Service charges; resort fees; "surcharge" add-ons: A new state law requiring price transparency is set to take effect in July. Until now, no one knew how it would apply to restaurants.
Need this nationwide. I hate having fees added on to the price of what I’m ordering.
We need European pricing where the price is the price. I would go as far as making asking for a tip illegal too. Have restaurants put on their menu that prices include the tip. Raise minimum wage for restaurant workers.
And not just for restaurants, everything, from airline tickets to concert tickets, etc.
OP said “asking for a tip”. If I want to tip a particularly good server experience, everyone should be free to do so. But asking for it, and it comes to mind those places that explicitly stipulate that 10% is minimum mandatory tipping, should be illegal. That’s a hidden fee, not a tip.
People can’t let go of tipping. A few restaurants near me tried it and ended up closing.
Tipping isn’t just a part of culture but it also breaks up the spend for the consumer. You commit to a $15 burger now, then the $3 of tip later. Integrating the tips with the cost makes it seem like everything is more expensive and also makes it not optional for how much you give.
…That’s why people don’t like the service fees, etc. It’s difficult to know, as a consumer, how much you’re actually being asked to spend. If you’re rich, haha who cares? Everybody else has to do this thing called “budgeting.”
Weave backed ourselves into a corner for tipping. Restaurants may be convinced to pay a livable wage. But they’re never going to pay the servers what they can actually make in tips.
I was about 5 years into IT, My girlfriend was waiting tables at Ruby Tuesday. Most days she made more than I did. And depending on how bad they ‘adjusted’ their tax claims …
That said, some days she did basically pay to work there.
I suspect if you ask the vast majority of wait staff if they would like to be paid and livable wage or continue a tip-based system they want to stay tip based.
I think that’s very dependent on age. When I was in my early twenties, an inconsistent gig with the potential for high tips was very appealing. When I got into my late twenties/early thirties I moved over to events and catering because they offered a high hourly wage with predictable(ish) hours. If the restaurants pay well enough they’ll be able to find people.
The real problem will be vacation towns. There are some places where most of the restaurants and bars close in the off-season. The staff will work their asses off through the spring and summer, then use their tips to live the rest of the year. For some of these towns, even if the restaurant staff wanted to pick up a job in the off-season, they’d need to drive two hours just to find a part-time gig at Target. I really want tipping to end, but I’m not sure what would happen to these places. The seasonal restaurants could pay more, but I’m not sure they could offer enough to subsidize their staff for half the year.
How’s that any different? You’d get fewer takers for a seasonal job, so shouldn’t pay go up? Just like they now get disproportionate tips, shouldn’t they get a disproportionate living wage?
I’m not sure it will scale properly. Tipping might outpace sales in towns like that, and I’m not really sure what the economics are in maintaining seasonal restaurant. And if there are fewer takers for seasonal jobs, the employers could pay more theoretically, but in the restaurant industry, fewer servers means slower service. Slower service means fewer sales, fewer sales means less profit, and less profit means lower pay. I think places like this would require a UBI program to maintain how they currently operate without tips.
Good for her, but arguably it’s not supposed to be a high paying job. A living wage, sure, but higher than a job that you presumably studied for and required relatively uncommon knowledge seems wrong.
So I guess the answer is no, we wouldn’t expect restaurants to work out how much people get paid in tips and match it, it would be a liveable wage and if the current workers don’t like it they would leave.
I don’t know that your girlfriend getting bankrolled is common across the industry either, tips rely on high traffic and customers with big pockets. Most wait staff don’t brag about how rich they are.
But they’re never going to pay the servers what they can actually make in tips
Im not sure I believe that. I mean, I’ve also known people who said the same things, so clearly there are people who really make out. However I suspect this is highly variable and there are even more just scraping by. I’m sure it greatly depend on the restaurant and the clientele, as well as the actual effort, and I’m sure it highly depends on looks. That 18yr old hottie at the local hot spot may rake it in, but the elderly matron at the local diner works just as hard but with less opportunity
Everyone talks about tips being a reward for good service but tips are almost never proportional to service
Yeah, tipping is pretty messed up. In a lot of states, wait staff are exempt from the minimum wage because they’re expected to treat tips (which are notoriously unreliable) as part of their salary.
Generally, as here in CO, there is still a minimum wage for staff that are regularly tipped, it’s just lower. I believe it’s also (again, as here) generally required that any time the tipping doesn’t make up the difference, companies are required to make it up instead.
That being said, it’s basically a way to advertise much lower prices than they actually charge. Roles that often get tipped tend to make pretty good money, and companies would basically never want to pay that much for those roles (especially when they are used to paying even less than minimum wage).
We need European pricing where the price is the price. I would go as far as making asking for a tip illegal too. Have restaurants put on their menu that prices include the tip. Raise minimum wage for restaurant workers.
And not just for restaurants, everything, from airline tickets to concert tickets, etc.
