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Restaurant Owner Berates Customers For Not Tipping Their Servers Who Work For $3 An Hour, Faces Major Backlash Online
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Tipping culture in the United States is bizarre to a lot of people. Even if you are from there, the idea that you are required (well, not technically but at the very least obligated) to tip over 15% at any restaurant is a bit strange. Ideally, you’ll tip 20-25% if you receive excellent service or if you have a large party, but even if the service is not great, it is insulting to leave too little. There are many unspoken rules about tipping that can be difficult to navigate, but one thing is clear: people working in the service industry love shaming bad tippers. And while it is sometimes appropriate for servers to call out stingy tippers, the crux of the issue is that servers should be paid enough by their employers in the first place. Then they would not have to rely on large tips.
Recently, one restaurant was put on blast on Reddit for a hypocritical post they shared demanding customers tip their servers better. Below, you can read the post yourself, as well as some of the responses it has received, and decide whether you think the issue here is the customers or the business itself. We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, and then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda piece discussing tipping culture in the US, check out this story next.
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This restaurant was recently called out online for a hypocritical post they made demanding customers tip their servers better
Image credits: icsilviu (not the actual photo)
One reader even pointed out why the owner might be so upset about small tips, bringing to light a comment they had posted
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It is completely understandable to be concerned about your employees’ livelihoods and want them to earn decent wages, but is alienating your customer base the way to go about that? The owners of the restaurant in question, Fireside Grille, certainly have the power to provide their servers decent wages without guilting their customers into tipping more. If they want to cling to paying servers dollars under the minimum wage for non-tipped jobs, which is $7.25 in Tennessee, there are ways to ensure larger tips. For example, some restaurants add a required 20% tip at the bottom of every bill to ensure that servers are paid well and to eliminate the guesswork that comes with allowing customers to create their own tips. If they want to give more, they always can, but this way, servers don’t have to worry whether or not they will be compensated for their work.
The post was later deleted after becoming the subject of controversy
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Requiring customers to tip a certain amount may sound abrasive to some people, but the alternative is paying servers higher wages. Businesses should not be as hesitant to do this as they are, but it is the safest way to ensure that servers are provided for. Particularly when tipping has seen a great decrease in recent years, with the pandemic discouraging many people from eating out and inflation leading many people to tighten their budgets. According to a study by One Fair Wage and the Food Labor Research Center at U.C. Berkeley, 83% of restaurant workers reported earning less tips during the pandemic. Meanwhile, many Americans are advocating for a $15 federal minimum wage across the board, with the elimination of a “tipped minimum wage”, but it does not appear to be happening any time soon.
Clearly, the tipping system in the US is outdated and could use a serious facelift, but I’m not sure that businesses contributing to the problem have the right to berate their customers for leaving small tips. What do you think of all this: should customers understand their responsibility to tip better or should the business owners take matters into their own hands and start compensating their employees appropriately? We would love to hear what you think below, and if you happen to be eating out in the US any time soon, please tip well. You never know how much a restaurant owner is giving their employees, and a 20% tip might be becoming more and more rare with inflation.
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But that didn’t stop the internet from sharing and ridiculing the post
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What do you think ?
Lara Verne 2 years ago
They pay $3 an hour and still have audacity to call customers stingy...
Mora Chilis 2 years ago (edited)
And he is dipping into the tips. Claims he doesn't get a hourly wage, that is such c**p. It is his business, he is making money. He is stealing their tips!
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Jy Ngyn 2 years ago
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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.
Jackey Niraula 2 years ago
I think the owner confessed he dips the tip box because he doesn't get salary. Read the screenshot above because looks like he already deleted his comment on the social media.
Not_Tellin 2 years ago
Whether he makes a salary or not, he is stealing. Tips are for the staff that are not paid minimum wage. Tips are not for the owner.
Bob Cakin 2 years ago (edited)
Doesn't matter if federal law outlaws it, it barely ever gets enforced and a law only matters if it is strictly enforced. Also... if he is the owner... this guy just automatically gets ALL the profits the restaurant makes. Yeah... he doesn't take a salary because the owner class aren't wage laborers. They pay themselves through profits. "Not taking a salary" doesn't mean much cause he is the freaking owner! Any profits the restaurant is making automatically go to him!
Travis Stoller 2 years ago
If the tips aren't pooled and the owner works the table as they said then it's their tip. How is that stealing?
