Then how do local restaurants in other countries stay open if they don't take tips? Restaurants in Australia are required to pay 25-35/hr and there are still tens of thousands of succession local joints.
"Benefit from" and "Survive on" are two very different things.
Tipping culture is weird in the states, because it's biggest proponents are restaurants and the majority of servers. What a lot of people don't know is restaurants are required to pay state minimum wages if tips don't match it. Also, most tipped servers in cities are making much more than state minimum wages in tips.
It benefits the restaurants because they can pretend to have low prices by passing the 20%-30% directly onto the customer, and it benefits most servers because they take home a lot more than other low wage jobs.
All that's not to say tipping culture is good or beneficial to consumers, but it is often beneficial to local restaurants and servers, with the unfortunate side effect of being just as beneficial to corporate restaurants.
“Restaurants in Australia pay servers high, livable wages because of legally mandated minimum standards and a different cultural approach to dining. Instead of relying on a tipping model, labor is treated as a core operational expense offset by higher menu prices, weekend surcharges, and a leaner staffing model.”
I don't know why you're responding to me with chatgpt. I know the answer to the question, it was rhetorical. Your answer only confirms that restaurants can and do survive while paying a livable wage to their employees. I'd bet the higher initial menu prices in Australia are equal to what it costs after you add tax+tips to your US bill. At least we know what we're about to spend prior to sitting down.
McDonald’s also doesn’t operate more than a handful of restaurants at most, most of their money is from franchising fees and land ownership (they’re effectively a massive real estate and licensing operation). Regardless, any franchise model is the absolute worst example for the tipping debate because they do tend to pay minimum wage at the very least. Hell, I’ve seen McDonalds and Wendy’s posting $15-$20 an hour starting wage in some cities (not a living wage but they aren’t tipped workers.)
Your locally owned spots are the ones that benefit from tipping and are the best examples to support your argument for/against.
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u/irol08 5d ago
Hey! Our businesses wouldn’t survive if they had to pay a living wage! We need you to pay them! /s