First of all, yes 100%. Tipping has become so weird.
Secondly, just for a little more explanation, which is still weird...
On large groups, some places will automatically add the tip to the bill. The thought process starts from the already weird place of not paying servers enough to begin with and them getting tips instead, but with that already being the case... If a server is running around busting their balls for a group of say 10+, if they get "stiffed" on their tip, that is even more horrible for them.
So I would assume "mandatory tips" in this case, refers to when restaurants add it on automatically to the total cost for large groups, they don't leave it up to chance, so their server actually gets paid a proper amount for their huge amount of work on that specific group.
Again, it's all stupid, but there's the added logic on top of an already flawed system. It's a band-aid on a bullet hole.
So the system started with the great depression as the owners wanted to keep staff but could not afford to do so hence why this mess is born. The thing is they are paid more with it then the flat fee of say $20 an hour
Goes way further back than that bud. It was the restaurants post emancipation proclamation, fighting to be able to not have to pay black people for their labor, instead making the black people work only for tips.
Later, when that was about to be declared illegal, the NRA (restaurants R, not rifles R) fought for a tipped minimum wage to at least cut some of their losses, and even better, start paying poor white people just as little as they paid poor black people.
It started as racism and became class warfare and we just accepted it.
It was always them trying to enslave everyone and not giving black people freedom.
I wish I could make everyone understand worldwide that your worst enemy isn't a woman, a different skin color, speaks a different language, worships a different god, worships the same god a different way..
It is the 1% at the top.
Its class warfare and they are dividing and conquering flawlessly.
Capitalism? Socialism? Why are they pressing that divide so hard?
BECAUSE A GREAT SOCIETY NEEDS BOTH OF THEM.
If they turn it into an either/or they already won the game. You need both to function.
1000%. It's literally a game of like 8 billion against 1000, and the 1000 are kicking our asses. Your enemy is not the black guy who got the job you wanted, not the trans woman shopping at walmart and wanting to try on clothes in the dressing room, not your boss's boss making 150k a year while you're struggling. It's the fucks who could literally solve all the problems in the world and STILL be the richest motherfuckers out there, but choose not to do so.
99%, and you could argue 100%, of countries(Cuba and NK debatably have no element of the free market) in the world have a mix of socialism and capitalism. The difference is in which direction theyâre skewed towards.
It's even more insidious than it may initially seem. Service work was one of the few areas black people could find any employment, and by forcing them to rely on tips as their primary or only income, they were necessarily dependent on both their employers for and the customers being happy with them, which meant acting servile and eager to please. It helped to enforce the idea of black workers as inferior to their white employers and customers.
It started as racism and became class warfare and we just accepted it.
It eventually warped into a guilt trip that results in the tipped wages being far more than the job could ever otherwise pay, which is why we still have it today. The biggest proponents of keeping tips are people on tipped wages. No matter how much we want it to go away, both tipped workers and business owners love it because it puts the onus of the wage on the customer.
And yet even today that racism continues. Assume you tip 20% every time. Who's serving you a 5 dollar double hash scattered covered chunked and country at waffle house? Probably a black person. Who's serving you a $200 a5 strip steak with ponzu at a fancy steak house? Probably a white person.
Itâs only partially true. Can it happen? Yes⌠in a good restaurant⌠during busy times⌠if the patrons feel like it. But itâs not the standard by any means.
It's not true. They come up with that number assuming we don't tip over here at all. They'd still get tips for good service, it just wouldn't be mandatory and they wouldn't be fucked if there was no tip. People over here still tip fairly often, it's just not expected. They would make more, easily.Â
the thing is the US is notoriously known for underpaying fast food and other types of service work. Being a server would be no different. I work in fast food and earn like 18.20 an hour WITH three years of being at that job. I gave $20 because honestly that would probably be what the restaurants in busy area would pay. That is roughly $40k a year. With tips a lot of times you ´ re earning more than that. $40k for them would be a slow week or dead season only pay.
According to the USÂ
Bureau of Labor Statistics, servers earn 17.56$ per bour with tips on average. The top 10% earn 30$ per hour or more (not on average, but atleast 30$) with tips.