Michael Pattow 2 years ago
He also says he doesn't take a salary (which is different of profits he makes as an owner) since he works behind a bar. Do get it twisted, this guy is still a jerk for calling out his customers.
Pursuing Peonies 2 years ago
Does make you wonder if he actually does any of the serving work or just "management" work and maybe a little host work and expects that he should be able to take tips.
Travis Stoller 2 years ago (edited)
That's the $120 that usually covers your taxes weekly as they are not taken out by the employeer. Or if it's a credit card tip it makes sure you don't owe at the end of the week.
Ed Bangor 2 years ago
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Let's say you go out for a steak dinner. You paid 30 bucks for that steak, potato, and side salad. But, the cost of the meal only included a $3 an hour wage for the wait staff. In order to remove tipping as a factor in the price of your meal, then the wait staff's full salary has to be factored into the price of each meal. This means that for the 15 to 20% tip to not be necessary, your meal has to go up by 15 to 20%. So now that $30 dinner is more like 38. Y'all are acting like there is some massive pot of money that the staff could be paid out of that the owner is just sitting on. Restaurant margins are typically around 5%. That means that there is not money in the budget to pay someone $15 an hour. The cost of that has to come from your tip. If you don't want to tip, you don't want to go out to a restaurant in the United States. It is that simple. Any argument to the contrary would require restaurants to feed you at a loss. That's a food bank, not a diner.
Steve Darnell 2 years ago
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.
GMc 2 years ago (edited)
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).
Andrei Caldararu 2 years ago (edited)
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".
Not_Tellin 2 years ago
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
Bob Cakin 2 years ago
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.
Dayna Jennings 2 years ago
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You will always have to "tip" no matter what. If they do away with tipping and pay the staff a higher wage, do you think they won't increase all the prices by 20 percent? Restaurants are not going to just eat the cost of higher wages. I'm all for the idea of adding it to the menu prices, but that is not the culture right now. We can all try to get the laws changed, but until then make sure you tip. There's a reason restaurants are so short staffed right now.....people aren't tipping so why would people work in the industry? Then everyone wants to get angry because the service is not up to par when they are taking on twice as many tables as normal.
Not_Tellin 2 years ago
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.
Andrei Caldararu 2 years ago
In the EU the menus have the final price, servers' minimum wage is the same as other professions' and people still eat out
Bob Cakin 2 years ago (edited)
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.
James Brent 2 years ago
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.
Yuukinoyuki 2 years ago
That's why it shouldn't read "tip" and the cost should just be part of the food items you're paying anyway. i.e. If you buy something on a plane you don't think "this should cost me less because the airstewerdess was not on her game. So they should cut her pay and give me a discount!" It sounds really entitled when put like that, right? America has sold the lie that a tipping culture leads to a competitive atmosphere which leads to better service. But, in truth, other countries have shown that giving your servers a livable wage does not lower service quality. And in America we can still see that in other jobs - Air Stewerdess, Bank Teller, etc. There are plenty of outward facing jobs where they don't live off tips and still have impeccable customer service
Jy Ngyn 2 years ago
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The customer is responsible for paying the tip, even if they werent paid any hourly wage, the tips alone work out to at least $50/hr here. Taking tips away and paying them a measly $15 an hour would mean many losing their houses and cars.
Becca Hauck 2 years ago
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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.
Mark Fuller 2 years ago
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Holy c**p - this is like a third world wage. Restaurant aside, what's up with the actual state legislation??! That would work out at about £2.50 an hour in the U.K. - not even enough to by a sandwich or a pint of beer. Our legal minimum hourly rate (and it's still not enough by far) is £9.18 / just over $11 - almost four times more than this tight a*s restaurant owner. Even Nigeria - one of the poorest countries in the world - has an average hourly rate of 1950NGN, which is around $4.58. What the actual f**k is wrong with America??
Sftw 2 years ago
The way it works is that, if the employee didn't make enough tips to meet normal minimum wage, the restaurant has to pay the employee up to that wage. The server will always make at least $7.25/hr, the variable is how much the owner has to pay. The staff can make more than that off of tips, but it runs the risk of owners illegally dipping into the pool for themselves down to the point their staff makes barely minimum wage. It was implemented during the depression to ease the burden on restaurants as a temporary measure, and then the greedy oligarchs made sure it never changed.
