this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
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Mel Nichols, a 37-year-old bartender in Phoenix, Arizona, takes home anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour with tips included. But the uncertainty of how much she’s going to make on a daily basis is a constant source of stress.

“For every good day, there’s three bad days,” said Nichols, who has been in the service industry since she was a teenager. “You have no security when it comes to knowing how much you’re going to make.”

The amount tipped workers make varies by state. Fourteen states pay the federal minimum, or just above $2 an hour for tipped workers and $7 an hour for non-tipped workers.

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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 12 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

A tip should be a reward for higher quality work, not asking your customers to subsidize your workers because you're too cheap.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

A higher minimum wage for restaurant staff is going straight onto the menu prices anyway. But then customers weary of expensive restaurant food stop showing up.

Restaurants are pretty much the toughest industry to be in. The vast majority of them fail. And the ones that really succeed (fast food) don’t have tipping anyway.

The ones who are making all the money are the landlords who own the land the restaurants lease from. They don’t care if 7 tenants restaurants go out of business in 5 years. They can always find more.

[–] john89@lemmy.ca -1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I never tip. Tipping culture should die.

[–] FilthyHookerSpit@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

That's wrong. What you should do is never go to restaurants where workers rely on tips. They have to tip out the bartender/busboy/runner at the end of the night and you not tipping means they're losing money when that happens.

So maybe don't be an asshole and abuse an already terrible system.

[–] dotslashme@infosec.pub 18 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

This is not even the right question to ask. Fucking pay your staff! No one should have to depend on tips to survive.

[–] john89@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

You got a lot of people from the 'pro-tip' crowd glad to say "I make more with tips!" whenever someone suggest replacing tips with fair wages.

If they make more with tips, then they also have to deal with not getting tipped from people like me.

[–] ctkatz@lemmy.ml 34 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

the correct answer is there should be no tips and those workers should be paid the same amount as every other worker.

[–] r0ertel@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I've read on other social platforms from wait staff that they would prefer tips to a living wage because they can make so much more with tips than without.

I've cut my dining out significantly recently because with the recent hike in restaurant prices, plus the minimum 20% ~~tax~~ tip, dining out is unaffordable.

Also, during covid I became an incredible cook.

[–] john89@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

If they make more with tips, then they don't get to complain when somebody doesn't tip them.

plus the minimum 20% tax tip

Where are you eating that has a 20% minimum tip? I've only seen stuff like that for big groups.

[–] Foni@lemm.ee 39 points 20 hours ago

It's funny how they don't consider raising the minimum wage for those who don't receive tips, but rather lowering it for those who do. Make clear the type of people who propose this

[–] Zier@fedia.io 60 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

No one should ever have to work for tips. A living wage should be minimum for all workers, no exceptions. If you get tipped beyond that, great, otherwise, fuck off employers exploiting people.

[–] Zier@fedia.io 3 points 14 hours ago

Just to clarify, since people are confused. No one should ever have to live off sub standard wages and hope to hell they make enough tips to survive. This is an exhausting daily hustle that detracts from your quality of life. A livable minimum wage, enforced in all states and industries for every employee, regardless of age, should exist, no exceptions. $20/hr would be a good start. And if people also earned tip money, that went directly to that employee, no sharing with the employer or other employees, that would be fine. Employers need to pay employees proper wages, not your customers.

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 49 points 22 hours ago

Tipped hourly work wages are just another way that corporations fuck over workers.

[–] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 30 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I don't even understand the issue. What's keeping them from tipping someone who earns a livable wage? Your service was exceptionally good? Here's my green bill of appreciation. On top of the fair wage you earned by showing up at your place of employment.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 10 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Because of the culture of tipping and pay structure in the US, tipping is generally not seen as something extra for good service but just part of the price of stuff at restaurants/bars/etc. So in this sense, tipping wouldn't be required for people earning a living wage. But you're describing what tipping "should" be, and yes, with that definition there's no reason to not tip for the occasional above and beyond work.

[–] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

But it's even brought up as a reason why paying livable wages would be a disadvantage for good servers. Those two things just don't add up.

Besides that, I want to be able to feed myself and my family even when I have a bad day. If all my days are bad then maybe I shouldn't be in this job in the first place, but that's another story.

Edit: even here there's one of those "but tipping good" people. https://lemmy.world/comment/13002675

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 14 hours ago

I get your point, but I'm not trying to make an argument about whether people would make more or less with tips. I don't necessarily mean a specific amount when I say livable wage, I more mean may what they're worth. I'm just saying there's sort of two types of tipping but both have the same term.

[–] DmMacniel@feddit.org 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Lol but they already paid so little because of tips. And now they want to go even lower?!

[–] mindaika@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 12 hours ago

I dunno about you, but $30/hr seems pretty good for a HS grad

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

No, this is to eliminate the tipped minimum wage.

[–] Kethal@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

There are two bills mentioned in the article. One in Arizona is to make the subminimum wage even lower. One in Massachusetts is to raise the sub minimum wage to match minimum wage, effectively eliminating subminimum wage.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Shame on me for assuming the Arizona one would also be progressive. (I live in Massachusetts, so I'm familiar with that proposal.)

[–] 11111one11111@lemmy.world -5 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (2 children)

Wait do people really not know that servers and bartenders already make below minimum wage before tip? In NY and I think most states have it set up so the specially set minimum wage for tipped service workers + the minimum % you must claim from tips comes out to the state wide minimum wage amount. Everything they make in tips after that is cash in hand no taxes, period.

The fact this is even up for debate shows the people debating to raise it have no idea what they're talking about.

If you suck at you job and keep getting scheduled on swing shifts that see no patrons so no tips, your employer must match the necessary amount to get you to minimum wage. Only ever saw that happen a few times for really really part time servers. But in one or two 4-6 hour dinner rushes at average sized establishment, it was more rare for the servers to NOT take home more than what the cooks made in a 40hr week. 8-12hrs of largely untaxed tips = more than 40hrs @ 12/hr or at least that was the case 7-10 years ago.

Lesson 2, never go salary working for a restaurant. It turns you into legal slave labor. You will be at that restaurant more than you aren't for the same fuckin paycheck amount week in and week out. I never went salary but have a record of 91hr work week when the place I was at opened a new location. Made bank hourly but if I were salary I'd be the same amount paycheck for 90hrs of work.

That's what we should be looking to improve regulations on. Exploiting faux salary promotions for exploration of labor laws lol

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 12 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I stopped reading after your first paragraph because there is so much wrong.

Minimum wage is federal law. If, as a tipped worker, at the end of a pay period, your base wage plus tips doesn't make minimum wage, your employer must make up the difference. (I don't know if states with higher minimum wages carry over this requirement, or if the employer only has to make up to the federal minimum wage.)

You are supposed to report all tips as income. Yes, most people will under-report cash tips, but that is tax fraud. (Again, this may vary for state taxes, but I'm not aware of any that say tips past minimum wage are tax-free.)

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 3 points 17 hours ago

A living wage fixes all those problems. It not only fills in the hole where those "rare" servers don't bring in enough to even cover minimum wages, but gives the worker in any job the power to choose to work or not. The employer has to make the job more attractive to bring them in. Anyone who says that's going to be hard for the employer...that's exactly what they want to you say.