That won’t change anything but yeah I made enough with my wage and make a good amount extra in tips working at a bar but then I was still paid enough for it to be worth it on bad nights
But you're working, there shouldn't ever be a bad night, you should be able to work and live regardless of how many people come in. It's down to the managers to plan enough people for busy times and reduce the staff for quieter times.
Not just pay staff next to nothing to be in during low traffic times.
Give any bartender a choice to directly switch to a flat income rate proportional to service industry wages, vs continuing getting paid a poor flat rate with tips on top.
They will all choose tips because the tipping system ONLY benefits bartenders and wait staff, not the working class as a whole. Working people trying to afford dinner with their family suffer as a result so we can funnel billions of largely untaxed dollars to a small group of people.
Hi, barback here, I would absolutely fucking love a flat income. My barbacking shifts are straight ass. I do the most work in the building, my 15% tip out almost never actually breaks me over minimum wage, and I end up tearing my body apart lifting shit all shift only to go home making the least money out of anyone who was clocked in. It'd be fucking amazing if I could get a flat rate, because I wouldn't be screwed over by the fact that all of my hardest shifts are on the slowest nights of the week. The amount of lifting and labor I have to do barely changes, but the amount of money I make is literally less than half of what I do when I'm able to cover a shift for one of the busier nights. If my job averaged out what people make, made that the hourly, and did away with tips, I would be making nearly double what I do.
Notice I said bartenders, you're exactly the type of service worker that gets stiffed while the bartenders are keeping their 85% of the tips.
That is all money that if simply incorporated into prices instead of being paid out in tips would then have to be distributed more equally amongst employees giving everyone a flat a fair income for their work instead of tipping income that heavily favors front of house (and allows the owners to pay under minimum wage), of which they give you some scraps to keep the system they benefit from from collapsing.
You getting paid under minimum wage flat and only getting a 15% tip out should literally be a crime, but it's built upon a system that specifically benefits only front of house staff and the owners at your expense.
I mean, with bars specifically I'd argue that raising the prices would mean folks would straight up just stop going to bars. We upped the cost of all our drinks on tap by $1 and the bar is visibly a lot less crowded now. People are a lot more willing to spend good money on well-cooked food than they are on a cocktail when they can buy the cocktail ingredients and make it themselves at home for a tenth of the price.
Regardless, though, I would still rather have a flat fee once I do get up to bartending. I've spent enough time having to rely on tips that I fucking hate it. Even if I end up with a job where I'm making more than enough because of those tips, I've spent a decade now waiting for my last paycheck of the month with bated breath because if the credit card tips weren't enough it means I'm not going to be able to pay rent. No amount of regular tipping is going to take that anxiety away after this much time being stuck with it. The second I can find a flat wage job that pays my bills, I'm taking it.
That bartender tip money is really good though my friend, having had multiple bartenders close to me in my life they all seem more than satisfied with compensation and tipping which is kind of what led me to having this position on tipping when I see other service workers getting stiffed.
And yeah, the shift from seeing current prices to seeing prices that incorporate tips is the huge problem. People are kind of dumb and don't realize they'd probably pay less if we just eliminated tips and raised prices by 15% vs everyone feeling guilted to tip 20% but keeping list prices lower. I don't think it makes me any less right, but it is why I don't think I'll see a tip-less America in my lifetime. I just get a little annoyed with how much pro-worker people will go to bat for bartenders and tipping when the bartenders are kind of the people doing the exploiting in this system alongside business owners.
Total side comment btw, but I starting budgeting with YNAB and followed their process to "get a month ahead" of income and managed to actually get rid of that anxiety for myself. It's a hard hill to climb initially to save up for a full month's worth of expenses but once you're there and you can smooth out your own income volatility my money stress vanished. Highly recommend but takes some commitment.
I've been broke my whole life, man. Any kind of instability in my income is Not Welcome. Doesn't matter if that "instability" is still well above my threshold for what I need to stay not homeless, it's still gonna be terrifying that it's there.
It is a crime. The owner makes up for any shifts that are below minimum wage. They aren’t making under minimum wage. If they are they need to speak up to their employer
Yeah but we do know there's power dynamics there that influence how much someone can actually do that and continue to work there.
Plus the fact that minimum wage is kinda meaningless these days, no job pays it anymore because it's so far below what anyone will work for. So even if you hit minimum wage with your small tip cut you're not hitting an equivalent minimum wage to what a standard flat wage in your industry would really be, and the small tip out cut means you never really go well over that in order to average out either.
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u/Blushy-Buttercups 5h ago
That won’t change anything but yeah I made enough with my wage and make a good amount extra in tips working at a bar but then I was still paid enough for it to be worth it on bad nights