You're viewing a single thread.
As someone who currently works in a restaurant in the US, I can say this this, at least as far as food service goes, is the ideal, however, it is far from the reality. We can track our tips against the daily numbers, and I see anywhere between 9-13% on average, and only in the rarest circumstance does it go over 15%. Just last night we had multiple $100 tabs with no tips at all.
I'm all for abolishing the tipping culture, but to just not tip as a form of protest against it is only hurting the service industry workers. We don't get compensated for low tip nights by the owner. Changes have to be made in the pay scale first, and then we can remove tipping, but refusing to tip out of principal is devastating to those who rely on it. Trust me, we don't want your tips. We need them. And I know that everyone just says, "You should just get another job that pays better." I enjoy cooking, and I'm good at it. If your attitude is that people who can't make ends meet just quit their job and get something better, I invite you to look at the current job market and how open it is to former line cooks looking to break into the financial sector.
Lastly, who the fuck is tipping the tow truck driver? I've never had a tow that didn't feel like was a violation of my human rights. Waiting on the side of the road for 4 hours and paying triple for weekend/night/holiday/lunch hours. I'll give them their $200 for the three mile tow and be done with it.
Changes have to be made in the pay scale first, and then we can remove tipping...
I understand what you're saying, but that's just not how things work. As long as tipping is the norm, that pay scale will never change.
The only way it will change is if tipping stops and restaurants find themselves with no staff because they can no longer hire anyone for $2/hour.
Sometimes, communal sacrifice is the only way to get bad practices to change. I agree with you that it hurts, but the simple fact is that restaurants will not stop underpaying staff unless they are forced to.
And attempts to put this into law was fought by the servers themselves because enough of them make more money off of tips than they would from a straight salary.
So it's just not going to happen unless society forces their hand by saying "no, this is ridiculous" and stops paying extra for everything.
Tipping or not tipping isn't going to change the straight-up robbery done to you in the states with your $2~5 hourly minimum wages... customers are effectively subsidizing the employer because they only have to pay the $7 federal minimum wage if they don't get tips.
In other words the first $5 an hour in tips goes to the owner, the server doesn't see it at all. Y'all mericans should abolish the concept of tipped minimum wage. Get to your legislators on that. It's gone everywhere in Canada (sauf que la province de Québec, they were too drunk to follow suit)