I only wish more workers would realize that it will be better for them collectively to get upset at their employers for not paying them fairly instead of the last customer who stiffed them on the tip.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage_in_the_United_Stat...
What happened to the "tip is for good service" and the base being covered by the employer for services rendered (e.g. the bottom line of the company)?
That would help but still not be enough, with the US minimum wage.
I agree that tips as a substitute for wages should end, and that expectations of non-zero baseline tips should end.
However, I feel that tips as incentives for good service should absolutely continue. (Either that, or real-time rating systems visible to the employer, but I'm not sure that outcome would be preferable.)
That said, I've heard good things about Japan's food service, and they don't require tipping.
EDIT spelling
Jk... somewhat. Robot served food is actually becoming a thing.
In Europe, you get seen when it's your turn and the staff work at a reasonable pace without killing themselves because they have a decent base pay. They don't degrade themselves for tips (I've seen this a lot with waitresses in the US flirting horribly with customers).
There are also significant regional variations in how people interact. And it is more common to stand up & pay on the way out, which solves the frequent American complaint of having to wait forever for the check.
Japanese services (in Japan) in general are truly something to behold.
Even as foreigners we've had entire crews of airline and hotel staff getting involved in resolving minor issues, taxi drivers guiding us to destinations on foot, search parties scrambled to find lost items, and government bureaucrats doing things for us way beyond their job descriptions. It's insane.
The food service is similarly attentive.
And no, I'm not a diplomat, celebrity or anybody special.
We tipped none of them but they all deserved it.
Lots of other industries need face-to-face contact. It would not be a better world if we had to tip the dentist's receptionist, the office building's security guy, the plumber's apprentice who does comes back to finish the job... although it's still important that all of these behave well.
Now you have two Amazon's. There is absolutely no difference between them. Goods are ten percent pricier in second one, but employees are paid more (they appreciate tips anyway).
Which company would you buy from? Which company would you invest in?
Everyone is responsible here. Problem is, more expensive doesn't necessarily translate to "more ethical".
On the one hand you have society paying for this externality, and on the other you force employers to accurately reflect the market conditions and price that externality in.
Not generally, but probably common in the current political attitude of “reducing the taxes of the rich and taxing the poor.”
It depends on the tax. If the tax is a fixed percentage of wage/income/property, then, at least in general, they affect everyone equally.
However, taxes such as VAT or sales tax, affect the population with less money harder because they make everything, even the basic necessities, more expensive. People that have a substantial chunk of income that they invest/save are hit substantially less by those taxes since they don't intend to spend the investment in the first place.
If your fixed expenses (food, rent, utilities) are 80% of your monthly pay, and the tax reduces everyone's monthly pay by 5%, you're going to have to cut something (cheaper food, small luxuries, or just no longer saving money for emergencies). If you make enough that your cost-of-living is only 50% of your monthly pay, it might dip your savings a little but you'll get through it just fine.
But somehow in the US people are trained not to think in that direction. It's more common to be aware of such possibilities in Europe, or to expect from the system not to completely ruin the life of the poorest.
Do you expect such a restaurant will attract the best talent? I do not.
But there seem to be two equilibria. Opening a restaurant in Paris and telling diners they should tip 20% because you aren't paying the waiters (oh and we left VAT off the menu, another 20%)... even if this were legal, I think you'd have great trouble attracting either customers or waiters.
I think maybe that's the part of the picture into the American tipping situation that Europeans and 1% Silicon Valley workers alike are missing. Most Americans who support tipping do so because they personally know a waiter who knows they make out like a bandit from the scheme. Europeans are less likely to be personally acquainted with an American waiter than your average American, as are wealthy tech workers on the spectrum.
Seems like they’re quite busy: https://www.manhattarestaurant.com/
Rather than everyone becoming a happy, well-paid employee what you actually get is people working via rent-seeking agencies and middle-men - each taking their cut from the same pie.
I am not saying the current system is perfect but legislation needs to allow for some flexibility in the modern workplace.
This is for a combination of reasons:
* The working conditions of Amazon employees (the pickers, the packers, the drivers etc...) is abhorrent IMHO
* The huge (legal but scummy) tax dodges they get away with
* The amount of fake products on Amazon is completely ridiculous
* In relation to the above, the epidemic of fake/paid reviews
* Their packing of some products is laughable, I received a £600 HDD in the same packet they send softback books in. It went Cardboard > Antistatic bag > HDD. Fuck that, I sent it back for a refund without even testing it.
I built a new PC a couple of months back, it was ~£50 cheaper through Amazon than the retailer I ended up buying it from but I'll choose the smaller (yet still known to me) simply because they offer a better service and don't treat their staff abhorrently.
Amazon used to excel at service and quality, now they have most of the market that is gone IMHO.
(Shout out to https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ for being an awesome tool for PC builders!)
Why would you want to get rid of that?
Maybe I'm deceived into thinking I'm rewarding good performance, but the truth is I'm a chump making a voluntary donation to some billionaire CEO's pay packet.
Why would anyone volunteer to be taken for a fool like that?
Also tipping culture enables companies to do things like this.
However, I disagree that it should be a negative feedback loop. Tipping should be an optional extra that indicates I was extremely happy with my service, not some mechanism for me to extract my revenge on a server who was probably dealing with issues that weren't their fault.
If I need to pay more than the menu indicates, or I am an asshole... yeah, I wanna get rid of that.
Its not neccessary to forbid tipping, but it absolutely should not be part of their regular pay. It should be extra. A tip. Not "oh yeah, you did your job as expected"
If I find myself in a situation where the difference between $20 and $24 for a steak matters for me, I don't go to a restoraunt altogether - or choose a place with a different price range. I think it's more or less assumed that if you've gone to a place (like a bar or a restoraunt) and have glanced through the menu to get it overall price range, then you're comfortable with a ballpark price for a meal, right?
> but it absolutely should not be part of their regular pay. It should be extra. A tip.
That would make it much worse as a signal. (Discussed in another sub-thread).
Now that is a priveleged statement. This certainly isn't the case for people who make less money, like say waiting staff for example.
But this is how you have to regard US menu prices: you add 1/3 or so and have a ballpark figure for what it's going to cost you. Whereas ordering the "menu €15.50" is something you can safely do after checking that you have 15.50 in your pocket.
Tips are stupid because everyone deserves to have at least a minimum wage. If they do a job they should get paid. They shouldn’t be held hostage to people who think they didn’t do their job to the standard of some random person.
Yeah it might be worse as a signal. I've seen a lot of these satisfaction meters lately, where you can press some smileyfaces when you leave the restaurant. If you add the ability to enter a table number you can kinda review your server, after you paid, in private (or at least not with the server giving you a stink eye because you didnt tip)
How much to tip? And to what businesses? If someone leaves out a tip jar at a taco bell, does that mean you have to tip them, and should the amount be different? By how much?
Also, if you don't leave a tip, it doesn't explain what part of the service was unsatisfactory. Was the food bad? The dishes dirty? Did the waitress not refill your coffee quick enough? Or maybe the customer was bigoted against the servers, or just forgot.
that said, I always tip at my favorite takeout places, but not necessarily 20%.