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“I chose a job where I work a 6 hour shift and expect to get 20% or more of whatever you’re arbitrarily paying because I carried over three plates and a couple drinks. For some reason, I get paid more if you ordered the $60 Steak and Lobster instead of the $18 hamburger and fries. I will actively fight against the removal of tips in exchange for a normal hourly wage, because I make way more from tips than what I’d make as a person who walks across a room carrying a plate”.
I chose a job
You mean that was the only job they could find? Ignoring everything else that’s wrong with your comment you gave the ignorance away with your second word
Spoken like a true server or relation of one. It’s a remedial job that supports business owners from having to pay fair wages, and has since festered out into “I poured you a coffee” or “I made you fastfood”. Tip culture is a cancer.
Poverty is a choice, irrelevance is allbut guaranteed. The dragons’ impenetrable fortresses are nearing completion, though they remain pleasantly surprised at their prospects of more perfect control over their destinies than even their most adept forefathers had ever yet captured. Will must henceforth be paid for in the most precious of tokens (faith, peace, hope, sanity, pride, dignity, rage, flesh). We will grow and adapt to survive even as it pushes us to unraveling. Any minute contributions, no matter how unrecognized or delayed in fruition, have all culminated to this moment, and this process of incalculable chaotic combinations, interactions, and exchanges unfolding never stops, even as our minds, bodies, and spirits need periodic rest for rest, regrowth, reflection. Remember to stay saucy.
It is not the fault of the customer that the management refuses to pay the wait staff a living wage. It is not the responsibility of the customer to subsidize the management’s failure to make a profit if they cannot afford to pay a living wage. If they cannot afford to pay the employee and still make a profit, it’s not a business. It’s a scam.
The customer is one of the beneficiaries of this alleged scam, which makes me dubious about the placement of responsibilities. It sounds like the customer is high on capitalistic copium.
The customer is not a beneficiary of tipping culture.
Correct, the customer benefits from enabling the employer to deprive th employee of a living wage. Their patronage facilitates the practice.
So yes, the customer is not a beneficiary of tipping culture, but they benefit by ignoring tipping culture at the cost of employees (in absence of robust living wage regulations or practices).
But that’s not what happens in tipping culture. In tipping culture giving a tip is the default action. Only a small number of customers aren’t going to leave a tip.
Honestly, the wait staff benefits a lot from tipping culture. I worked at a Fuddruckers part time after school washing dishes, and I’d occasionally fill in if a “server” was out. Server is in quotes because all they did was refill drinks and grab extra sauce. Customers placed and picked up their order at the counter.
In a 6 hour shift I’d usually walk out with over $500.
The customer is pretty much the only loser in tipping culture.
I don’t see the problem:
According to my rudimentary research, the average franchise owner makes $118,00 / year (take home, after other things are accounted for). If you break that into 52 weeks and 40 hour work weeks, that suggests a (very rough) $52/hour.
https://franchisebusinessreview.com/post/how-much-franchise-owners-make/
And your argument is that sometimes the service worker can make as much as that, if they are tipped successfully.
I personally think that - while I would prefer to live in a world where a living wage was guaranteed and we could honorably discard tipping culture - in lieu of such regulation, this seems preferable to management making that same profit and the worker being offered poverty wages.
I’m not defending tipping culture, I’m just saying that it doesn’t benefit the consumer. And it’s not like places that have tipping are cheaper than those who don’t.
We have a coffee shop in town that does not allow tipping because they pay a living wage. If you try to tip them, even if it’s just a “keep the change” they’ll refuse but offer to subtract it from the next person’s order. Their prices are lower than Starbucks for much better coffee.
You’re very obviously not defending tipping culture. I am defending tipping culture as an organic solution to a structural issue. Is it a good solution? Not really, but more equitable than not tipping in the current state of society.
Your argument so far (as it reads by me) appears to suggest we should all stop tipping and the market will magically correct itself because (sometimes?) you go to a coffee shop that chooses to be more internally equitable.
I want to believe you have some plan as to how we get to a situation where restaurants (like McDonalds) are expected to pay a living wage, but right now, hoping that they do it voluntarily strains credibility.
Can you give me more of what you propose than “maybe not tipping is better” and “I know of a restaurant that voluntarily fixed this issue”.
Wow whining about your business (and low key guilt tripping me) after I just helped you by using your service. I’m not coming back
Ha, we got asked to leave last night. Though we were a big group (6) and the restaurant was very small (seating for less than 30). We didn’t mind and left a cash tip
Ok then why do waiters always make it SO FUCKING HARD TO LEAVE?! Most of the time, I wind up waiting for the check to show up, often I have to flag someone down to get it.
And then, the most ridiculous part of the whole ritual; they drop off the check and then leave! Imagine if that happened anywhere else. Go through the grocery aisle, get all your stuff scanned, and then the person working the checkout just walks away for 5+ minutes.
And then, when they finally show up and take the check with your card, they leave for another 5+ minutes. What is taking so long?! It is 2026, how do you not have a functional POS system??
