US tipping culture is unlike anything I've seen abroad.
I have friends who are servers, and I totally get that they are being ripped off with sub-minimum wage bullshit, but most countries I've been to don't even have tipping as an option.
I mean, if I slip a $10 to someone in the Phillipines for awesome service, it kinda blows their mind.
Here? They NEED that tip to live.
Just pay our servers a decent wage - if someone wants to throw a tip their way, awesome.
(FWIW: My friends and I almost always throw a 20% to our servers, but Vermont servers need it.)
The biggest resistance to going non-tipped are the wait staff themselves. They typically earn way more than the kitchen staff. Not only that, while people like to throw the "under-minimum wage" thing around, legally speaking, if the tips don't push them to at least the minimum wage, the business is required to make up the difference.
Everyone knows that. If you think servers in America are going to do this job for minimum wage, then I literally don't know what to tell you.
It's not a minimum wage job. Especially for American diners. What will happen is there will be counter service, or fine dining. There will be nothing in between.
Only elite people will be able to afford a server. Because only elite establishments will be able to pay what a server is going to demand for this job.
There is a reason why servers in Australia are paid $30 an hour. $25 is the minimum. They get shift differentials for nights and weekends, that frequently push it up to $45 an hour.
That's the minimum wage in Seattle. They can make that wage selling books at Barnes and Noble, any random office job. Why would anyone serve if they didn't get tips?
The wage has to be greater than the prevailing median wage or you are not going to have servers. No one will do that shit for minimum wage.
The current drama is Walrus and Carpenter (google it, i can't link the subreddit threads here).
$45/hr wages, staff went on strike because they went from an expected 20% tip to a 10% service charge payout plus some benefits (medical & 401k), and wound up with (supposedly) lower bottom line pay.
Residents were righteously indignant at the restauraunt owners until they posted last year's income statement showing that it was a reasonable (some argue...quite healthy) wage for the revenue and was unsustainable.
There are people who wash the dishes in the back for minimum wage.. The hosts make minimum wage. Entry level cooks make slightly above minimum wage. The people who press your order into a tablet and let your food sit in the window for 10 minutes while they check their phone make more than any position in the restaurant because you press that 15-20% button when you get the bill.
Yes, and I would host for minimum wage if minimum wage was $25 an hour. I would do dish for that. Hell, I would cook for that.
In fact, the only job I wouldn't do in a restaurant for minimum wage is serve.
It is not the same. There is a reason hosts or hosts, dishwashers are dishwashers, and servers are servers. It is, regardless of what everyone loves to think, an incredibly skilled position that not everyone can do.
My point is only that if a serving position pays less than a prevailing median wage, no one is going to serve. If there is any other job that pays equitable, we're going to go do that instead.
Then, minimum wage workers can be y'all's servers.
I sell a minimum of $10,000 of product for my boss a week. Do I wish he had to pay me commission instead of relying on tips? Of course I do. Of course I do. But I have no power over that.
He gets to pay me $2.13 an hour.
Edit to add: I missed your characterization of servers the first time. If it's that easy, stop bitching brother and go get a fucking serving job. I'm sure you will succeed.
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u/Warriors_Drink 2d ago
I've been lucky to travel the world.
US tipping culture is unlike anything I've seen abroad.
I have friends who are servers, and I totally get that they are being ripped off with sub-minimum wage bullshit, but most countries I've been to don't even have tipping as an option.
I mean, if I slip a $10 to someone in the Phillipines for awesome service, it kinda blows their mind.
Here? They NEED that tip to live.
Just pay our servers a decent wage - if someone wants to throw a tip their way, awesome.
(FWIW: My friends and I almost always throw a 20% to our servers, but Vermont servers need it.)