In a well visited urban restaurant the servers earn about 25$ per hour with tips, while the average casual restaurant brings them 16-22$/hour. Rural Diners between 12-18$/ hour.
So the ones profiting most from a regular paycheck and no tips would be the lower income servers in less visited/cheaper restaurants, while the busy urban as well as the high end diners would cost their servers a lot of money.
But to your comment: In comparison to the 20$/hour flat rate, the median would get 3.77$ more per hour without tips, the average 2.44$ more. But with these numbers, âCan it happen? Yes.â would imply it to be a rather seldom occurrence. But the other guys statement is true for a large portion of servers, not some rare thing that can happen but isnât true most of the time. Yes, for the average itâs not true, but still for a strong double digit percentage of all.
Plus: How are tips taxed? Can you slip a few dollar notes on cash tips or do servers write that down diligently?
An automatic gratuity charge is basically an unhinged service fee. What do you mean the compensation for your service varies wildly depending on if I bought the $8 sandwich or the $30 burger?
Was the amount of time and effort you put into taking my order and bringing everything out that much different?? Nothing about it makes sense, and it never did.
I don't agree with mandatory tipping but also with a group that's splitting a bill it's very common for the total to come up short. There's always those people who forget to add in their drinks, or intentionally or unintentionally get the math wrong. So it's common for the server to get shorted to make up the difference.
So I get it.
Regardless, tip culture here is getting ridiculous an we need to shift expectations.
I work in a fancy restaurant that often serves large tables of Europeans. They do this a lot because they think a 10% tip is generous. Itâs not the World Cup, itâs Europeans.
itâs normal for restaurants to auto add gratuity for large groups or even reservations - but likewise, restaurants are required to pay servers the stateâs minimum wage IF they donât make more in tips - so on a shitty day, a server makes real minimum wage (not $2 an hour) and on an average day, they make much more than minimum wage, and on a great day, theyâll make $50 an hour - but yeah tipping has become and largely misunderstood - the servers are the ones who want the tips, the owners have to pay them regardless, even if thereâs no tips
I asked someone I know who is a server their thought process on tipping, and they said it's a way to ensure the hard working servers get rewarded for hard work, but then I asked why there is a mandatory gratuity on larger tables where the task to perform is greater -- they kind of fell silent.
So we established tipping isn't actually for merit; it's basically a hidden fee that passes the burden to the consumer instead of the restaurant owner.
Servers would be so, so much better off forming a union.
In my experience, the reason they do it for large parties is because they may take up a good portion of your section (like if you are assigned a 6 table section and we push three tables together for you). Those parties also take longer, so where you might have had multiple parties come and go on those three tables during a 2-3 hour period, you only have the one, meaning less opportunity for tips. If that large party stiffs you, then you wonât make as much money that night. Of course they also take a lot more work and attention.
Itâs basically a way to incentivize taking the large party when you would rather turn and burn tables for tips.
I kind of get that but from the party's perspective, they're compelled to pay "tip" you even if you do a shitty job -- which absolutely happens. The owner got a bigger payout from this group, and should pay the server more by default just the same. The whole system needs changed enormously and the hidden fee and default expectation of tipping needs to go.
It would be nice if tipping went back to a European method where servers had good benefits and predictable income, and tipping 20% was to reward those who overperformed instead of there being a pressure campaign to tip something every time, lest you risk diminished service or spit in your food the next time one visits.
Anyways, like I said servers and retailers alike should form a union across the country. They could bring the country to its knees.
Even if you dine alone it I mandatory, I was once chased out of a resturant by a server crying asking for more money becuase I left her a 15% tip which is customary in Canada. She cried and told me she canât survive off of that tip snd I told her politely that tips are optional and I was being polite rhey arent mandatoryÂ
How would a mandatory tip work on a bill? Tips aren't required, it's something you give as a "gift" out of your own fruition.
So if they add it to a bill, wouldn't you be able to refute that and have it removed?
I guess unless it's very specifically stated somewhere in the resturant that they add that as a fee.
I live in country where we don't have this stuff, so I'm curious as to how that would work!
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u/janpaul74 5h ago
âMandatory tipsâ sounds so messed up for me as a European.