So now my man is out of a job and I also have no tacos.
I do get the point you’re making though. I don’t even necessarily disagree. I just think there are a lot of factors at play and until we get some sort of meaningful change around this system - i.e. some sensible legislation around the minimum wage issue - we’ve gotta make some concessions if we expect to still participate in society. I figure that tipping my service worker is a sensible concession to make in many cases.
Now there are definitely some cases where it’s getting out of hand though. You made me some good food? Fair enough, here’s a tip, good stuff. You hand me something off a shelf and expect a tip you can fuck right off though. Anyone making a proper wage shouldn’t expect tips and customers shouldn’t be expected to give them.
Food service in particular just stands out to me because of their generally exceptionally low wage. Most of the money your waitress or your cook takes home is in tips. Refusing to engage with this system harms the worker more than it harms the company, and finding a restaurant (not fast food, strangely enough) that doesn’t engage in this “tipped wages” practice is effectively impossible. So if you want to eat a nice meal out, basically ever, you’re either going to tip your workers or be a gigantic asshole unless you have a real genuine complaint to air. It’s not right, but it’s the reality we exist in.
…Though to be fair seeing the way America is going these days the restaurant industry as a whole might just completely implode soon when people can’t afford to eat there anymore. Who knows. Maybe the problem solves itself in a fashion.
There is another option: don’t buy the tacos. Stop patronizing businesses that give you an option to tip.
So now my man is out of a job and I also have no tacos.
I do get the point you’re making though. I don’t even necessarily disagree. I just think there are a lot of factors at play and until we get some sort of meaningful change around this system - i.e. some sensible legislation around the minimum wage issue - we’ve gotta make some concessions if we expect to still participate in society. I figure that tipping my service worker is a sensible concession to make in many cases.
Now there are definitely some cases where it’s getting out of hand though. You made me some good food? Fair enough, here’s a tip, good stuff. You hand me something off a shelf and expect a tip you can fuck right off though. Anyone making a proper wage shouldn’t expect tips and customers shouldn’t be expected to give them.
Food service in particular just stands out to me because of their generally exceptionally low wage. Most of the money your waitress or your cook takes home is in tips. Refusing to engage with this system harms the worker more than it harms the company, and finding a restaurant (not fast food, strangely enough) that doesn’t engage in this “tipped wages” practice is effectively impossible. So if you want to eat a nice meal out, basically ever, you’re either going to tip your workers or be a gigantic asshole unless you have a real genuine complaint to air. It’s not right, but it’s the reality we exist in.
…Though to be fair seeing the way America is going these days the restaurant industry as a whole might just completely implode soon when people can’t afford to eat there anymore. Who knows. Maybe the problem solves itself in a fashion.