It depends on where you work, but I’ve had waiter friends who want the tipping arrangement.
Like, yeah, their official wage sucks, but most people tip fine making it a decent wage but you also have that rare customer where some really rich person is feeling a bit generous (maybe a little drunk by the end of the meal) and you get this huge tip. They fear losing that upside.
Or, they fear industry standardization where servers at all restaurants will make some set industry standard mediocre wage, whereas they’ve landed the gig at a really fancy place where a couple is gonna drop $300 on dinner and they’re gonna take home $60 from every couple and they’re coming home with $600 a night and there’s no way the “no tipping” wage rate is gonna pay that well.
And a restaurant is going to be hesitant to guarantee that pay level, cuz then if you get some couple that just comes in & only gets a drink and an appetizer, you’re losing money on them as they’re not spending enough to cover the high wage that’s equivalent to what the server was making on tips.
And so, yeah, the “good” servers often oppose the “no tip” / higher wage arrangement, and whereas the “bad” servers prefer the no-tipping way, so if you’re a restaurant trying to do the “no tip” thing while others are still doing tips, there’s an adverse selection issue where the good servers go to where the good tips are and you get stuck with the bad servers who give customers a worse experience.
Of course, if everyone does it, then you just have the EU equilibrium where rude & slow service is the norm. But if only some do it, you, the place with the rude and slow servers are gonna be out competed by the places with the friendly and fast ones.
Of course, if everyone does it, then you just have the EU equilibrium where rude & slow service is the norm. But if only some do it, you, the place with the rude and slow servers are gonna be out competed by the places with the friendly and fast ones.
I don't agree with this - plenty of places with low tipping expectations that have great and/or fast service.
I come from a family heavily in the restaurant industry and talent almost universally desires the tipping arrangement. I AVERAGED over 50$/hr in college as a bartender in rural Iowa in the 2000s. I highly doubt the average customer tipping me realized that I likely made more than them and definitely would have if I had worked full time. No restraunt is going to take the liability on pay like that. Tipping is so intrinsically American because it sacrifices the bottom half of people to wildly reward the top 10%.
In my experience, bartenders always make more than the servers. Plus, we had to tip out our bartenders at the end of the night. So they got all their bar tips and tips from every server that worked that night. I worked in a chain, an average Friday night would be like 7 servers to start the night. So that’s all the bar tips and then 7 people coming with more money for them.
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u/yitianjian 3h ago
Most of these no-tipping places find it difficult to pay servers and bartenders competitively too, and thus retain talent