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[–] 281 points 4 months ago (53 children)

Yes, but waiter are underpaid and should have a salary too.

... Apparently. This is too american for me to understand

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  • [–] 109 points 4 months ago (14 children)

    As wish many things American, it goes back to slavery. Tipped workers were a way for employers to avoid paying (mostly black) workers, effectively providing slavery-lite even after slavery had ended (Happy Juneteenth).

    In any case, current U.S. labor law has specific carve-outs for certain tipped jobs that allow the minimal wage to be not the already unlivable $7.25/hr but the unsustainable $2.15/hr. Technically, employers are required to bring a tipped workers pay up to $7.25/hr if they do not report enough tips, but in practice employers encourage reporting incorrect tips and find reasons (if needed) to dismiss employees that do not report enough tips.

    Fisherman, Sailor, Teamster, and Chef are not tipped positions. Waitstaff is a tipped position.

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  • [–] 47 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Tipped workers were a way for employers to avoid paying (mostly black) workers, effectively providing slavery-lite even after slavery had ended

    It's not just about being cheap though. It reinforces the idea that the worker is of a lower social status than the customer. The customer may, at their own discretion, choose whether or not to pay the worker a fair wage for the work they have done. That's a very clear power imbalance.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    my wife hates this but money burns a hole in my pocket. i inherited it from my dad. so while i contribute to the problem, it's because a larger than average tip really brightens someone's day. it means i can't eat out as much, but that's my problem not theirs.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    As someone in the industry, I can't thank people like you enough. A great tip can make a shitty shift so much better. I wish so many others were as kind. Or at this rate, just kind enough to tip 20%.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    True but some states don't have this distinction and it means servers actually make pretty decent money.

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  • [–] 28 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Yes and "tipping" has gone insane. Not just amounts (tho even when I was a child, my parents consider 10% the bare minimum) but also you get prompted to leave a tip for transactions that don't involve a tipped position.

    My experience is from one of the shittier states for workers (Arkansas), right-to-work effectively eliminates all union activity, the state would remove the minimum wage if it could, and there's even people that want to make it easier for 14-18 year olds to work.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    Outside of the US it's a reward for good work

    Inside the US its you directly subsidising the businesses refusal to even pay minimum wage.

    So bitching about a higher tip is bitching about fair wages for work. You got an issue paying that, you take it up with the employer who has shoved the burden of paying their waitstaff onto you.

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  • [–] -2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Exactly! Don't like paying tips? Stop eating at those establishments.

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  • [–] 67 points 4 months ago (29 children)

    Waiter is the only one who gets their wage subsidized by their bosses customers.

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  • [–] 25 points 4 months ago (27 children)

    Everyone gets their wage subsidized by the customers of the business (both B2B and B2C) they work for.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (26 children)

    So, they all can ask for tips?

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  • [–] 11 points 4 months ago* (11 children)

    The money comes from the customer in either scenario, functionally there is no difference it flows from customer to employee regardless.

    Edit: just to be clear, I am very much against the tipping culture in the US as it only benefits the employer and leaves employees at the whim of the customers mood. But all employee salaries are paid by the customers money in the end.

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  • [–] 23 points 4 months ago (10 children)

    Yeah, but that's not what subsidized means at all.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago* (8 children)

    No the definition is technically to be partially financially supported by public funds (I.e. government or other organization)...but that wouldn't cover tipping from private customers either so...

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  • [–] -2 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    No, you're just wrong here and there is no technically.

    You're misunderstanding what public funds are.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    You you're suggesting that money spent by private customers counts as "public funds", you're misunderstanding what public funds are.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago*

    i don't think there's a misunderstanding dude. i think you're talking past each other because you used hyperbole. you both seem to be making the same point in different words, like you got different educations and degrees or something normal like that

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  • [–] -1 points 4 months ago (11 children)

    No, but we shouldn't expect to pay less if they stop receiving tips and the employer pays them instead. I think a lot of people make this assumption. In reality it'll be more like you don't have to tip but your meal is 20% more expensive.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    And we won't pay less!

    they stop receiving tips we pay the same employer pays them instead oops, forgot this part. restaurant owner makes 15% more money!

