That’s on my to-do list when I’m anointed Emperor.
Along with requiring all products and services to advertise the bottom line price. No additional fees and nonsense. Looking at you, cell providers.
Sure, as soon as a living wage is to be had by all.
Unfortunately, I am starting to think that the only way that it is plausible to get rid of tipping is to outlaw it. Many restaurants in NYC had tried to get rid of tipping voluntarily, and most have failed - it is apparently too difficult to run a no-tip restaurant successfully when you have to compete with tipped restaurants, as servers at tipped restaurants will tend to make more and don’t want to work at no-tip restaurants. Here are a couple articles discussing this. It might be possible that a restaurant could do no-tipping and pay their servers way more than their kitchen staff/managers to maintain similar levels of compensation to typical pay nowadays, but seems like that would breed resentment between the staff. As is right now, I feel like kitchen staff and managers put up with servers making more under the premise of servers earning their tips directly from the customer - but if the restaurant charged more for their food and didn’t pay the kitchen staff any better than they do under the current regime, that would surely make them unhappy.
Ultimately I’m of the same opinion of most in this thread in that I think tipping is a lousy system but I do it anyway. Jurisdictions that allow for lower minimum wage for tipped employees further reinforce the requirement to tip, but it seems like even places where servers get paid regular minimum wage (which can be fairly high, $15/hr where I live) there is still an expectation to tip 15%.
Under what legal theory could the government outlaw tipping?
Under the same one that they outlaw 32-ounce sodas or spitting on the street. It’s in the public interest. You probably wouldn’t outlaw tipping so much as require workers to be paid a minimum wage. Tipped workers may be legally paid less than minimum wage. Do away with that and prices will have to go up, which will probably also put downward pressure on tips.
Tax it at 100% – perfectly legal, and would get rid of it right quick.
If you’re talking about the NYC law, its highest state court ruled against it, and the law was repealed in 2015.
I’m sorry, but whom do you propose to tax? The tipper, or the recipient?
I was thinking of the recipient. It would have the effect of destroying tipping as an institution, and is legal. I was just answering your question, how could it be done legally. It could be done. “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” I’m not actually recommending it!
I think it makes it hard to figure out taxes.
I’d prefer we drop the practice and just have wages.
Every other job in the world incentivizes its employees to work hard by offering competitive wages, bonuses, benefits, choice scheduling, and on and on and on. Why should it be any different for restaurants? Why do restaurant owners get a pass on having to do the legwork to get the most from their workers?
In Oregon there is no lower tipped wage, all servers are paid at least the minimum, which in the Portland metro area is currently $12.50/hr, going up to $13.25 on July 1. And we tip our servers well, and most restaurants have gone to pooled tips, which means the back of house staff gets tip money when the servers do, which acknowledges that their work is a large reason why servers get tips. Somehow this has not resulted in a wasteland without restaurants–as a matter of fact, aside from the COVID situation we have an incredibly diverse and vibrant restaurant scene. Any restaurant that maintains it simply MUST be allowed to pay its servers the insulting $2.13 federal pittance is a restaurant that does not need to exist and it deserves to go out of business with a quickness. That’s appalling–you can’t even get someone to bring in your mail and water your plants for that little. The federal minimum wage is an insult and a disgusting one and I for one think Congress ought to be paid the minimum they think is adequate for others.
Restaurant workers need to be paid properly and if I as a customer have no problem with tipping them then I fucking well will continue to do so. The restaurant owner needs to pay their employees and maybe I like paying my temporary employees as well. Tips should not be the only thing keeping a server from starving, that’s sick.
I get tips, as a mover, pretty regularly. But it’s what it’s supposed to be, a little bonus from the customer because they want to. Sometimes the tips can be pretty generous and a good week will double my wages for that week. But I don’t need rely or count on them. Do away with tipping as it currently is in the restaurant industry in the US, and a lot of folks are gonna whine and cry and have tantrums but everyone will be ok and most will be better off. Get rid of that stupid repressive double standard wage law.
I oppose the practice of tipping, and avoid as much as possible patronizing any business that uses it.
I’ve always regarded it as an excuse to underpay workers, and taken it as a given that the employers would routinely confiscate any tip money for themselves. Regardless of what any laws say they should do, I don’t expect the law to care what employers do to employees short of murdering them in a way too spectacular to ignore.
I endorse SmartAleq’s suggestion. Congressmembers should be paid the federal minimum wage - if it’s good enough for millions of hardworking Americans, then it’s good enough for you, Senator.
In fact, I propose that special interests and donors and SuperPACs funnel enough money to Congress that their contributions can rightfully be called “tips” and thus, all Congress members earn the tip wage ($2.15/hr) exclusively.
As a customer and retired cheapskate I hate tipping, but feel obligated to be generous.
When I was a bartender for a couple of years, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and eighteen-year-olds could drink, I loved it. It made sense to me that I could earn more by my own efforts rather than be paid the same as some surly guy who didn’t do his job well.
:dubious:
In countries where tipping is not the norm, and people are paid a reasonable wage, you have the same odds of getting a server who is surly and doesn’t do his job well. Quite low, because people in that position who are surly and incompetent usually get fired, no matter how they are paid.
I’ve been living in no-tipping Australia for quite some time now, and service is at least as good as in the States.
Service is awesome in non-tipping Japan.
I despise tipping & think it’s wrong. Why should I pay you extra to do your job, whether that’s bring some food, make a drink, drive someone somewhere, or carry a bag up to a room? I expect you to do that & shouldn’t have to pay you extra for just doing the basics of your job. That being said, I do tip because it’s not right to screw the guy on the ground for our society’s payroll quirks.
Even the rules for restaurant tipping aren’t consistent. When a waiter/waitress brings your food in a sit-down restaurant you’re expected to tip but when the clerk in Mickey D’s brings you your food…all of six steps from the fryer to the counter you’re not. What happens when they give you a number at order time & then bring your tray to your table? I don’t think there’s an expectation to tip in that scenario, is there? Some sit down restaurants (Red Robin?) allow you to do your own ordering on a tableside pad/kiosk, turning the waiter/waitress into basically just a food runner.
However, unlike what others have said, i don’t feel it’s subsidizing the owner so much; it’s more like the false advertising the airlines do. Oooh, look, fares to ___ for only $59!
Wait, you want a seat? You want to sit with your traveling companion, even if that’s a minor child? &/or You want a specific type of seat that occupies one third of the plane? That’s gonna cost you extra!
Want to go overnight (& who besides people going for a business meeting don’t?) & carry more than a thong & a compact/camping toothbrush (w/o any toothpaste) in your pocket (will underwear with more material even fit in your pocket?), that’ll cost you for a carry on (at least with the budget airlines). What to have anything to eat or drink in a span of a six hour window (including arrival at the airport early to get thru security); that’ll cost you extra, too. I know that the price that an airline is showing is far below what it’s going to really cost me, too. The price on the menu doesn’t really represent what I’m going to pay in a restaurant, either.
I’ve heard that as well. But, the owner of the bar wants to sell liquor. So, if one bartender is constantly ringing up fewer sales, I’d be interested as to know why. Sure, the opening bartender at noon during the week isn’t gonna have the same sales as Saturday night. But, two bartenders on the same shift? Especially if it’s at the same station?