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Anthony Booth 2 years ago
That's alot of words for "The system is supposed to do this" sadly it doesn't. The number of people who work in the service industry who can't take advantage of this knowledge is way to high. The number of managers who take advantage of the fact that servers can not take advantage of this knowledge is even higher. Never say a server wage is $7.25 after tips because it is still 2.13 per hour. Which will never afford the attorney they need to get their 7.25. And people wonder why millennial and Gen Z are not working for crumbs anymore.
Charlotte Archer 2 years ago
"The way it works is... " Yeah. Not really. As one author once wrote, "There is the law, then there is what is done. " (In legal terms, there is 'de jure' vs. 'de facto'.) "De facto, " many, if not most (indeed, in my experience, all) restaurant owners *penalize * their workers in some way, up to any including termination, if that server does not "claim" a specific percentage of their sales in tips to demonstrate that they made that difference between their tip wage and minimum wage precisely because the employer _is_ required by law to cover the difference. Oh! And, BTW... whether or not a state allows a "tip credit" or not is a matter of state law. Seven states (Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington) and Guam DO NOT. Gee... Makes you wonder how restaurants in those states stay afloat without having to charge 3 times as much for food. Wow... Guess their restaurant owners are just much better business folks?
Bob Cakin 2 years ago (edited)
Actually, tipping practices have a earlier origin than the depression and, like a lot of things in the United States, it was originally implemented due to racism. Tipping emerged after slavery was abolished so that white Americans could "hire" black people without paying them a decent wage so long as they claimed it was possible for those black people to make a tip. Tipping essentially emerged as a way to pay black people as little as possible for their labor.... abd the practice then spread to all poor workers to save the owner class money so that they could chase greater and greater profits.
smugdruggler 2 years ago
Doesn't that mean that the owner could end up paying a different hourly rate each day though? How does that work regarding tax etc?
Daniel Starrett 2 years ago
I could be wrong, but I think it's averaged out at each pay period... The average tips received in a week for weekly pay checks... Average tips received biweekly if pay day is every two weeks. So if the avg tip for the pay period was $7/hr, the owner would have to pay them the .25 cent difference. If avg tips were $10/hr, the owner only pays the $3. Sadly, MANY owners require their staff to pool their tips in order to be able to say everybody is making above the $2.15 minimum and thus not have to pay each person a full $7.25
Mtg Wolfie 2 years ago
The idea is that they're required to only pay that, as servers make tips. The tips, from customers, are expected to make up the extra to get to the federal minimum wage. Which is why tipping is such a toxic system. As the customer, im already paying and arm and a leg to eat here. Now you expect me to ensure Janice can feed her kids tonight too? Oh, and to make things worse, tips in America are taxable in most professions. Yeah. Not only is manager fuckboy here underpaying and stealing tips, the government also takes a portion.
Michael Pattow 2 years ago
Minimum wage is a federal law with some states making a separate law for higher Minimums based on local economies.
Travis Stoller 2 years ago (edited)
Most Americans like myself tip 18%-22% depending on the service. It's specifically says in the law "for non-tipped employment $2.27 an hour is acceptable"You can pull in over $300 a night in the right restaurant or bar easily(where I live) and upwards of $500 at a club. I live in South Florida and used to be a waiter and would dread when people from Quebec came in. They all had winter homes here but never learned the basic etiquette of tipping and you lose a customer for the owner if you call them out on it. Is tipping only an American thing or do you not have jobs where you tip for some type of service over there?
m rich 2 years ago
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Most waiters/waitresses make close to $20 per hour with tips but claim nothing for tax reasons so this system wont go away
Serenity817 2 years ago
Most states require a percentage of their sales to be reported as tips, whether they made that or not. That then gets taxed from their paychecks. I wouldn't claim more than I had to either.
Jy Ngyn 2 years ago
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Its your math thats wrong. The average server here takes home at least $150 in tips for a shift plus the $3/hr wage, that works out to $50-55/hr. That kinda money sucks? Wow stay in school son
Bob Cakin 2 years ago (edited)
Only replying to you cause Jy got downvoted so much that I can't reply to him anymore: yo Jy, have you ever considered that the average server where you live may be the exception and not the rule? It's an obvious fact that waiters/waitresses in richer areas will have a clientelle that can afford to tip more. According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, servers/bartenders/other service workers make on average $10.11/hour. Yes you will have a few outliers making about $20/hour (which is what $150 in tips over an 8 hour shift ACTUALLY works out to. Not $50/hr) , but on average workers in the industry are making $10/hour. So stop using your anecdotal evidence as proof that tipping culture is "fine actually".
