Restaurants Say No to Tips

[Silver]

" As Minimum Wages Rise, Restaurants Say No to Tips, Yes to Higher Prices

By PATRICIA COHENAUG. 23, 2015

Seattle, where the first stage of a $15-an-hour minimum wage law took effect in April,
Ivar’s seafood restaurants switched to an all-inclusive menu.

By raising prices 21 percent and ending tipping,
Bob C. Donegan, the president and co-owner, calculated he could increase everyone’s wages.

www.nytimes.com/.../as-minimum-wage-rises-restaura "

" misgivings about tipping traditions --
which are said to have been brought over from Europe after the Civil War.

“Whether it’s good service or bad service, people tend to tip the same amount,”
Fry says, citing Cornell professor and

gratuity theorist Michael Lynn.
“When you have bad service, you just don’t go back.
So in reality, tipping hides how people actually feel.”

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246972

I thought tipping was non-mandatory.
I hate the feeling U get if U don't leave a big
enough tip . .

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/09/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-tip-as-in-leaving-a-tip/

 

[SoulRaven]

The problem I see with this, is that a good waiter/waitress could easily bring in $100+ daily in tips. For them, the increased wages and no tips is likely to be a cut in income, not a raise.

I also think that it removes the incentive for the wait staff to offer superior service.

 

[my_vantasy]

At the restaurant where my son worked, all of the individual tips went into a common place and were divided equally at the end of the shift. For that reason, I knew someone who never left a tip on the table --he would chase down his server and hand her the money saying it was just for her.

 

[highdesertranger]

yeah you are going to have to pay them a lot more than 15 bucks a hour to make up for lost tips. highdesertranger

 

[LeeRevell]

I see things like this happening in so many areas of employment - longtime established customs being eliminated, due to 'improvements', but resulting in a net loss of income and incentive for the employees. Ah, what price "fairness".....   :-/

 

[cyndi]

As a waitress from the olden days I made less that 1.05 an hour in MA.

Today, the federal minimum wage for a tipped employee is $2.13 an hour. The feds also tax 10% of the total of their dinner checks (not including the added tax). that also includes the bar even though the bartender will tipped by the waitress but is not taxed on their tips. It will also include any wine served by the maitre de or sommelier. but they are not tipped employees so don't have to claim taxes on their tips. Your server will have to tip them 10% or more at the end of the shift. He or she will also have to tip the bus boy'girl and maybe the barback and in some places the kitchen.

Minimum wage in any given state may be more but there are still plenty of states that go with the federal minimum and every server that recieves tips is being taxed.

If you can't afford to tip go to a buffet or eat fast food.

 

[Canine]

Well,I don't want to start an argument here.(I'm barely hanging by a thread on this forum.)I like to see the higher pay because there is a lot of work for the waitress and bartender besides serving customers.I have no problem paying more for my food or servce to provide a wage someone can live on.

 

[Silver]

" If you can't afford to tip go to a buffet or eat fast food. "
The Buffets here expect a tip.
The Fast food i go to is  Fried Chicken , Sub Sandwiches , Deli counters.
But sometimes I crave the regular restaurants.

" On principle, Taveras went ahead and hired a lawyer, 
rather than just pay the discrepancy and fines and fought the charge.  
He won without going to court as the District Attorney 
threw out the case stating that tips can never truly be mandatory,
 regardless of posted signs in a restaurant or restaurant policy. 

A study done by Cornell University found that the actual quality of service 
received by an individual did not correlate with the amount of tip. 

 Much stronger correlations, in terms of tipping amount, 
could be found based on how attractive the server was 
and/or how much the total of the bill was. 

So more a “self-imposed wealth tax”,
 in that someone who can afford to pay for more expensive meals will generally pay a larger tip, 
regardless of service.  

Two other similar studies showed that minorities receive
 significantly lower tips than white people, regardless of bill price, 
even when the people leaving the tip were also minorities 

• [font='Droid Sans', Arial, Tahoma]So apparently if you leave a tip, [/font]
  
• [font='Droid Sans', Arial, Tahoma]you are taking part in an activity that is racist,[/font]
  
• [font='Droid Sans', Arial, Tahoma] prejudice against unattractive people, and [/font]
  
• [font='Droid Sans', Arial, Tahoma]facilitate tax fraud and oppression of workers in the form of lower pay. [img=15x15]http://www.todayifoundout.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif[/img] "[/font]
  

[font=Droid Sans, Arial, Tahoma]http://www.todayifoundout.com/index...e-word-tip-as-in-leaving-a-tip/[/font][/SIZE]

 

[cyndi]

The Buffets here expect a tip.

Buffet workers may expect a tip and I'm sure they make a lousy  minimum wage so I, personally, would tip. 
The point of my post was to tell you that many food servers make less than the standard minimum wage. That is because it is expected that their tips will make up the difference.
Even if they are making above the federal minimum of the tipped wage they still have to tip others out of the tip that you didn't leave. And the Federal government taxes the server on 10% of your check whether or not you tip them.
The rest of your post is moot. it has nothing to with screwing a food server out of the gratuity.

