaurant raises staff wages, raises prices to cover the increase. Even if you disclose it on the menu, customers don’t care: they see prices 20% higher, they choose to eat somewhere with cheaper menu prices. This is frequently what happens when restaurants try to do that.
If the restaurant increases server wages less than what they would make in tips, the servers will leave for another restaurant. The benefit of tips is that the harder you work, and more tables you take, the more money you make. Good servers can make $50+ an hour if they hustle.
Source: 8 years experience in the industry.
I shouldn’t be paying my server’s wage; the restaurant should.
Name one other job (that isn’t in the food service industry) where the buyers subsidize the worker’s salary voluntarily.
Literally every other contractor. But that’s irrelevant to the point.
This is the way it is. Whether or not it’s a good system, it’s the system which exists. Changing the system will require a transition. If that transition comes from individual restaurants changing their policy, they will have 1) staffing issues as no server will stay when they could make more elsewhere, 2) customer issues as customers will prefer restaurants with lower menu prices, even if the total is the same.
This isn’t a value judgement, or a defense, this is a statement of fact. The only change that will stock would have to come from legislation. Societal systems have considerable inertia.
Again, name one other industry.
Why are you so stuck on that? Other industries not doing it doesn’t matter. It’s the system in place now and would take a big effort from everyone (aka legislation) to change. That’s the point. They’re not even defending the tipping system.
Name. One. Industry.
I’ll wait.
Many services… Maid service in hotels and hotel services in the industry as well. Taxi/goods delivery(not just food, but things like target 2hr delivery)…
I’m not saying it’s good… And I think the fundamental problem exists in these jobs as well… Typing should just not exist. Japan, for example has no tipping… It’s ducking fantastic.
Maid services are not dependent on my tips for their weekly wage. There’s no possible way.
Taxi/goods delivery all depend; if they’re working for a place specifically then they’re usually employees whereas if it’s Uber/lyft then they’re contractors however recently legislation in NYC makes it so that they have to earn a minimum wage and be less reliant on tipping for their pay.
Tipping shouldn’t exist, but there’s no other industry where it’s so out of hand as the food service/restaurant industry. Why am I paying extra money to the plate runner when it should be going to the chef who cooked my food (if I tip anyone at all)? The plate runner didn’t offer food suggestions. Didn’t answer any questions. All I did was order.
What’s next? I tip the kiosk on my table for taking my order? I tip the robot waiter for running my plates out? Bartender? Ok. Maybe I can see that, especially if I order a complicated drink. But just pouring a beer from the tap? Ehhhh.
It’s entirely irrelevant.
Name one industry with security theater like air travel. Name one industry with lobbying like politics. Name one industry with subsidization like agriculture.
The tipping situation is a product of a problematic history, but it is what it is. The entire system is based on it. Saying something is unique has nothing to do with the process to change it.
Security Theatre is an overreaction to a single event. Most of it can also be trashed. Also, the air travel industry didn’t have security theatre for nearly a century.
Lobbying? Very similar to shareholders and boards of directors. Other governments also have varying amounts of lobbying, so it’s definitely not intrisic to the system.
Lots of industries get massive subsidies: Oil & Gas, Aerospace, Healthcare, Nuclear, Research, Energy, Automotive, Semiconductors, Real Estate, IT, many big corporation have squeezed a subsidy out just by threatening to leave a state! To some extent, every public service is a subsidy, just where the government owns the ‘company’. Some governments (probably) don’t do subsidies, but lots do, and one could argue that some system like subsidies is necessary for a well functioning government & country.
However, I agree that the uniqueness of a practice says very little about how good it ultimately is for anything.
My point has nothing to do with whether a practice is good or not. It’s about how deeply entrenched the practice is, and the practical complexities of uprooting the practice. Bad practices still require significant consideration in undoing.
My point is that “we should do away with ___” is an impotent sentiment by itself. Who is we? How are “we” going to actually do it? What does the transition period look like? What are the consequences? These are questions that, pragmatically, must be taken into consideration when implementing any large change, totally independent of any value judgement of that change.
