If you go someplace and get waited on, and you KNOW that not tipping them means you basically took their labor for free, you are also an asshole. If you think not owning the business abdicates you from that, then you are just as bad as the business owner who thinks the custom abdicates them from paying a living wage. You’re not a crusader for justice, you’re a cheap jerk.
In New York, which the article is about, the hourly wage for tipped employees is only $2.70 less than usual. So if a server waits on 5 tables an hour, each table only needs to tip $0.54 per hour to make up for the “lost” wage. Anything extra is just voluntarily financing the server’s fancy new handbag or iPhone. And in New York, like most places now, the employer is required to make up the difference in their pay if they didn’t get enough tips, so even if you don’t tip you’re not taking anything for free… the employer has to cover it.
Wait staff are assholes thinking they can guilt trip people to hand over extra money for free when they’re simply doing their job. Doubly so when they aren’t even sharing the tips with the kitchen staff who are doing the real work.
If you go someplace and get waited on, and you KNOW that not tipping them means you basically took their labor for free, you are also an asshole. If you think not owning the business abdicates you from that, then you are just as bad as the business owner who thinks the custom abdicates them from paying a living wage. You’re not a crusader for justice, you’re a cheap jerk.
Their labour should be paid for by their employer, not the customers.
The only assholes here are the employers and the people who defend them.
In New York, which the article is about, the hourly wage for tipped employees is only $2.70 less than usual. So if a server waits on 5 tables an hour, each table only needs to tip $0.54 per hour to make up for the “lost” wage. Anything extra is just voluntarily financing the server’s fancy new handbag or iPhone. And in New York, like most places now, the employer is required to make up the difference in their pay if they didn’t get enough tips, so even if you don’t tip you’re not taking anything for free… the employer has to cover it.
Wait staff are assholes thinking they can guilt trip people to hand over extra money for free when they’re simply doing their job. Doubly so when they aren’t even sharing the tips with the kitchen staff who are doing the real work.