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No one “steals tips” lmao. Ive worked at 15 restaurants and not one of the owners paid themselves a wage, would all help out in the kitchen, and would never think of stealing tips. You are making ridiculous claims about a subject you dont know anything about.

No. Standard practice is to take the cost of making the meal, including manpower, and charging triple that to make decent profit on the item. It doesn't take an hour to make a steak and sides.

As others have pointed out your math is straight up wrong. Unless the server's wages represent 100% of the expenses you don't need to raise prices by 20% to pay 20% more. I.e. your steak dinner is $30. The food cost is 30% (been a while since my restaurant days but it was 25-35%). Fixed costs (rent, power, gas, etc) was about 30%. Everything else excluding pay / profit / taxes was 10-15%. So if payroll is 20% of the meal cost we get: $30*20%*20% = $1.20 increase. Ok my numbers may not be standard anymore or this place's breakdown. But we are looking at a buck or two tops. And that's including kitchen staff and host & hostesses in the payroll. What makes matters worse is if you pay sh*t you end up getting sh*t staff or high turnover. Which kills a restaurant. Pay living wage + and you get better staff who stay there and people wanting to work for you. That improves customer service and you get more customers (who tip).

1. Math is hard, I know, but a 20% tip on 30 is 36 exactly, not 38 2. You're saying "if you don't wanna pay 36 for steak without tipping, pay a higher arbitrary number I pulled out of my a*s to cover the fact that the only reason I'm paying my staff is because I'm legally obliged to".

B******t. You must own a restaurant. Because only a restaurant owner would be so damn cheap as to say they don't owe a decent wage to people who are helping them make money. Their wait staff is the reason they make money. Bet you also argue that if they raise minimum wage that inflation would cause prices to go up. Idiot

1) just raise the prices on all the items. I am paying that much anyway after tip. It's not a big deal. 2) Complete b******t on the "not a lot of profits left over to pay the workers more". Yeah there is. The owner class that own restaurants are not all struggling just to get by. Many of them are freaking multimillionaires and got those millions from owming their restaurants and taking profits from them (profits they gained by paying their workers less than their worth). 3) And for the select few "small businesses" that actually are struggling... if you can't pay your workers a living wage, you don't deserve to be doing business.

Nah, f**k them

I bet you're another one of those people who argue that if we raise the minimum wage prices will go up. Well, we didn't raise f*****g minimum wage and the goddamn prices still went up. Sit down and shut up. Anyone who thinks that someone who works in any job doesn't deserve a living decent wage is an a*****e and you should sit down and shut up.

In the EU the menus have the final price, servers' minimum wage is the same as other professions' and people still eat out

They are short staffed because workers decided it wasn't worth risking their lives or their family members' lives to work in the service industry during an ongoing pandemic for $3/hr and meager tips that barely get them above min wage while being yelled at by entitled boomers. Not because some mythical people just aren't tipping enough anymore.

The problem is when the servers are rude (it does happen sometimes) and then they bring out the bill with a 20% already added under "tip". Yes, logically you would be paying the same amount either way. But subconsciously it still feels like you are choosing to pay the tip. Which is why I personally find it a bit rude for it to already be added, kind of like them saying "we deserve it", which would still be rude even if they did, but when they really don't deserve extra money from me, then I shouldn't have to pay extra money. Which once again still feels like I'm paying extra, regardless if I would be paying the same either way. TL;DR Despite paying the same as if it was just added to the bill. Paying something called "tip" feels like you're choosing to pay it. Which when the servers are rude, should not be a mandatory fee.

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I don't know why you're being downvoted. It's like some people can't do basic math. Meals are super expensive rn so even a 10% tip on $40 is still $4 from a single table. Most people pay that much in tips if they only get coffee. With multiple tables per hour, they're definitely making more than minimum wage. Especially considering the fact that some people feel that 20% tip is fair. Knowing quite a few people that have worked for tips, including myself, it adds up fast and I never even made as low as minimum wage. So let's stop talking about how servers need to make $50 an hour out of fairness and talk about the minimum wage people working just as hard for $7.25 per hour.

A note...such a charitable endeavor. Lol.

Tipping is like getting a bonus from work which you DESPISE so of course you decline a bonus, right? I bet you don't.

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You are a cheap joke. What a f'in dumb contradiction statement, I DESPISE tipping. It is silent consent to a corrupt and vicious system that exploits servers to the benefit of the restaurant. YOU ARE JUST PLAIN CHEAP and A D13KWEEK

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You probably also refuse to eat at restaurants where food is expensive because the restaurant is actually paying their wait staff a livable wage as well. I'm a former waiter and never felt "exploited". When I worked harder and did a better job for the customers I made more money. Isn't that what capitalism is supposed to be about?

if you want me to pay for something include it in the bill. in some cultures tipping is even offensive. not giving tip is not stealing. not paying your employees is exploiting. tip is not mandatory

That's not the customer's problem. That's the restaurant owner's thing to figure out, and if the restaurant owner can't afford to pay their staff properly, like other businesses are able to do, then they have a problem with budgeting or not getting in enough business, and perhaps they need to strategize better. Other businesses, small businesses, can pay decent wages to their staff. No excuses. And, yes, I've seen plenty of servers complain about their wages. Some don't feel comfortable relying on customers to tip. Some just don't make enough on tips to cover the taxes they have to pay on them.

Hey there again, I live in Canada, am a server and i make $21/hr. What was that about excuses again?