I completely agree and will typically not return to a restaurant that has terrible service. I’ve indeed walked out of a restaurant, but not once the food or drinks were served. Once that happens, I tip. They already make 2.13 an hour. If I get food, they are paying taxes on 8% (I think that is the number) of the sales price of my food, so stiffing them means they make even less than 2.13.
Yeah, minimum wage is not really the standard here in South Africa (it is a legal requirement, but…) waitstaff live off tips.
When I get shitty service - I tell them. They still get my 15 to 20% tip. More if not shitty. I worked in the industry (illegally, no work permit, lowest of the low) and it is hard work. I bought black hiking boots so I could respect the dress code rules AND the distance I was walking every day. I know how hard they (we) work. I got fit enough just by serving tables to summit an 1085m mountain in just less than 2 hours, on a hard route from sea level.
Tip your waiters, folks. That could be their only income, and it is not an easy one.
Where I live, waiters are employed and receive a monthly salary. Tips are given on top of this if the service was good. If it wasn’t, you can choose not to tip. Usually, you round up, e.g. from 20.50 to 22.00 or 25.00. Slowly, there are attempts to charge tips for everything, as in the USA. This doesn’t work well; people get annoyed and don’t give anything. Most people are surprised that you have to tip in the USA; not everyone knows that waiters are not employees.
They are employees. But they aren’t salaried employees. And employee contracts, as you may find in some nations, don’t typically exist in the US for most employees (most Americans are “at will” employees). There is a federally mandated minimum wage, though many individual states mandates higher minimums than the federal.
But for reasons that aren’t worth fully elucidating, employees that can expect to receive a significant portion of their income from tips, e.g. wait staff, have a lower federally mandated minimum wage ($2.13 an hour vs $7.25 an hour), with the expectation that tips will make up the difference. By law, if a tipped employee does not get enough tips to get to the $7.25 mark, their employer is supposed to make up the difference. In practice, this often doesn’t occur - wage theft being a rather common occurrence in food service
I had a waitress once who was actively an asshole to our table, insulting us and being sarcastic and condescending. She only got a 10% tip, but 0% would’ve been justified.
Short of that, not tipping, or undertipping, is asshole behavior.
Well, I don’t know. I think asshole behavior is when the employer doesn’t offer the employee a contract for a decent living.
That’s a selling feature at some restaurants
Interesting, I didn’t know that. That means that employees have no social security whatsoever, e.g. in the event of illness, unemployment, or protection against dismissal. What do people do when they lose their jobs? As far as I know, health insurance in the US is also tied to employment. Will the many people who are now being laid off under Trump receive unemployment benefits? For how long?
Why not both?
Yes indeed both. Giving a decent contract however reduces dependence on tips and the whims of customers.
Yes–but in a tipping culture, it’s difficult for an individual restaurant to do this. It means having to raise their prices, and price-conscious diners are less likely to go to that restaurant. Because tipping is so ingrained, it’s habitually difficult to not tip even at a restaurant that advertises living wages, so people might think prices are functionally 20% higher at the living-wage restaurant.
Eventually, enough restaurants will do this, and the culture will change. But it’ll require a significant number of restaurants to take this risk before we reach the tipping point.
I see. Although with the libertarian tendencies in the US nowadays honestly I’m quite pessimistic with that.
There is a separate unemployment office and people can apply for unemployment benefits - companies have to pay into this. But there is a social stigma and there are often conditions that can make one ineligible.
Health insurance is usually tied to employment but usually only for full time employees. For lower wage part time jobs, you’re usually on your own for health insurance. If you happened to have insurance, there is COBRA so you can stay on your former employer’s health insurance but not at the subsidized price for current employee’s, so it is usually quite expensive. Often unaffordably expensive.
As for illness, there’s no guaranteed time off for sickness in the US, though many, if not most, companies will offer some time off for illness as a practical matter. Of course, those who are most at risk, i.e. lower wage jobs, also tend to be employers who pressure their staff the most to come in sick. Nobody wants a sick waiter but managers want people to come in anyway. It’s really twisted.
Basically, to the extent there are protections, they are least applicable to the workers who would need it most.
It’s a messed up system, for sure. But it’s hard to convince most people, American or not, that the system they’ve lived with their entire lives should be changed in fundamental ways. Or if most do believe it should change, difficult to come to a consensus on how it should change.
The issue of tipping comes down to what do you fundamentally believe:
It is the customer’s responsibility to pay part of the worker’s wages. The question is what profession other that restaurant service is that a thing? If you call a company, what would you say if they asked you to pay $5 to help pay the receptionist?
OR
It is for service that make the restaurant experience more enjoyable. They earn a tip if they know the food, help with drinks selection, make sure your water/coffee is never, check in (but not too often), &c.
Personal note: If you believe in the first one, then you need to tip your children’s teachers for dealing with them.
It’s always the customer’s responsibility to pay ALL of the worker’s wages. The receptionist’s wages are included in the price of your doctor’s visit. The technician’s wages are included in the price of your internet service. The stocker’s wages are included in your grocery prices. (Mostly) Only in food service is it customary to give the customer CONTROL over how much of those wages to pay, and a very large portion of the populace likes that. You see it everywhere when a restaurant decides to go no-tip: comments blow up with “service is going to be terrible now” and the such.
well, it’s not exactly the same thing, but commission based sales jobs function essentially similarly. The better you are at your job, the more sales you make, the more money you earn. A bad commission-based salesperson is not going to make as much as a good one. Similarly, I think it’s ok for a bad server to not make as much as a good server.
I find that completely absurd. The restaurant operator earns money from his business. Why should the guest pay for the waiters? Then you could also demand that the guest pay for cleaning the restaurant or for its delivery vehicles. The waiters contribute to the restaurant’s ability to earn money, so the operator should pay the waiters a living wage. Tips from guests are merely voluntary recognition for good service.
How about then with the people in the kitchen? I suppose they don’t get tips. Or are all tips collected and then shared?
It varies by restaurant. Some share all tips, some share none, and some share a percentage of tips.
And in some the owner steal it.
And in others it is a “service fee” that goes to the restaurant and might end up in the workers’ pocket.