I think clear signage and message on the bill indicating “tipping is optional, service charges is included in the menu price” should suffice.
Making tipping illegal goes too far, but I am okay with implementing it for couple decades, in order to correct a bad habit.
OP said “asking for a tip”. If I want to tip a particularly good server experience, everyone should be free to do so. But asking for it, and it comes to mind those places that explicitly stipulate that 10% is minimum mandatory tipping, should be illegal. That’s a hidden fee, not a tip.
10%?? I don’t think I’ve seen less than 15 in years
Agreed. Though I was at the UPS store and they had a tip jar.
I was like: who the heck tips at the UPS store?
UPS: “We noticed you didn’t tip. Would be a shame if your package didn’t… Make it.”
Then we are back to where we started where tipping is a guild riddled demand
Pay waiting staff a livable wage and include that in the price, no tipping
People can’t let go of tipping. A few restaurants near me tried it and ended up closing.
Tipping isn’t just a part of culture but it also breaks up the spend for the consumer. You commit to a $15 burger now, then the $3 of tip later. Integrating the tips with the cost makes it seem like everything is more expensive and also makes it not optional for how much you give.
Which is why it needs to be a law all restaurants must follow, instead of a few trying.
…That’s why people don’t like the service fees, etc. It’s difficult to know, as a consumer, how much you’re actually being asked to spend. If you’re rich, haha who cares? Everybody else has to do this thing called “budgeting.”
Weave backed ourselves into a corner for tipping. Restaurants may be convinced to pay a livable wage. But they’re never going to pay the servers what they can actually make in tips.
I was about 5 years into IT, My girlfriend was waiting tables at Ruby Tuesday. Most days she made more than I did. And depending on how bad they ‘adjusted’ their tax claims …
That said, some days she did basically pay to work there.
I suspect if you ask the vast majority of wait staff if they would like to be paid and livable wage or continue a tip-based system they want to stay tip based.
I think that’s very dependent on age. When I was in my early twenties, an inconsistent gig with the potential for high tips was very appealing. When I got into my late twenties/early thirties I moved over to events and catering because they offered a high hourly wage with predictable(ish) hours. If the restaurants pay well enough they’ll be able to find people.
The real problem will be vacation towns. There are some places where most of the restaurants and bars close in the off-season. The staff will work their asses off through the spring and summer, then use their tips to live the rest of the year. For some of these towns, even if the restaurant staff wanted to pick up a job in the off-season, they’d need to drive two hours just to find a part-time gig at Target. I really want tipping to end, but I’m not sure what would happen to these places. The seasonal restaurants could pay more, but I’m not sure they could offer enough to subsidize their staff for half the year.
How’s that any different? You’d get fewer takers for a seasonal job, so shouldn’t pay go up? Just like they now get disproportionate tips, shouldn’t they get a disproportionate living wage?
I’m not sure it will scale properly. Tipping might outpace sales in towns like that, and I’m not really sure what the economics are in maintaining seasonal restaurant. And if there are fewer takers for seasonal jobs, the employers could pay more theoretically, but in the restaurant industry, fewer servers means slower service. Slower service means fewer sales, fewer sales means less profit, and less profit means lower pay. I think places like this would require a UBI program to maintain how they currently operate without tips.
Good for her, but arguably it’s not supposed to be a high paying job. A living wage, sure, but higher than a job that you presumably studied for and required relatively uncommon knowledge seems wrong.
So I guess the answer is no, we wouldn’t expect restaurants to work out how much people get paid in tips and match it, it would be a liveable wage and if the current workers don’t like it they would leave.
I don’t know that your girlfriend getting bankrolled is common across the industry either, tips rely on high traffic and customers with big pockets. Most wait staff don’t brag about how rich they are.
It’s also really hard work. Waiting tables at a busy restaurant was by far the most mentally exhausting job I’ve ever had.
Im not sure I believe that. I mean, I’ve also known people who said the same things, so clearly there are people who really make out. However I suspect this is highly variable and there are even more just scraping by. I’m sure it greatly depend on the restaurant and the clientele, as well as the actual effort, and I’m sure it highly depends on looks. That 18yr old hottie at the local hot spot may rake it in, but the elderly matron at the local diner works just as hard but with less opportunity
Everyone talks about tips being a reward for good service but tips are almost never proportional to service
Yeah, tipping is pretty messed up. In a lot of states, wait staff are exempt from the minimum wage because they’re expected to treat tips (which are notoriously unreliable) as part of their salary.
Generally, as here in CO, there is still a minimum wage for staff that are regularly tipped, it’s just lower. I believe it’s also (again, as here) generally required that any time the tipping doesn’t make up the difference, companies are required to make it up instead.
That being said, it’s basically a way to advertise much lower prices than they actually charge. Roles that often get tipped tend to make pretty good money, and companies would basically never want to pay that much for those roles (especially when they are used to paying even less than minimum wage).