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American Tipsters

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  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    We also raised the point that the entire restaurant industry in the US is shady as hell.

    I've had plenty of low-paying jobs, but serving at a casual-dining restaurant was the only place that I saw people get fired routinely, even for isolated fuck-ups. Mostly, I remember people deserving it, but in an at-will employment market, that doesn't really matter. While I have not personally seen it, I can easily imagine a restaurant firing a server who, by sheer bad luck, does not make enough in tips to cover their own wages a few too many times.

    Theoretically, this is even justified.

    If you assume people tip based on the service they receive and/or the quality of their experience, a server making bad tips therefore is probably having customers who are not very satisfied with their service/experience. In that situation, all the restaurant knows is that all the other servers are making good tips, indicating that their customers are happy. So, the most obvious denominator is the server getting bad tips, which, based on establish norms, is assumed to be earning bad tips. At that point, the restaurant is justified releasing the "bad" server, because if they really are earning bad tips, the easiest assumable explanation for why is that they're doing a bad job, and thus making the restaurant look bad.

    Of course, in reality, there's a lot more nuance to it than that, but it doesn't stop all those assumptions from being made, and conclusions from being drawn.

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  • UltimanecatUltimanecat Registered User regular
    Yeah, I thought about that while posting, so I added "by sheer bad luck".

    Realistically, you'd have to be extraordinarily unlucky, working shifts that are nearly dead, or a terrible server to not pull down enough to cover your wage. That said, any of those things, for various reasons, will likely put you in danger of firing.

    Honestly, and this is just a personal matter, while I don't think I should be responsible to cover for the legal obligations of a third party, I also wouldn't willingly put another in a position to be in danger of losing out by going against what is expected of me. In the case of tipping, it's completely customary in the US (despite what at least one foreigner seems to feel) and easily assumed to be part of the cost of eating out here. I'm also still of the opinion that, among the developed nations, eating out is just plain cheap in the US, even with a tip factored in.

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  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    Realistically, you'd have to be extraordinarily unlucky, working shifts that are nearly dead, or a terrible server to not pull down enough to cover your wage. That said, any of those things, for various reasons, will likely put you in danger of firing.

    Working dead shifts won't. It's not like the people running the restaurant aren't aware that there are slow nights.

  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    Quid wrote:
    Realistically, you'd have to be extraordinarily unlucky, working shifts that are nearly dead, or a terrible server to not pull down enough to cover your wage. That said, any of those things, for various reasons, will likely put you in danger of firing.

    Working dead shifts won't. It's not like the people running the restaurant aren't aware that there are slow nights.

    Yeah, based on the restaurants I've worked at, you'd have to have multiple paychecks where your employer had to pay you more than normal before you'd be impacted. And it's semi-understandable, too. The employer is estimating their store's expenses based on what they expect to pay you. If they suddenly have to pay you more, it can affect the profitability of the restaurant. Even more so if they can reasonably conclude that keeping you around is not only costing them more money in labor, but also costing them business.

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  • Casual EddyCasual Eddy The Astral PlaneRegistered User regular
    Urcbub wrote:
    Drez wrote:
    Sarcasm detectors are broken I guess.....

    What you said wasn't sarcasm. Everything you've said in this thread has been equivalent to "I'm a cheapskate and I refuse to tip specifically in the U.S."

    So, um, how are we supposed to interpret "yes, but only in the U.S. and Canada" except at face value?

    I refuse to tip, but decency is not gone. I still value human beings and don't hate places. If I don't tip in the US does it mean iI hate it? No, it still has some sort of value.

    try again. refusing to pay someone for their labor is not decent in any way shape or form, and shows you do not value them as a human being if you're willing to put your nebulous principles above their ability to pay their bills.

    refusing to tip is relegating someone that's doing an honest day's work to 2.15 an hour in most cases, and is indisputably a selfish and dick move to do.

    People keep throwing this up throughout the thread despite the fact that it's been refuted, companies are legally required to pay at least minimum wage, if you work for a dickish, shady restaurant that's going to illegally refuse to pay you if your tips don't bring you up to minimum wage it's not the customers fault that you picked an employer who breaks the law

    And the minimum wage for "tip based" jobs, such as waiting tables, have a lower minimum wage than "regular jobs". In Ohio, the minimum wage for a waitress is $3.25 while the ordinary minimum wage is $6.50 (at least it was in 2008). The reason being that waiters bring in tips at high rates. I think most states have similar laws.

    So yeah, not tipping out of principle is a dick move in the US.

    Here's a table of tipped employee minimum wage rates by state.

    http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm
    You guys are misinterpreting it,
    Those are the minimum wages that have to be paid assuming their tips bring them over the minimum wage err..minimum . So if someone makes 20$ off of tips, the employer still has to pay them the values in that table, if their tips don't make the federal minimum the employer has to pay the difference, and the minimum federal is 7.25


    http://www.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/flsa/002.htm

    I understand that. but if you don't tip, a server is likely to still get above minimum wage (7.25) and so they're more or less working your table for free or a piddling amount of money.

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