Tipping/service costs in DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothwithstanding the fact that this topic is beat down - my question to all the complaints is simply "Which is it?".

Do you care about people making a livable wage, safe working conditions, having healthcare and some paid time off for illness/kids or do you not? Because as caring as a lot of ppl say they are - it becomes increasingly clear that a lot of ppl care as long as they are not adversely affected in any way.

If you are of the mindset that service workers should get paid fairly, get minimum benefits then yes - your burger will cost more. These are the prices that WE pay collectively - for the collective. We are no better than how we treat our poorest.

No, I do not care about what their compensation is whatsoever. I am the customer. It’s never my responsibility to worry about what an employee is making. How absurd. This is why the US is also such a messed up, backwards country.

Yes - of course - it's the caring for others well-being that have us so divided.

It’s not the customer’s responsibility to care about an employee’s compensation. Are you delusional? Do you go to the grocery store and concern yourself about how much the cashier is being paid? Then tip the money on the grocery bill because you are concerned about their compensation? Hell no. The hypocrisy is astounding. Customers should be responsible for being concerned about the wages of a waiter, yet customers never have to do that for any other jobs? Make zero sense. The entire culture of the US is assbackwards.

[Anonymous]

And didn't DC just raise wait staff to minimum wage? I remember being paid $2.35 per hour, so the tips were the only way we actually made money, but now the minimum wage (which I assume is baked into the higher costs) plus a service charge (I'm the OP; it was added by the restaurant, I had no choice about it) plus the additional plea from servers (I've also received this).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And didn't DC just raise wait staff to minimum wage? I remember being paid $2.35 per hour, so the tips were the only way we actually made money, but now the minimum wage (which I assume is baked into the higher costs) plus a service charge (I'm the OP; it was added by the restaurant, I had no choice about it) plus the additional plea from servers (I've also received this).

Not quite, it's still being phased in. They will get minimum wage in 2027.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And didn't DC just raise wait staff to minimum wage? I remember being paid $2.35 per hour, so the tips were the only way we actually made money, but now the minimum wage (which I assume is baked into the higher costs) plus a service charge (I'm the OP; it was added by the restaurant, I had no choice about it) plus the additional plea from servers (I've also received this).

Yes! So it should means a reduction in the amount you tip. If baseline salary goes up, then tips should go down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I worked in the service industry for more than a decade. I get it.
But put my vote into the raise the overall price - I'm much more likely to tip excellent service, even on top. The "service" charge only hurts the industry staff.

Yes. This was one of those woke ideas put forth by people who are trying to "save" people that they see as lesser and unable to care for themselves. Initiative 82 was opposed by the restaurant industry and just about anyone that has actually worked as a server. DC decided to "help" these people by creating a new system that doesn't work and leaves everyone upset, workers paid less, and restaurants going out of business. So stupid and harmful to those they were trying to save.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And didn't DC just raise wait staff to minimum wage? I remember being paid $2.35 per hour, so the tips were the only way we actually made money, but now the minimum wage (which I assume is baked into the higher costs) plus a service charge (I'm the OP; it was added by the restaurant, I had no choice about it) plus the additional plea from servers (I've also received this).

Yes! So it should means a reduction in the amount you tip. If baseline salary goes up, then tips should go down.

I know these arguments have been beaten into the ground on this site but yes this should be obvious. Other obvious things that should not have to be debated regarding and industry that is literally based on the concept of customer service:

- It doesn't make sense for customers to decide how much servers should be paid. Customers only know a little bit about what servers are doing in their jobs and they generally don't even know what their base wage is or whether restaurants tip out or whether that server is great to work with or terrible to work with or always late or shows up early or whatever. Restaurants should determine compensation based on their business model and their intimate knowledge of what a worker actually does instead of asking customers with limited and imperfect knowledge to do it.

- Of course these costs will be passed on to customers. And presumably places that pay better will cost more. Customers get that intuitively and customers who want to support higher pay for servers can do so by patronizing those restaurants. Restaurants can even tout how well they pay employees. I am a devoted Costco customer in part because Costco has a long history of paying it's lowest paid workers pretty well and offering good benefits. Same with Room & Board. I do not actually have to be the person separately compensating someone in order to make a choice about giving my money to businesses known to have ethical and pro-worker policies and compensation.

- Tying tips OR service charges to bills by making them a percentage of the bill actually creates weird incentives and inequalities within a business and is unfair to workers and customers. Why should a server make more or less depending on how expensive the items ordered by the customer are. Does it take more work to bring a rack of lamb to the table than a BLT. And why should the customer pay a larger tip on a larger bill in cases where the larger bill is just due to expensive items and not extra service. During the debate over the tipped wage in DC one of the arguments I found compelling was how much compensation for service workers can vary depending on whether you are in a position or work a schedule that will automatically result in higher tips. And the workers most likely to get the jobs and schedules with higher tips are also more likely to be men and more likely to be white. Is a system where white male bartenders working Fridays and Saturdays at high end bars can make 100k a year but an immigrant woman working the same hours at a breakfast and lunch place during the week (a schedule that oh by the way is also conducive to being a working parent isn't that interesting) might not even break the poverty line an "equitable" system. No it's not. So stop telling me how invested the restaurant industry is in equity. BS.

