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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The hostess or expo boxing up your to-go order likely makes less than minimum wage because the restaurant (and government) expect that you will tip them. If you have a problem with that you should speak to your elected officials, or the restaurant owner. Don’t take it out on the poor hourly employees, who are likely making 30k/year or less.[/quote]

Hostesses have to make at least minimum wage. Not sure what you mean by "expo" -- assume that's a typo -- but the only people exempt from minimum wage are waiters/waitresses.[/quote]

They're actually not exempt. People who perpetuate this myth don't understand the law. Servers are entitled to make at least minimum wage for their shift. If the tipped wage + their tips for their shift do not add up to minimum wage, the employer is supposed to make up the difference. Sh!tty employers don't, and it's wage theft.

The reality is that a lot of these folks are making well above minimum wage, given how tip crazy Americans are, and how everyone believes the myth that tips are required for their livelihoods. That's why you get a lot of resistance from servers whenever there is discussion of getting rid of the tipped wage. A lot of them are making bank with the current system.

You don't have to feel guilty for not wanting to subsidize the wages of someone else's employee for doing nothing more than the job they already get paid to do (and usually barely that), and the service/goods you already paid for. [/quote]

^^ This is entirely correct. Other points to consider:

The research has pretty conclusively shown that tipping is a highly discriminatory practice, with minorities regularly receiving lower tips. Not surprising considering its roots are based in employers not wanting to pay their non-white staff (see e.g. [url]https://time.com/5404475/history-tipping-american-restaurants-civil-war/[/url]). And the amount of sexual and other kinds of harassment servers and bartenders often endure as part of the expected level of 'service' by entitled customers is really gross.

In addition to the point the PP makes about rotten employers not being willing to make up the difference to staff when they don't receive enough in tips to make minimum wage, they also often instruct employees not to claim MORE than minimum wage, because then they have to pay additional employer FICA taxes accordingly and they don't want to do this. This has long-term repercussions for servers' Social Security earnings, which a lot of wait staff don't realize. I worked for an employer like this in college. Sure, it was illegal, but who was going to report them just to get fired for their pains?

Tipping doesn't improve service for the customer, it doesn't improve working conditions for the servers, it doesn't serve anyone except the restaurant owners who get away with pushing both performance management analysis and wage costs onto their customers, who are then put in the uncomfortable and unreasonable position of trying to determine what someone who isn't their employee "should" be paid. It's a stupid and harmful practice, and it needs to end. Which it won't do as long as deluded Americans continue to buy into this myth (which, yes, is often perpetuated by the relatively few servers who do make better money than they might do otherwise - white male bartenders show up in these conversations a lot). But employers should be required to pay all their employees a fair wage and price their offerings accordingly. If they can't stay in business working that way, then they're crappy business owners and deserve to go under.[/quote]

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