Places that let you pay with your phone and leave when you’re ready are the best. Even ones that have the waiter come to the table with a pad you can pay on are good. I just hate the black booklets, such a horrible, inefficient way to pay.
To add to this, I gave my card in one of those black books and paid as normal. We don’t go out to eat much, or use this card much. But a couple days later someone had that credit card number and was making purchases. Of course it COULD have been some other usage weeks earlier, but the timing makes it suspicious. I believe there was either a skimmer placed on the restaurant’s machine, or someone in the back was just stealing credit card info.
It’s now much preferred by me if they either let me go pay at the front, or bring one of those scanners to the table like in Europe.
I’ve always paid with card and it’s never been an issue. Black book and all.
I’m not saying it’s impossible, just really bad luck
I like NZ.
When you’re done, you get up, walk to the counter, pay, and leave.
Card never leaves your sight. No timing issues. No tipping.
In the US we have a wide variety of ways to pay. Some have the waiter process it, which can be slow as dirt. Some have a little electronic thing at the table you can pay and go, like Red Robin. Some you walk up to a counter and pay when you want, like at a couple of local Mexican restaurants. Some you pay when you arrive and order, like Jason’s Deli.
These are all in a city of about 125,000 people in a central US state and within a three mile stretch of road.
Italy as well, and i assume many other places in the world outside of north america
I know right? They even get paid a ‘proper’ wage regardless of how busy the restaurant is.
In Brazil they bring the POS to your table. You pay with your card and leave. I like this here too
I don’t understand people’s disdain for the pay through your phone model. It’s so nice
Because in most countries you don’t need a phone, internet, and maybe even an app to solve this problem.
A lot of countries have had chip cards decades before the USA. When you are done eating they bring the bill and a terminal, which looks a thick cell phone, to your table. You insert your card, type your pin, pay, and leave. Bonus: you never get your credit card taken elsewhere by a stranger.
If you live in a country which sadly still do not pay serving staff a living wage, the terminal also allows you to enter gratuity as an amount or as a percentage, while you pay. No need to do any math.
The phone payment seems like such a tech-bro solution for a very simple problem which has a very simple solution which is already in place nearly everywhere!
I just don’t like yet another closed-source proprietary app on my phone that I need to interact with society.
I just bring cash every time I go out to a restaurant. Skips a lot of that bullshit.
In my experience, if you get up and walk to the reception counter and tell them you’d like to settle your check, they’ll let you. I’ve never once been told “you need to go back and wait,” because at that point it’s false imprisonment. They can’t keep you. Pay at the counter and leave no tip. Just, don’t return (at least, for a while, let them forget about you).
If it’s a restaurant in your neighbourhood, obviously give them a bit more time because you’re going to want to go back. If you’re traveling, or if you never want to eat there again, by all means, stiff them on the tip if you feel it’s warranted. You have no stake in it.
I love pay by QR code (the way I see it done, after you get your meal they’ll ask if there’ll be anything else, you say no, they bring your receipt while you’re still eating, you just scan it, pay on your phone, and go. Now what I don’t get is, how do they know you paid? Is it on the honour system? I imagine the restaurant knows, but the wait staff working the floor? They see you get up and leave, do they run and check to see that table has paid? Or no?
That’s assuming they get tipped.
High throughput still helpful though. More rolls of the dice mean more chances to get a tip
It’s not true, though. It’s entirely based on the restaurant and how many people are eating in it at any particular moment.
What kind of restaurant has so much wait staff that you’re worried about turning over your tables that quickly?
In my experience, servers with full tables tend to make bank.
They mean to get several paying groups through.
I.e. it’s better to have three groups pay $150 over there hours than one group pay $300 for three hours. (Numbers pulled from butt)
High end restaurants have great food. What you’re really paying for though is the privilege of staying for the entire evening. You’re paying for three meals.
No, this seems to be a mostly north american problem… i’ve never been rushed to GTFO in europe or asia, no matter high or low end
I’m in NA and I’ve never been asked to leave a restaurant in my life.
The closest has ever been being in a busy restaurant at peak time and seeing a line of people waiting to be seated and I’m well and done just chatting it up.
Still not asked to leave, but I noticed glances from staff and such so I left earlier than I would have, but on my own accord because I want to be helpful.
Still not asked to leave, but I noticed glances from staff and such so I left earlier than I would have, but on my own accord because I want to be helpful.
i didnt mean literally asked to leave, but i’ve had the check brought to the table without me asking, which is a pretty clear sign they want you out
Also being told at the start of the meal that there is a 90min limit until the next seating, or at the time of reservation that there is a time limit
I have been asked to leave in Denmark (Madklubben). But they have reservations for early and late evening, so you have exactly two hours to eat and gtfo. It’s reasonably priced, just don’t have too much fun…
You can do that at a regular restaurant, too (without being an asshole), if you’re working on something or an EMT on duty or something like that. Just tell them what’s up ahead of time, don’t do it on a Saturday night if possible, and be prepared to tip a lot on a relatively small bill.
