Tipping in America

2006-04-18 19:31 - Links

Last Monday at lunch in a Spanish restaurant in New York City, server #228 earned $12. Last summer, in August, the slowest restaurant month of the year, she made less than $500 — and didn't make rent.

As good a reason to say it as any. Personally, I hate tipping. The response is always about how the server "depends" on it, and there's always the crushing (not!) story of someone's sister who lived on tips for .. who gives a crap?

If you're relying on tips to the sort of level that it determines whether you can buy food / pay rent or not, let me tell you something: you are a beggar. If you depend on the kindness of strangers to pay your way, and you don't get it, don't come whining to me. If tips aren't steady enough income, then get a real damn job!

Note to the anonymous idiot who's going to google something, end up here, and leave a nasty message in the comments: I'm going to delete it. Don't waste your time or mine. If you have something thoughtful and civil to say though, great.

Comments:

But those jobs pay under minimum wage...
2006-04-19 13:34 - kathaclysm

So is the solution to force all jobs to pay minimum wage? That way tipping really does become optional? Currently, jobs where tipping is expected are allowed to pay a bit less than minimum wage because it is thought that the employee will make up the rest in tips. In general, tipping works very differently in other countries.

Minimum Wage Discrepancy
2006-04-19 13:38 - arantius

The linked article describes the differences in minimum wage for tipped employees. Those are bogus too, and only make things more complicated and crazy. Ultimately, though, if your income relies on strangers giving you money, you might as well be the guy bugging everyone on the subway for a quarter. Get a job that pays a steady salary. If you're so unskilled/unstable/drunk all the time that you can't, guess what? You're like the bum on the street in another way!

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