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Washington, D.C.’s Democratic city councillors this month moved to overturn a mandatory minimum wage for tipped workers after bartenders, waiters and restaurant managers served up a lesson in economics.
On Oct. 2 the D.C. City Council voted 8-5 to repeal Initiative 77, a ballot measure imposing a $15 minimum wage for all tipped workers by 2026. The wage hike was billed as a way to give workers financial stability and protect them from sexual harassment by restaurant patrons. But tipped workers realized the policy came with serious unintended consequences.
Before the measure passed in June, many restaurant workers wore buttons asking patrons to “save our tips” and “vote no on 77.” When Washingtonians passed the measure anyway, the workers pushed for repeal. Though restaurants pay a $3.89 hourly wage to tipped workers, “we choose these jobs because we make far more than the standard minimum wage” from tips, bartender Valerie Graham told the City Council.
You understand that that defeats the entire purpose of the tip right?
It's saposto reflect the quality of service.
I've left a $0.02 tip and one that's more than my steak dinner.
It got really expensive at this one place I used to go to 1x\month. The servers figured out that their tip was in their hands, and (it wasn't cheap, but so so good) I was putting out 20% +$5 or more ($50-70 meal) each time. (In a low cost of living area. In another life I've had The $250 meals too.)
The problem is they have brainwashed people to think it's a minimum.
So galaxy...you make poverty wages and think that other people shouldn't outdo you?
Read the posts above this one.
I CHOSE that wage to keep within the guidelines for SSDI, just like SS has guidelines, so it was a sarcatic rhetorical issue. Of course people make more than that. Of course i have to pay something that pays their wages.
You MISSED the overall BIG point i was making. Actually TWO points.
That first one IS: that those who AREN'T servers think and are talked into the idea that servers are the lowest of the lowly paid workers, and with tipping that is just NOT so.
The second point IS that not all minimum wage jobs necessarily pay the same. Some, such as tipped workers are quite lucrative.
Read the post above about D.C. 77, the last sentences.
Tipped workers make waaaay more than they let on, and often it doesn't get reported for income tax purposes, the way your entire salary is. They HAVE, in my state, raised the wages for tipped workers such that the taxes are based on a 15% tip (i think it is) on the entire bill, whether they get it or not.
That was my major point.
You missed it.
Best to you if you chose to pay 1/4 of your bill more or less to someone in a state with a high tipped worker minimum wage paycheck already. You may get $25-30-35/hr with your degree, and while you think the tipped worker is so poor they cant afford to pay attention , might actually be making $20-25/ hr overall for quick excellent personable service with tips being at 20% or higher. If thats the case, which in states like mine, can be the truth, your college degree doesnt look so good and pales by comparison, now doesnt it?
It's actually standard practice in many restaurants for the waiter or manager to inquire about why a low tip was left (or not tip at all).
It’s not a typical standard practice. I’d also say a manager confronting a customer over a tip is different than a manager inquiring about a tip, neither of which is happening with any great frequency
First, I think that tipping should be a reflection of the service. I tip anywhere from 0% to 25%.
However, I think good service deserves a good tip.
Tipping is dumb. It isn't any harder to bring a $40 steak to a table than it is to bring a $10 burger, but the steak deserves an $8 tip and the burger only gets $2? Why not $2 for both?
Gotta side with the people who say if you can’t afford to tip properly, just don’t eat out. You don’t have to eat out after all. I’m a bit biased as my GF is a server part-time but she gets stiffed once or twice a day and I don’t think everyone realizes how it works - I sure didn’t!
For my GF, at her popular somewhat expensive chain restaurant, the chef gets a cut of the BILL not the tip. Let’s say a bill is $100, the chef gets $8. If you tip $10 my GF gets $2 and the chef gets $8. If you tip nothing my GF OWES the chef $8 that comes out of her other tips. So it’s entirely possible and has happened that a few bad tables cost her the tips for the entire shift! That’s more common at lunch because it’s slow, but still sucks when it happens. I think it’s the dumbest system I’ve ever heard, I don’t understand why the cut for the chef isn’t out of the tips themselves. Like 40% chef, 40% server, 20% hostess / bus boy or something like that. But nope, if you tip the chef in cash separately and zero tip the bill for instance she would owe the chef money AND he would keep the whole tip. Technically the chef is supposed to report the tip but of course they’re selfish and never do.
I probably revealed the restaurant by what I wrote if you can figure out what restaurant has a chef at the table lol
I have always tipped 20%, in cash when possible, unless the service is especially poor. I’ve always felt that the low wages and physical and emotional demands of waiting on tables justified the tips I left.
But now, as I mentioned, the skyrocketing restaurant prices and higher wages for workers have made it difficult for me to justify tipping at the standard 20% level.
I’m interested to learn if others feel the same,
And I answered you.
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lol