Laura Ketteridge 2 years ago
Pay your staff! Make a big thing in the local media about how well your staff is paid, and that customers don't need to give a 15% tip because it's already been included in the prices advertised. Look after your staff. They are your biggest asset.
Mtg Wolfie 2 years ago
Agreed. Pay your staff. Tips should be just that, an additional reward for good service, NOT an expected additional cost of eating. Quite personally, I DESPISE tipping. It is silent consent to a corrupt and vicious system that exploits servers to the benefit of the restaurant. I refuse to eat where the servers aren't paid well, and if the service is good, I leave a note that its a gift (non taxable).
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john smith 2 years ago
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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
Shane 2 years ago
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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?
Darrell M 2 years ago
I live in the US and don't like the tip system either, but what you've suggested has been tried, and every restaurant (that I'm aware of) went back to tipping or went out of business. That money has to come from somewhere, so the restaurant charges more for food, then their prices look out of whack compared to their competitors.
Heather Middleton 2 years ago
I agree. Pay your staff a liveable wage. An owner sticking his hand in the tip jar is absolutely disgusting and shameful. And why is the owner only at his business 3 nights a week? Despicable
Jy Ngyn 2 years ago
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Thats hilarious!! Do you realize how much of an hourly rate the owners would have to pay to even come close to how much they would have made in tips? A good restaurant shift on a friday or Saturday earns a server between $150-250 in tips and $15-20 in wages, thats about 4-5 hours. Works out to about $50-55/hr, not minimum wage. Notice how there arent any other servers here complaining about their wages? Its all clueless children. Servers make serious bank with this system. The only problem ever; is when braindead boomers steal their pay by not tipping.
Vladimíra Matejová 2 years ago
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
Superninjatiger 2 years ago (edited)
A tip should just be EXTRA money for servers, not their f*****g income.
Wesley Lane 2 years ago
This is correct. I'm American. I took a trip to South Africa, and ate at this little restaurant, and just left like 17 Rand on the table(it's about 7 Rand to 1 US dollar). As I was leaving, the server came RUNNING after me! He returned the money even after I insisted it was for him. America is the only country where tips are expected. I have worked in many restaurants front and back of house, and NEVER have had to just rely on my tips. Servers, if you have to rely on tips, find another restaurant that will pay you. Oh, one more thing: tips are TAXABLE! So if you don't claim them on your check, you have to pay taxes on them at the end of the year. So just get a good paying job, default on your taxes, and get a fat return during tax season. F**k tips. Gimme a decent check!
BadCat 2 years ago
Going to a restaurant is a treat for my family. In Canada, waitstaff usually get paid minimum, or maybe a dollar less than minimum wage. Never this atrocious few bucks wage. I think that is illegal here, unless the employer has a commission rate or put their waitstaff as independent contractors. Skip The Dishes does that to their delivery people, here, and they went under fire for it.
C B 2 years ago
Don't kid yourself, Canada has the high minimum wages PLUS this entitled tip system we imported from the US. The tips I saw on the machine started at 18%, 20%, 25% and other. Couple that with taxes and sometimes service fees and honestly dining out is getting to be a rare event unless you have lots of expendable income, which explains usually seeing more than half the restaurant seating empty most days.
Shane 2 years ago
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You live in Canada and have no understanding of how restaurants in America work or the pay system. An employee is guaranteed the normal minimum wage if they do not make enough in tips to meet that wage. So a waiter who is actually good at their job will never make less than the minimum and will always have the chance to do well and make more than the minimum. It's a system that works in favor of the employee, the employer, and the guest. The only people attacking it are the ones who don't understand it. Which seems to be entirely too many people.
BadCat 2 years ago (edited)
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.
Lara Verne 2 years ago
They pay $3 an hour and still have audacity to call customers stingy...
Mora Chilis 2 years ago (edited)
And he is dipping into the tips. Claims he doesn't get a hourly wage, that is such c**p. It is his business, he is making money. He is stealing their tips!
Load More Replies... Jy Ngyn 2 years ago
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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.
Jackey Niraula 2 years ago
I think the owner confessed he dips the tip box because he doesn't get salary. Read the screenshot above because looks like he already deleted his comment on the social media.
Not_Tellin 2 years ago
Whether he makes a salary or not, he is stealing. Tips are for the staff that are not paid minimum wage. Tips are not for the owner.