- I want the restaurant industry to pay fair wages and have no problem whatsoever paying higher menu prices to afford that. What I don't like is being lied to or manipulated about the cost of food and service or having no idea where my "service charge" is even going or having a service charge imposed but then being told I'm cheap for not tipping on top of that or having to pay for service when I didn't even *get* service (because of QR ordering and self-service which as resulted in restaurants hiring fewer staff to begin with).

I don't trust the restaurant industry. They've historically treated employees very poorly. Now they are being forced to treat them better (good) but the response is to start treating customers badly. Uh okay customer service is entire point of your industry dummies. It's almost like it's an exploitative and poorly run industry that can't figure out how to make money without screwing someone over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I worked in the service industry for more than a decade. I get it.
But put my vote into the raise the overall price - I'm much more likely to tip excellent service, even on top. The "service" charge only hurts the industry staff.

Yes. This was one of those woke ideas put forth by people who are trying to "save" people that they see as lesser and unable to care for themselves. Initiative 82 was opposed by the restaurant industry and just about anyone that has actually worked as a server. DC decided to "help" these people by creating a new system that doesn't work and leaves everyone upset, workers paid less, and restaurants going out of business. So stupid and harmful to those they were trying to save.

Initiative 82 passed because people hate tipping and resent service charges and customers want transparency in pricing.

But yes what you said is what people in the restaurant industry who are too stupid to listen to what their actual customers have been telling them for years like to say to justify why they are struggling. In reality they are struggling because most restaurants are bad and have bad business plans and a historically extremely low success rate. But sure let's blame Initiative 82.

[Anonymous]

That is all fine and well, long-winded pp. But you can't just do this on one island of restaurants in a larger area. It strangles them. Make it national or don't do it. People really don't think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I worked in the service industry for more than a decade. I get it.
But put my vote into the raise the overall price - I'm much more likely to tip excellent service, even on top. The "service" charge only hurts the industry staff.

Yes. This was one of those woke ideas put forth by people who are trying to "save" people that they see as lesser and unable to care for themselves. Initiative 82 was opposed by the restaurant industry and just about anyone that has actually worked as a server. DC decided to "help" these people by creating a new system that doesn't work and leaves everyone upset, workers paid less, and restaurants going out of business. So stupid and harmful to those they were trying to save.

Initiative 82 passed because people hate tipping and resent service charges and customers want transparency in pricing.

But yes what you said is what people in the restaurant industry who are too stupid to listen to what their actual customers have been telling them for years like to say to justify why they are struggling. In reality they are struggling because most restaurants are bad and have bad business plans and a historically extremely low success rate. But sure let's blame Initiative 82.

And how has that worked for you? Do you now have more transparency?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is all fine and well, long-winded pp. But you can't just do this on one island of restaurants in a larger area. It strangles them. Make it national or don't do it. People really don't think.

Yes people really do not think. Like you suggesting "make it national" without understanding how compensation laws work.

But also: eliminating the tipped wage and raising minimum wages for food service workers is already a national movement with municipalities and states throughout the country already having done it. DC isn't even on the cutting edge of this movement but is following Western and midwestern states and cities who have already done this with success.

Please stop whining about something that is inevitable and happening and instead start figuring out how the industry is going to adjust to a new normal. Customers are not going to tolerate the present situation where restaurants petulantly whine that it's too hard to pay their own employees for their work and that the only way to do so fairly is to make customers do it. That argument isn't working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I worked in the service industry for more than a decade. I get it.
But put my vote into the raise the overall price - I'm much more likely to tip excellent service, even on top. The "service" charge only hurts the industry staff.

Yes. This was one of those woke ideas put forth by people who are trying to "save" people that they see as lesser and unable to care for themselves. Initiative 82 was opposed by the restaurant industry and just about anyone that has actually worked as a server. DC decided to "help" these people by creating a new system that doesn't work and leaves everyone upset, workers paid less, and restaurants going out of business. So stupid and harmful to those they were trying to save.

Initiative 82 passed because people hate tipping and resent service charges and customers want transparency in pricing.

But yes what you said is what people in the restaurant industry who are too stupid to listen to what their actual customers have been telling them for years like to say to justify why they are struggling. In reality they are struggling because most restaurants are bad and have bad business plans and a historically extremely low success rate. But sure let's blame Initiative 82.

And how has that worked for you? Do you now have more transparency?

No because restaurants have responded to Initiative 82 by imposing service fees instead of giving customers what they want and adjusting menu prices.

Sorry you work in an industry where customers ultimately dictate how things work because they are the ones buying the product. Oh wait -- that's literally how all industries are supposed to work.

[Anonymous]

In OP's pared-down-service scenario I'm ok with 15% service charge - which, of course, replaces the tip.