If you know restaurant pays staff $15-20/hr no tip right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate the current situation where everything costs more, plus there is often a service charge, plus there is still pressure to tip (and anything less than 20% is considered cheap). This is such a weird way to run the industry.

I am all for a living wage, which I agree is probably higher than $15/hr. I do think $18/hr is livable in DC and have done it (I have also made less than $15/hr in DC and it's not sustainable). You can't live alone but if you cohabitate with roommates or a partner (or both), don't have a car, and don't spend money on restaurants/bars/takeout (ironically), it's livable. Even better if your employer actually provides health insurance. You can't have kids on this income without help or a higher earning partner, but not everyone has kids, and the restaurant industry is not conducive to being a working parent anyway.

My issue is that it's just not clear. As someone who lives on a budget but does occasionally splurge by going to a restaurant or a bar, it's a little frustrating how unclear it is how much it will cost. Places are getting better about stating the service charge up front, but I'd still rather they just rolled it into the cost of food and drink -- why keep it separate if it will be added to every check? It feels intentionally misleading. Plus many places still do that thing where they don't put the prices of alcoholic beverages on the menu. This is ridiculous, especially when I'm buying a beer that can cost anywhere from $6 to $12 depending on the restaurant. To need to figure out tip on top of this?

I should not have to pull out a calculator and engage in extensive guesswork to figure out if I can afford to eat dinner at your restaurant. Or even just to estimate how much it will cost. I feel like the assumption is that everyone in DC is a lawyer or consultant with a massive amount of discretionary income, and it won't matter if dinner costs twice what they were expecting. It feels classist and manipulative, and it makes it much harder for me to listen to restaurant owners and managers talk about their business as thought they are uniquely beleaguered in the post-Covid economy. Just tell me how much your food and drinks cost! Why is that an unreasonable expectation?

/rant, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today

Re $18/hr, have you lived on that within the last 3 months? Because if not, your experience is completely worthless.

Re pulling out a calculator, gimme a break. you can easily estimate the costs of dinner. They tell you what the food and drink costs, add in tax and a 20% tip, and there you go. My 5th grader could do it.

[Anonymous]

What? No.

Just tip.

[Anonymous]

I’m in Los Angeles and tipped minimum wage is $15. Wait staff often get $15-20 per hour. Now we paid covid fees and price increases. These staffers also sat at home on the dole for a year, making more than they did before, and refused to go back to work, while essential workers like myself went to work. Now I tip 20% BEFORE tax and I don’t tip on alcohol.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure it's my business what other people make. If there is a service fee on my bill, my tip will be less or zero. I'm probably not going to tip if there is an !8% service fee, for example. If the restaurant is simply more expensive, I'm not going to go into the mechanics as to why and will probably tip as normal.

The solution for us is to eat out less.

[Anonymous]

I make decent money but with 2 kids and a mortgage there is not much left. With restaurant prices going up and up, I am eating out less and less. If enough people feel squeezed, at some point, the market will adjust by either contracting to serve only very well-off people, or lowering prices somehow.

[Anonymous]

15-20 is only for non tipping positions - hostess etc

[Anonymous]

There's no tip for $15-20/hr.

[Anonymous]

Which sit down restaurant pays workers $15 an hour?

[Anonymous]

What? No. Tip, ya cheapskate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What? No. Tip, ya cheapskate.

Nope.

Wages are reflected in the price if an establishment is paying people $15-20/h. No tip..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What? No. Tip, ya cheapskate.

Nope.

Wages are reflected in the price if an establishment is paying people $15-20/h. No tip..

How do you know the wages of the servers? (I would still tip in the US but would not in a country where tipping isn’t a thing like Japan.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tips are always appropriate at a sit-down restaurant unless it is specifically stated otherwise.

Tips are a horrible, racist practice designed to put the economic risk of operating a business onto the employees. At a time when so many restaurants are owned by large, wealthy corporations, tipping really has no purpose except to keep the divide between the haves and have nots.

https://time.com/5404475/history-tipping-american-restaurants-civil-war/

[Anonymous]

Correct OP. No tip required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What? No. Tip, ya cheapskate.

Nope.

Wages are reflected in the price if an establishment is paying people $15-20/h. No tip..

How do you know the wages of the servers? (I would still tip in the US but would not in a country where tipping isn’t a thing like Japan.)

Because if you are a local, you know which establishments pay staff salaries.

If a restaurant pays all staff $20+/h then there is no reason to tip. Prices would be increased to reflect the cost of labor. At that point, a server job is just like any other job. You don't tip Target workers. You don't tip your electrician. You don't tip the grocery store clerk. You don't tip cable guy. Sorry, there are just no tips of a restaurant flips the model and pays workers salaries. Why should a server get a tip of they're getting a salary why the person who rung me up at the grocery store doesn't?