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> "Company research had found that 60 percent of the restaurants’ customers disliked the change in tipping, Mr. Merritt said. They wanted to inspire good servic
by ryan_j_naughton 10y ago
> "Company research had found that 60 percent of the restaurants’ customers disliked the change in tipping, Mr. Merritt said. They wanted to inspire good service with their tips and they didn’t trust management to pass on the money to its employees, he said."
Ugh, people are idiots! Paying an employee an actual wage will guarantee them income in a way that tipping does not. If an employee is hired at a particular hourly wage, we have labor laws to ensure they are receiving their pay. In contrast, tipping provides no guarantees and actually enables the abuses these same people fear. For example, legally a restaurant has to make a waiter whole if their tips+ low hourly wage does not get to actual minimum wage. Despite this requirement, many restaurants violate it BC tipping as the default puts the burden on the waiter to bother their boss when they didn't make enough.
Imagine instead if when you checked out at Target, you paid the cashier directly because you didn't trust target to pay them?! The idea seems ludicrous but apply it to tipping industries and it somehow is normal.
The real culprit is people feel comfortable with what they know and fear change.
- jghn 10y agoI'm pretty sure the number of servers who say "Oh, the previous table tipped low. I must have done something wrong" is many orders of magnitude lower than the number of servers who say "Oh, the previous table tipped low. Cheap bastards". As you say, I don't understand why people think that tipping actually helps w/ service. OTOH the masses still drag out that incorrect tale of To Insure Prompt Service
- wccrawford 10y agoWhen my wife and I went to Japan, we received the best service we'd ever had in every single restaurant, from random burger joints to classy Shabu Shabu restaurants. (Classy for us, at least.) None of them accepted tips. They just did their jobs well. It was just proof for me that tips didn't have anything to do with good service, not in the long-run or the short-run. Of course, I tip still, because it's part of their wages and they deserve it. But I don't for a moment think that it actually teaches them to serve people better.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago> The idea seems ludicrous but apply it to tipping industries and it somehow is normal. Wage theft is a thing tho.
- maerF0x0 10y agoI think this part of the sentence is key: "and they didn’t trust management to pass on the money to its employees, he said." Meaning, no tip restaurants usually have higher prices, but customers do not trust that the higher prices went to the staff. Management needs to make some statement of wages (high wages) to prove that the tips are sufficient. IMO distrust of management's greed is the real culprit
- jasonjei 10y agoIt often reminds me of retail establishments that pay profit-shared wage vs. commission-based retail wage. I've actually had very earnest interactions with Apple retail employees, and they will recommend me products they personally like; Fry's Electronics employees will constantly try to sell, to the point of annoyance (the one guy even pressured me by saying he was short of electronics extended warranty sales quota by 1 sale, and that I would move the needle for him).