 

[Canine]

I don't understand why there are different minmun wages for waitress,farmworker and others.Montana requires that everyone gets at least the state min. wage,which was $8.00 an hr. when Vic was waitressing and bartending.Many times on our seasonal jobs,the tips exceeded the regular pay.I think $15.00 an hour is a fair wage in this day and time.

 

[LeeRevell]

If one actually studies the issue of "minimum wage", one finds that it was never inteded to be a stand alone "living wage".   Raising it to a "living wage" level will have very adverse results for many small businesses.  Yes, this will result in arguments to the contrary, but truth can be painful.

 

[Silver]

" June 2, 2014, the City Council of Seattle, Washington
passed a local ordinance to increase the minimum wage of the city to $15 an hour,
 giving the city the highest minimum wage in the United States,
which will be phased in over seven years, to be fully implemented by 2021 "

I'd love to visit Wash !

" John Detroit August 25, 2015
The tip should be "voluntary" not "obligatory".
Employees should be paid fair living wage, so they don't have to count the blessing of or lack of tips.
Rest of the world pays fair living wages to their staff, only in US we exploit them in pseudo slavery. "

They choose to be waitstaff.

Why do we have to pay extra just so we don't get
strange looks & potentially harassed ?

The owners choose to give X wages.
They shouldnt expect the customers to pay extra.

Times are tough.

 

[GotSmart]

Wen I was on the road getting ready to return home for medical care after my 9 months on the road~~~  I stopped in at a Cracker Barrel in Junction City, Kansas.  (7 AM) The young white waitress (Early 20's ) passed by my table several times going from the kitchen to her ONE other table.  I had to raise my voice to get a menu.  

Two minutes later i was startled with a  "What do you want?"

I said Water, clean silver, and a cup of coffee please while I look at the choices.  (The rolled silver was dirty!)   

An even younger busser came out with my menu and coffee.  After another 10 minutes, the first waitress came through and grabbed her tip from the now vacant table.  I raised my voice as she was purposely not looking in my direction and heading for the  back.  She took my order with out a word, and that was the last I saw of her.  

20 minutes later I went to the head, and saw a plate on the table when I got back.  All cold food, wrong order, and obviously over cooked. 

The buss girl came by with a coffee pot looking scared.  I asked about my waitress, and was told, "Im sorry, she left."   I smiled at her, and told her that my order was wrong.  She immediately offered to get me something different.  I just wanted the manager.  

He came over and looked at my plate (Barely touched)  and immediately apologised.  I was offered anything I wanted  without charge.  

Apparently there was a problem with that waitress not wanting to have to do her own work, and was taking it out on the customers and other staff.  One of my daughters worked in Cracker Barrel so I knew deliberate sabotage just by looking  I left a tip for the busser, and thanked the manager for his time.  I then went to Missouri for a meal. If I get one tampered with plate, I will not try for two.   

Under paid (2.13 an hour) over worked, and being a bottom cog in a corporate food service machine  really sucks.  Especially if there are no other jobs available.  Many times food service is not a choice, but a immediate solution.

 

[LeeRevell]

Which is exactly why tips are a GOOD thing.  Good service gets good tips.  I tend to tip well if the waitress did a good job.  I once had a really top notch waitress, who went out of her way to make sure her customers were happy.  She got a very good tip!
If a waitress is as lax and lazy and angry as that one you had, she gets NOTHING.  Hopefully it encourages her to move on.
The faulty logic of the "Fifteen Dollar Minimum Wage" only helps these lackadaisies.  And the company cannot hire as many employees.  Bad deal all around.

 

[B and C]

The faulty logic of the "Fifteen Dollar Minimum Wage" only helps these lackadaisies.  And the company cannot hire as many employees.  Bad deal all around.

The company will have to make up for that extra labor cost and we all know where the money comes from, us, in forced higher prices even if the service was not "To Insure Prompt (TIP)" service worthy.  I like tipping as I can reward those deserving and I usually tip 20% for standard service.  It goes up and down from there.

Brian

 

[GotSmart]

My daughter spent a semester in England.  Tipping is considered an insult there. Workers make a fair wage there.  It is cheaper to live and go to school in England than the US.  

The wage disparity between the entry workers, and the CEO's is a lot higher here than anywhere else.  It is at the point where 1% of the people in the US have 99% of the money.  

For example, 

Average worker at WalMart $22,600 per year.   CEO   $25.6 Million.

That is more than 1,000 times the wage of the average worker.  

McDonalds.  Worker pay per hour.   $7.73.  CEO pay per hour.  $9,247.00  The McD's worker is usually not allowed to get 40 hours a week. In other words the CEO makes more money in two hours than the average worker makes in a year.

 

[akrvbob]

We are well into politics, let's dial it back or we'll close the thread.

This is not the "Let's complain about all the horrible evils in the World" forum. There are plenty of those out there waiting for you.

This is the "We've found a way out, and want to help you find it too!"  Forum!"

The moderators get to chose which we want this to be.
Bob