Bob Cakin 2 years ago (edited)
Doesn't matter if federal law outlaws it, it barely ever gets enforced and a law only matters if it is strictly enforced. Also... if he is the owner... this guy just automatically gets ALL the profits the restaurant makes. Yeah... he doesn't take a salary because the owner class aren't wage laborers. They pay themselves through profits. "Not taking a salary" doesn't mean much cause he is the freaking owner! Any profits the restaurant is making automatically go to him!
Travis Stoller 2 years ago
If the tips aren't pooled and the owner works the table as they said then it's their tip. How is that stealing?
Michael Pattow 2 years ago
He also says he doesn't take a salary (which is different of profits he makes as an owner) since he works behind a bar. Do get it twisted, this guy is still a jerk for calling out his customers.
Pursuing Peonies 2 years ago
Does make you wonder if he actually does any of the serving work or just "management" work and maybe a little host work and expects that he should be able to take tips.
Travis Stoller 2 years ago (edited)
That's the $120 that usually covers your taxes weekly as they are not taken out by the employeer. Or if it's a credit card tip it makes sure you don't owe at the end of the week.
Ed Bangor 2 years ago
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Let's say you go out for a steak dinner. You paid 30 bucks for that steak, potato, and side salad. But, the cost of the meal only included a $3 an hour wage for the wait staff. In order to remove tipping as a factor in the price of your meal, then the wait staff's full salary has to be factored into the price of each meal. This means that for the 15 to 20% tip to not be necessary, your meal has to go up by 15 to 20%. So now that $30 dinner is more like 38. Y'all are acting like there is some massive pot of money that the staff could be paid out of that the owner is just sitting on. Restaurant margins are typically around 5%. That means that there is not money in the budget to pay someone $15 an hour. The cost of that has to come from your tip. If you don't want to tip, you don't want to go out to a restaurant in the United States. It is that simple. Any argument to the contrary would require restaurants to feed you at a loss. That's a food bank, not a diner.
Steve Darnell 2 years ago
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.
GMc 2 years ago (edited)
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).
Andrei Caldararu 2 years ago (edited)
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".
Not_Tellin 2 years ago
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
Bob Cakin 2 years ago
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.
Dayna Jennings 2 years ago
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You will always have to "tip" no matter what. If they do away with tipping and pay the staff a higher wage, do you think they won't increase all the prices by 20 percent? Restaurants are not going to just eat the cost of higher wages. I'm all for the idea of adding it to the menu prices, but that is not the culture right now. We can all try to get the laws changed, but until then make sure you tip. There's a reason restaurants are so short staffed right now.....people aren't tipping so why would people work in the industry? Then everyone wants to get angry because the service is not up to par when they are taking on twice as many tables as normal.
Not_Tellin 2 years ago
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.
Andrei Caldararu 2 years ago
In the EU the menus have the final price, servers' minimum wage is the same as other professions' and people still eat out
Bob Cakin 2 years ago (edited)
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.
James Brent 2 years ago
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.
Yuukinoyuki 2 years ago
That's why it shouldn't read "tip" and the cost should just be part of the food items you're paying anyway. i.e. If you buy something on a plane you don't think "this should cost me less because the airstewerdess was not on her game. So they should cut her pay and give me a discount!" It sounds really entitled when put like that, right? America has sold the lie that a tipping culture leads to a competitive atmosphere which leads to better service. But, in truth, other countries have shown that giving your servers a livable wage does not lower service quality. And in America we can still see that in other jobs - Air Stewerdess, Bank Teller, etc. There are plenty of outward facing jobs where they don't live off tips and still have impeccable customer service
Jy Ngyn 2 years ago
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The customer is responsible for paying the tip, even if they werent paid any hourly wage, the tips alone work out to at least $50/hr here. Taking tips away and paying them a measly $15 an hour would mean many losing their houses and cars.
Becca Hauck 2 years ago
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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.
Mark Fuller 2 years ago
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Holy c**p - this is like a third world wage. Restaurant aside, what's up with the actual state legislation??! That would work out at about £2.50 an hour in the U.K. - not even enough to by a sandwich or a pint of beer. Our legal minimum hourly rate (and it's still not enough by far) is £9.18 / just over $11 - almost four times more than this tight a*s restaurant owner. Even Nigeria - one of the poorest countries in the world - has an average hourly rate of 1950NGN, which is around $4.58. What the actual f**k is wrong with America??
