The 15% tip

reverend1 said:
You have obviously never been a server. This is ridiculous on it's face. Servers/bartenders who are any good make far more on tips than any hourly rate. The only people pushing for this are unions, the government, and people who have no idea what they are taking about. I made between $300 and $400 a night on average for a 3.5-4 hour shift and that was 20 plus years ago. Servers that work for my wife average the same at a Bob Evans. If the7 try this hourly garbage you just won't have any servers. It would be a drastic pay cut. No-one worth a shit would even take those jobs, and any one who did will be bottom of the barrel.
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I have not known a single server who did not make significantly above minimum wage. And I have know a lot of servers/bartenders.
 
I'm with Rev on this. I made a ton of money as a server and bartender because I was great at it.
I have a buddy in Michigan that has made a career out of serving fine dining. He has purchased a house, cars and everything else he needs. All due to tips. If you put him on $20 p/h he would lose $20,000 a year.
 
MonkeyZero said:
I'm with Rev on this. I made a ton of money as a server and bartender because I was great at it.
I have a buddy in Michigan that has made a career out of serving fine dining. He has purchased a house, cars and everything else he needs. All due to tips. If you put him on $20 p/h he would lose $20,000 a year.
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does he report all the tips on taxes ?
 
I fully believe in the power of the free market to settle server's wages at an appropriate level, once they have the same protections against exploitation as other workers. Once that's settled, we can resolve the commodification of "gig laborers".
 
jp_nyc said:
Agreed. Fuck the tip system, raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour and eliminate tipping.
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I've waited tables, bartended and delivered food for a living. If you got rid of tips and paid me $20, I would not do any of those jobs. At a minimum, I made $25 per hour averaged probably $35 per hour. Add to that nobody claims all of their tips on taxes, and you really lose in a flat $20 per hour.
 
Seems like this conversation could be moved forward if everyone reviewed what the "minimum" part of "minimum wage" means. I don't think anyone is suggesting salary caps for waitstaff.
 
Chicken Man said:
Seems like this conversation could be moved forward if everyone reviewed what the "minimum" part of "minimum wage" means. I don't think anyone is suggesting salary caps for waitstaff.
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You think the local McDonalds pays it's employees more than the minimum wage? Why would any other restaurant do that if tipping was eliminated and servers went to a regular wage system? You may have some high end restaurants paying a little more, but you think Denny's or Ihop will pay more than what the minimum wage stipulates?
 
Chad said:
You think the local McDonalds pays it's employees more than the minimum wage? Why would any other restaurant do that if tipping was eliminated and servers went to a regular wage system? You may have some high end restaurants paying a little more, but you think Denny's or Ihop will pay more than what the minimum wage stipulates?
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I've been following along. Over 30 years ago, the restaurant business was my job. About the only job I never did was being a waiter. I left after almost 10 years in the game. All because I couldn't make a decent wage. Health care? Forget it. Same with any other benefit that most of us take for granted. The thing about tipping is that it's most often spread out between other people in the restaurant. Busboys...dishwashers and other utility people.

That being said, if the venue was busy, everyone made a decent living. People were usually happy to be working. If not, people got disenchanted with the whole thing. I dated women that were waitresses. Women in their 20's paying off student loans, and ones that were older too. They all had pretty much the same story. Rat race.
 
Chad said:
I've waited tables, bartended and delivered food for a living. If you got rid of tips and paid me $20, I would not do any of those jobs. At a minimum, I made $25 per hour averaged probably $35 per hour. Add to that nobody claims all of their tips on taxes, and you really lose in a flat $20 per hour.
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see that's what i have a problem with unless assuming you don't get 40 hours a week. let's take someone who is a social services worker and went to college for 4 years . they invested time and money for their career. or you have a trade like auto repair or something where you have to spend your own money on tools. If the average food server (unskilled job unless you consider the gift of gab, sunny person laity, etc a skil), if the average food server makes 40 dollars an hour with only 10 bucks or even 8 bucks being reported then they are pocketing 30 but let's say it's the 40 and they work 5 hour a day...200 bucks and probably only 50 being taxed. If they work 6 days a week that'd be a 1200 dollar paycheck for an un skilled, no investment, no upkeep job.

I say pay them a minimum wage or slightly high and if you still want to tip then fine but it won't be expected ( for instance I get tips occasionally but it's never expected and I don't think less of a customer if they don't tip.
Pay the worker a salary and do away with the tip system...remember there is no investment in the job.
 
DdBob said:
see that's what i have a problem with unless assuming you don't get 40 hours a week. let's take someone who is a social services worker and went to college for 4 years . they invested time and money for their career. or you have a trade like auto repair or something where you have to spend your own money on tools. If the average food server (unskilled job unless you consider the gift of gab, sunny person laity, etc a skil), if the average food server makes 40 dollars an hour with only 10 bucks or even 8 bucks being reported then they are pocketing 30 but let's say it's the 40 and they work 5 hour a day...200 bucks and probably only 50 being taxed. If they work 6 days a week that'd be a 1200 dollar paycheck for an un skilled, no investment, no upkeep job.

I say pay them a minimum wage or slightly high and if you still want to tip then fine but it won't be expected ( for instance I get tips occasionally but it's never expected and I don't think less of a customer if they don't tip.
Pay the worker a salary and do away with the tip system...remember there is no investment in the job.
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If we lump all food servers into the same category then your point stands but you just can't do that. Take a sommelier for example. You can't just work your way up to that. They actually go to school.
What about "uniforms" in nice restaurants? They don't provide them. You have to buy them.
Let's also consider learning the menu. Some of which change on a regular basis. That's not unskilled. Your tips very much correlate to the time you put into your persona as it were. You can't just be a smug ass hat and expect to be successful. So there is skill, upkeep and investment in a lot of higher end server positions.
Not everything is Chili's.
The tip represents a measure of the customer satisfaction when they want to go out, have a nice meal/experience and not have to think about anything but enjoying the moment. Only a skilled server can provide that.
 
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