    To be fair, they will do the whole boiling frog pot thing. It'll be easier to do with 7% inflation a year.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago* (2 children)

    we're currently^1^ at 4%/mo or 28% a year which is fuuuuun

    ^1^last i checked which was i forget but it was less than a year ago and the number makes krasnov look bad so meh.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago*

    7% more expensive in reality. labor costs are a lot in restaurants, but the big one is rent followed by utilities

    there was a study on fast food prices rising in relation to the 15 dollar minimum wage hike. that's where i'm getting my number from. also my ass because it's me, but my estimates are usually spot on.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Are you saying the restaurant should charge more and prevent tipping or if you don't tip you get hit with an extra charge? Or is it a different method?

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago*

    Ideally, the restaurant should pay enough that tipping is not required (which does require them to raise prices). As a customer you would then be free to tip a smaller amount if you thought that the service was exceptional.

    That’s how it works in the UK although a lot of businesses are adding a tip onto the bill in advance so that you would need to complain about the service to get it removed (technically you can just ask them to remove the tip without giving a reason if that’s how you want to play it).

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (2 children)

    I would like the charge to stay the same but the waiter still gets a living wage but it's absurd to believe that will happen and may be unrealistic to expect that it should. I don't know what profit margin any given restaurant has but none will give up 20% of profits and a lot may not be able to remain open if they have to. In any scenario the business would have to change beyond recognition. The ones who choose to adapt may just fire the waiters and have you order through a machine and then you don't have to tip but that business model already exists in most fast food chains.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

    No, you hit the nail on the head. A lot of Americans are fooled by this sort of anti-worker division propaganda. This is a conservative / right wing comic.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    (I get it. It was just for the meme/joke)

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Visit Canada where wait staff don't have a separate minimum wage yet still we have American tip culture.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    Uh, false. So called "serving" class jobs (wait staff, hotel maids and a few others) have a lower minimum wage in many of the provinces. In Quebec, their sales for their shifts are even tracked an proactively taxed for the expected tips they should receive. Which is why you get stink eye from servers in Quebec, they get taxed on expected tip output even if they don't get tipped.

    I see they have removed the "service" terms held over from slave nomenclature and now call it a "minimum tipped wage".

    https://www.cnesst.gouv.qc.ca/en/working-conditions/wage-and-pay/wages/minimum-wage

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  • [–] 45 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    See this way capitalists get to underpay workers

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  • [–] 23 points 4 months ago* (2 children)

    Nah, all of the people in that strip are underpaid. Tipping waitstaff is a mechanism to tie their ability to feed their families directly to sycophantic ass kissing behavior. It's essentially a way for the rich to know they can get dancing monkey entertainment anywhere they go.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I mean it literally started so owners wouldn't have to pay POC waiters, the rest was just added bonus

    But yes everyone on a wage is underpaid

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago

    Well yes, the owners didn't want to pay black waitstaff, but also tying it to patron tips meant that they had to perform fealty and fawning and "good humor" under abuse in order to get paid. It's both a way to underpay and a way to control and break the spirit.

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  • [–] 150 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Everyone in this panel is underpaid. No change happens blaming one worker against the other. We're all under the boot

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  • [–] 13 points 4 months ago*

    Yes, but in the US servers get paid much less than minimum wage with the presumption that tips will make up the difference.

    Businesses are supposed to make up any difference between what servers fail to earn as tips up to minimum wage, but:

    • It gives businesses an opportunity to fail to do this,
    • It means that minimum wage is what some servers effectively get, and
    • It effectively means the amount of tips servers get per hour is lessened by the difference between their hourly pay and the minimum wage rate; it's a way for businesses to reach into server tips and get some of it for themselves.
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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Remember to tip your landlord

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago*

    There's these new payday loan scam apps they call earned income advances or some bullshit like that where they take the loan amount and fees out of your next paycheck directly.

    These asswipes charging what amounts to like 500% APR have the fucking audacity to ask for tips.

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  • [–] 19 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    A "yes, but" like this, but instead all the countries where servers get a (relatively) decent wage vs America where tipping is mandatory.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    American tipping culture is so arbitrary though. You tip your taxi driver but not your bus driver. You tip at a coffee shop but not at a fast food shop. Your hairdresser gets a tip but not the people looking after your children.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Have you been in fast food recently? Half those places are asking for tips now

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