Sftw 2 years ago
The way it works is that, if the employee didn't make enough tips to meet normal minimum wage, the restaurant has to pay the employee up to that wage. The server will always make at least $7.25/hr, the variable is how much the owner has to pay. The staff can make more than that off of tips, but it runs the risk of owners illegally dipping into the pool for themselves down to the point their staff makes barely minimum wage. It was implemented during the depression to ease the burden on restaurants as a temporary measure, and then the greedy oligarchs made sure it never changed.
Load More Replies... Anthony Booth 2 years ago
That's alot of words for "The system is supposed to do this" sadly it doesn't. The number of people who work in the service industry who can't take advantage of this knowledge is way to high. The number of managers who take advantage of the fact that servers can not take advantage of this knowledge is even higher. Never say a server wage is $7.25 after tips because it is still 2.13 per hour. Which will never afford the attorney they need to get their 7.25. And people wonder why millennial and Gen Z are not working for crumbs anymore.
Charlotte Archer 2 years ago
"The way it works is... " Yeah. Not really. As one author once wrote, "There is the law, then there is what is done. " (In legal terms, there is 'de jure' vs. 'de facto'.) "De facto, " many, if not most (indeed, in my experience, all) restaurant owners *penalize * their workers in some way, up to any including termination, if that server does not "claim" a specific percentage of their sales in tips to demonstrate that they made that difference between their tip wage and minimum wage precisely because the employer _is_ required by law to cover the difference. Oh! And, BTW... whether or not a state allows a "tip credit" or not is a matter of state law. Seven states (Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington) and Guam DO NOT. Gee... Makes you wonder how restaurants in those states stay afloat without having to charge 3 times as much for food. Wow... Guess their restaurant owners are just much better business folks?
Bob Cakin 2 years ago (edited)
Actually, tipping practices have a earlier origin than the depression and, like a lot of things in the United States, it was originally implemented due to racism. Tipping emerged after slavery was abolished so that white Americans could "hire" black people without paying them a decent wage so long as they claimed it was possible for those black people to make a tip. Tipping essentially emerged as a way to pay black people as little as possible for their labor.... abd the practice then spread to all poor workers to save the owner class money so that they could chase greater and greater profits.
smugdruggler 2 years ago
Doesn't that mean that the owner could end up paying a different hourly rate each day though? How does that work regarding tax etc?
Daniel Starrett 2 years ago
I could be wrong, but I think it's averaged out at each pay period... The average tips received in a week for weekly pay checks... Average tips received biweekly if pay day is every two weeks. So if the avg tip for the pay period was $7/hr, the owner would have to pay them the .25 cent difference. If avg tips were $10/hr, the owner only pays the $3. Sadly, MANY owners require their staff to pool their tips in order to be able to say everybody is making above the $2.15 minimum and thus not have to pay each person a full $7.25
Mtg Wolfie 2 years ago
The idea is that they're required to only pay that, as servers make tips. The tips, from customers, are expected to make up the extra to get to the federal minimum wage. Which is why tipping is such a toxic system. As the customer, im already paying and arm and a leg to eat here. Now you expect me to ensure Janice can feed her kids tonight too? Oh, and to make things worse, tips in America are taxable in most professions. Yeah. Not only is manager fuckboy here underpaying and stealing tips, the government also takes a portion.
Michael Pattow 2 years ago
Minimum wage is a federal law with some states making a separate law for higher Minimums based on local economies.
Travis Stoller 2 years ago (edited)
Most Americans like myself tip 18%-22% depending on the service. It's specifically says in the law "for non-tipped employment $2.27 an hour is acceptable"You can pull in over $300 a night in the right restaurant or bar easily(where I live) and upwards of $500 at a club. I live in South Florida and used to be a waiter and would dread when people from Quebec came in. They all had winter homes here but never learned the basic etiquette of tipping and you lose a customer for the owner if you call them out on it. Is tipping only an American thing or do you not have jobs where you tip for some type of service over there?
m rich 2 years ago
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Most waiters/waitresses make close to $20 per hour with tips but claim nothing for tax reasons so this system wont go away
Serenity817 2 years ago
Most states require a percentage of their sales to be reported as tips, whether they made that or not. That then gets taxed from their paychecks. I wouldn't claim more than I had to either.