The events industry. Do you really think those bag checks do anything with how quickly they “look” in your bag before going into a venue?
I did one; now you do yours.
Again, this “argument” is totally irrelevant, but:
If that counts the same as TSA, then hair/nail stylists, massage therapists, valets, Uber (and taxi and limo) drivers, hotel housekeepers and concierges are all traditionally tipped.
But again, that doesn’t matter. The system is what it is. Changing it is an option, but that does have practical considerations associated with it.
They are tipped, yes, but no NOT rely on tips for their wages. No other industry pays under minimum wage and expects me, the consumer, to subsidize employee’s wages.
Try again.
The only people who have the power to eliminate tipping are the customers. Even if employers randomly started paying servers $50 an hour, people could still tip…and many probably would to get that feeling of moral superiority. And that is sort of irrelevant anyway because how the fuck are the customers supposed to know the servers wage anyway? I literally have no idea what my server (or hostess or line cook or after hours cleaning crew staff) makes at the last place I ate at. Do you?
It’s really not complicated. If customers stopped tipping, and servers can’t support themselves and therefore they are forced to quit and move towards literally any other industry with a higher/stable wage. Then employers either go out of business altogether or, more realistically, raise wages to replace those workers who quit since the employer would like to keep making money instead of not making money. And thus, menu prices go up to account for the lack of tipping.
No one has ever been able to provide me a scenario where tipping ends without servers quitting due to inadequate/unstable income. But I’m certainly open to suggestions!
Thing is, no one would accept to pay what’s written on the menu if they charged enough to cover what people pay in tip, it’s all psychological manipulation.
Prices would need to increase by about 20% and you wouldn’t have a choice to pay it anymore, contrary to tips. Or you accept that servers now only make minimum wage.
That’s interesting.
InIt works all across the world exactly how you say it wouldn’t work.To be fair, in the rest of the world there aren’t tipped establishments competing with next door no-tipping establishments. People are bad at math, a menu of $13 + tip options seems cheaper at a glance than a menu of $15 no tip options. We are talking about the country where the 1/3rd pounder burger failed after all
This is actually true and raises the most important practical point about it, in my view. Convincing people to give up tipping isn’t too difficult; I think we’re getting there. But transitioning to a tip-free culture is very difficult.
So tipping is a byproduct of Americans being idiots?
Service expectations across the world are drastically lower than in the US.
Bullshit.
I drew my conclusion from training servers who served in other countries and listening to their comparisons. I’ve eaten in other countries. How exactly did you come to your conclusion?
Do servers make over 70k/year everywhere in the world?
That’s something people don’t realize in North America, restaurant servers make fucking bank! If they complain about not having money it’s because of the restaurant culture of going out after every shift.
Some restaurant servers make bank. Some don’t even make enough with tips to bring them up to minimum wage. Yes, the employer is supposed to top them up to minimum wage when that happens, but if I had a nickel for every labor violation in the US, well I’d be making a lot more than minimum wage.
This lack of fairness even within the industry, is yet another reason to end tipping culture. Some servers make excellent money but all too many make little. This is yet another institution benefitting a few well off at the expense of everyone else
What’s your experience in the restaurant industry?
Good servers make about half of what you think they make. Your number is reserved for senior sommeliers and chefs; the only way FOH hits that is by selling drugs to BOH or working 80hr weeks.
If it paid that well there’d be no staffing issues at all, think about it.
At my last job servers are making 300+ in tip every 8h shift and get their salary that’s way above minimum plus they have full benefits including a pension fund and the business still has a hard time finding staff because the restaurant industry in general is a mess including the people working in it that think grass is always greener elsewhere.
Edit: Forgot, they’re unionized too
most of your country is nothing like your extremely privileged little bubble.
I’m just pointing out that saying “If they were paid that much we wouldn’t have trouble finding staff!” is bullshit. With even better conditions my previous employer has trouble finding staff.
There is a lot more to economy than some number in some currency. There are servers in many first world countries making wages where they are able to pay for their homes and have social services like healthcare, all while customers at their places of employment pay the listed price.
70k USD means nothing in isolation, without respect for local economy and cost of living.