Initiative 82 passes (When can I stop tipping)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what day does it go into effect? When can I stop tipping. I love that we are becoming more European. Yay DC!

The law doesn't take effect until 2027, so if you stop tipping before then, you're just being cheap.

It phases in. So you are not being cheap to at the very least reduce your tipped amount. However, I fully expect restaurant owners to begin tacking on service fees for everything for a full tipped amount anyway.

So if you see a service fee, don’t tip. Pretty simple.

Since so much of the opposition to the initiative claimed to have been driven by concerns that some service workers would make LESS money if the minimum wage was raised, though, you're more than welcome to continue tipping even if there is a service fee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you go into a restaurant today and tip $0, that server will still make minimum wage because the restaurant will need to bridge the gap. My DD is a server and on days she doesn’t make minimum from her tips, the restaurant has to ensure she makes the minimum.

Huh? It's based on the paycheck. If she runs like crazy on Saturday making $30 an hour and has no customers on Sunday making the$5.35 an hour, the money to make up the minimum does not come out of the restaurant. It comes out of the $30 an hour she made on Saturday running like crazy. Not sure about you, but I'd rather stay at home on Sunday.
(By the way, customers are the cheapest on Sundays, or Sundays brings out the cheapest customers).
I worked for years for less than the minimum even when it was already a law. I also worked for years without getting paid the $2.17 an hour or whatever it was. Nobody checks and nobody cares.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At those wages are they going to stop hiring illegals? Or are they so high that they will hire more and pay them cash?

What's with the "high"? The only workers we have that are high are Americans. If we want workers, we have to hire illegals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We can stop tipping?

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re all so damned petty and cheap. As for the poster who drools over the “European model,” service in European restaurants generally sucks - slow and surly.

So, same as service in America, then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We can stop tipping?

No.

Huh? I thought that was the whole point. How are restaurants charging service fees and you’re saying that people have to tip on top of that? No way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At those wages are they going to stop hiring illegals? Or are they so high that they will hire more and pay them cash?

What's with the "high"? The only workers we have that are high are Americans. If we want workers, we have to hire illegals.

high wages

[Anonymous]

I was recently at Solace Outpost in Navy Yard. There are no waiters. There is a bar tender and three food runners. You have to order by phone app and the food arrives thirty minutes later. It is funny but our table guest kept mentioning that the restaurant would have made more money had they had a waiter come around and offer additional drink rounds. As it was you had to wade back inside and deal with the bar. (Bar tender was great). Anyway, all said and done, you receive your billing is done as you order and you tip before you have even had an interface with the restaurant.

Places like this I am starting to zero my tip out. There is no human interaction with the restaurant and the runners are salaried. I'll continue to tip the bar tender because that is why they have not been replaced with robots.

[Anonymous]

One can only hope that the council repeals this initiative again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One can only hope that the council repeals this initiative again.

Will not happen.

What would be smart is for DC restaurants to organize, not in opposition to yet another enormously popular initiative to end the tipped wage, but to create an industry standard around service charges. Restaurants can decide on their own how much to charge and also how much to pay their employees (assuming they meet minimum wage requirements). But the industry should have a best practices for what service charges cover and then clearly communicate it. Not this weird situation now where some use it to pay staff more, some use it to cover ne edits or rising overhead costs, and some just pocket it. If a restaurant charges a 20% service charge and doesn’t spend it on staff, I personally think customers are justified in not tipping and forcing the restaurant to compensate employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One can only hope that the council repeals this initiative again.

Will not happen.

What would be smart is for DC restaurants to organize, not in opposition to yet another enormously popular initiative to end the tipped wage, but to create an industry standard around service charges. Restaurants can decide on their own how much to charge and also how much to pay their employees (assuming they meet minimum wage requirements). But the industry should have a best practices for what service charges cover and then clearly communicate it. Not this weird situation now where some use it to pay staff more, some use it to cover ne edits or rising overhead costs, and some just pocket it. If a restaurant charges a 20% service charge and doesn’t spend it on staff, I personally think customers are justified in not tipping and forcing the restaurant to compensate employees.

If I see a 20% service charge I am NOT tipping. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you go into a restaurant today and tip $0, that server will still make minimum wage because the restaurant will need to bridge the gap. My DD is a server and on days she doesn’t make minimum from her tips, the restaurant has to ensure she makes the minimum.

Huh? It's based on the paycheck. If she runs like crazy on Saturday making $30 an hour and has no customers on Sunday making the$5.35 an hour, the money to make up the minimum does not come out of the restaurant. It comes out of the $30 an hour she made on Saturday running like crazy. Not sure about you, but I'd rather stay at home on Sunday.
(By the way, customers are the cheapest on Sundays, or Sundays brings out the cheapest customers).
I worked for years for less than the minimum even when it was already a law. I also worked for years without getting paid the $2.17 an hour or whatever it was. Nobody checks and nobody cares.

and this is fine. a worker at a grocery store will make the same no matter how busy the store is. a worker at at a retail store makes the same amount on a busy saturday and a.slow monday. at the end of the day, they will all be paid minimum wage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re all so damned petty and cheap. As for the poster who drools over the “European model,” service in European restaurants generally sucks - slow and surly.

Yeah I went to a cafe in Salzburg Austria and it took the waiter over 45+ mins to bring a coffee and a pastry and the cafe wasn’t even busy. I like “American” customer service and I will gladly pay 20% extra for it. Why would waiters and waitresses want to work at restaurants without tips? That’s the benefit to working a service job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There will be ZERO incentive to give get service-you though surly slow service was bad now? Just wait. Huge mistake.

LOL, literally every other industry manages service just fine without the customer having to bribe the staff. What makes being a waiter different?

[Anonymous]

To the PPs above, the service industry will change! Instead of servers being good at their jobs so they get better tips, they’ll have to be good at their jobs to keep from being fired, same as in all other jobs.