LogFAQs > #968352415

ReturnOfFa posted...

But Muscles is right. It's how it is now. If you disagree with tipping, then...don't go out to eat. If things were 'the way they should be' you'd just be paying more for your meal because restaurants are running on a stupidly thin margin, that they take out on on their staff. People expect a 'certain price', and balk when it's raised due to inflation and to pay staff accordingly. Restaurant pay culture in North America f***ing blows. I'm still going to tip well when I go out so that the bloody staff can enjoy living a slightly less depraved life.

Shame on the place, but shame on customers that 'refuse to buy into tipping' while buying f***ing restaurant food for being just as callous towards those employees as the owners.

Pretty much. Heck, even individual restaurants can't really be held responsible for underpaying their staff because that's what they need to do to remain even remotely competitive. People are more likely to buy something if the price they can see is lower, which is the same reason so many shops don't include tax in their prices. If one restaurant has 15% higher prices than their competitor but discourages tips, while their competitor relies on people adding at 15% themselves to make up the difference, people will generally choose the competitor.

It's a cultural problem, not one that any individual business, employee, or customer can really do anything about. If it's going to change, it's going to either require outright legislation (mandate a living wage for all employee salaries regardless of tips and prices will have to increase, with tipping falling off in turn) or a gradual change spearheaded by a small number of businesses that increase their prices slightly while encouraging customers to tip less by the same margin to compensate, eventually normalizing decent wages and smaller/non-existent tips. As it stands, though, the opposite is happening: Because minimum wages aren't keeping up with the cost of living, larger tips are needed to bring workers up to a living wage, which is resulting in that becoming the new norm.

As an individual refusing to tip, you aren't a visionary spearheading a cultural change. You're a single cheapskate making it harder for your server to pay rent. That is the full extent of the impact your act of righteous defiance will have, and that's not really something to be proud of.