Jy Ngyn 2 years ago
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Its your math thats wrong. The average server here takes home at least $150 in tips for a shift plus the $3/hr wage, that works out to $50-55/hr. That kinda money sucks? Wow stay in school son
Bob Cakin 2 years ago (edited)
Only replying to you cause Jy got downvoted so much that I can't reply to him anymore: yo Jy, have you ever considered that the average server where you live may be the exception and not the rule? It's an obvious fact that waiters/waitresses in richer areas will have a clientelle that can afford to tip more. According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, servers/bartenders/other service workers make on average $10.11/hour. Yes you will have a few outliers making about $20/hour (which is what $150 in tips over an 8 hour shift ACTUALLY works out to. Not $50/hr) , but on average workers in the industry are making $10/hour. So stop using your anecdotal evidence as proof that tipping culture is "fine actually".
Laura Ketteridge 2 years ago
Pay your staff! Make a big thing in the local media about how well your staff is paid, and that customers don't need to give a 15% tip because it's already been included in the prices advertised. Look after your staff. They are your biggest asset.
Mtg Wolfie 2 years ago
Agreed. Pay your staff. Tips should be just that, an additional reward for good service, NOT an expected additional cost of eating. Quite personally, I DESPISE tipping. It is silent consent to a corrupt and vicious system that exploits servers to the benefit of the restaurant. I refuse to eat where the servers aren't paid well, and if the service is good, I leave a note that its a gift (non taxable).
Load More Replies... john smith 2 years ago
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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
Shane 2 years ago
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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?
Darrell M 2 years ago
I live in the US and don't like the tip system either, but what you've suggested has been tried, and every restaurant (that I'm aware of) went back to tipping or went out of business. That money has to come from somewhere, so the restaurant charges more for food, then their prices look out of whack compared to their competitors.
Heather Middleton 2 years ago
I agree. Pay your staff a liveable wage. An owner sticking his hand in the tip jar is absolutely disgusting and shameful. And why is the owner only at his business 3 nights a week? Despicable
Jy Ngyn 2 years ago
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Thats hilarious!! Do you realize how much of an hourly rate the owners would have to pay to even come close to how much they would have made in tips? A good restaurant shift on a friday or Saturday earns a server between $150-250 in tips and $15-20 in wages, thats about 4-5 hours. Works out to about $50-55/hr, not minimum wage. Notice how there arent any other servers here complaining about their wages? Its all clueless children. Servers make serious bank with this system. The only problem ever; is when braindead boomers steal their pay by not tipping.
Vladimíra Matejová 2 years ago
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
Superninjatiger 2 years ago (edited)
A tip should just be EXTRA money for servers, not their f*****g income.
Wesley Lane 2 years ago
This is correct. I'm American. I took a trip to South Africa, and ate at this little restaurant, and just left like 17 Rand on the table(it's about 7 Rand to 1 US dollar). As I was leaving, the server came RUNNING after me! He returned the money even after I insisted it was for him. America is the only country where tips are expected. I have worked in many restaurants front and back of house, and NEVER have had to just rely on my tips. Servers, if you have to rely on tips, find another restaurant that will pay you. Oh, one more thing: tips are TAXABLE! So if you don't claim them on your check, you have to pay taxes on them at the end of the year. So just get a good paying job, default on your taxes, and get a fat return during tax season. F**k tips. Gimme a decent check!
BadCat 2 years ago
Going to a restaurant is a treat for my family. In Canada, waitstaff usually get paid minimum, or maybe a dollar less than minimum wage. Never this atrocious few bucks wage. I think that is illegal here, unless the employer has a commission rate or put their waitstaff as independent contractors. Skip The Dishes does that to their delivery people, here, and they went under fire for it.
C B 2 years ago
Don't kid yourself, Canada has the high minimum wages PLUS this entitled tip system we imported from the US. The tips I saw on the machine started at 18%, 20%, 25% and other. Couple that with taxes and sometimes service fees and honestly dining out is getting to be a rare event unless you have lots of expendable income, which explains usually seeing more than half the restaurant seating empty most days.
Shane 2 years ago
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You live in Canada and have no understanding of how restaurants in America work or the pay system. An employee is guaranteed the normal minimum wage if they do not make enough in tips to meet that wage. So a waiter who is actually good at their job will never make less than the minimum and will always have the chance to do well and make more than the minimum. It's a system that works in favor of the employee, the employer, and the guest. The only people attacking it are the ones who don't understand it. Which seems to be entirely too many people.
BadCat 2 years ago (edited)
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.
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