2 ms·

There have been a number of studies that found that attractive people, especially attractive women, receive bigger tips from customers than other groups [1][2]

There have been a number of studies that found that attractive people, especially attractive women, receive bigger tips from customers than other groups [1][2] in some contexts. The implications of this are perhaps just as interesting as women being the primary group disadvantaged by this proposed policy simply due to there being a higher proportion of women than men in tip-receiving jobs. One could argue that if this proposal were to go through, people in tipped industries would receive an allocation of wages that's less tied to subjective consumer tastes about inherent physical attributes that don't directly contribute to the quality of service received. Though I lack polling data on this, I'm hypothesizing most people would perceive that as more fair. [1] http://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1159&context=articles http://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?artic... [2] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016748701500046X http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167487015...

gnicholas 9y ago
If this is true, then it could also lead to a reshuffling of who becomes a tipped worker. People who are attractive are currently incentivized to become tipped workers because they are relatively well-compensated in a tipped job. If tips were to go away (or be pooled), this incentive would become much weaker. Perhaps attractive people would shift from tipped jobs into other jobs, where their attractiveness (be it physical or personality-based) are still effectively compensated. Pharmaceutical sales comes to mind.
dna_polymerase 9y ago
That's actually a pretty good argument. More equality. And since - as we know from this wonderful article - men are underepresented in this field it would help getting more men into these jobs. What a great win for diversity.
bitL 9y ago
So, non-attractive persons are already discriminated by customers and this could level playing field and compensate for what nature messed up. Why is it bad?

gnicholas 9y ago

If this is true, then it could also lead to a reshuffling of who becomes a tipped worker. People who are attractive are currently incentivized to become tipped workers because they are relatively well-compensated in a tipped job. If tips were to go away (or be pooled), this incentive would become much weaker. Perhaps attractive people would shift from tipped jobs into other jobs, where their attractiveness (be it physical or personality-based) are still effectively compensated. Pharmaceutical sales comes to mind.

dna_polymerase 9y ago

That's actually a pretty good argument. More equality. And since - as we know from this wonderful article - men are underepresented in this field it would help getting more men into these jobs. What a great win for diversity.

bitL 9y ago

So, non-attractive persons are already discriminated by customers and this could level playing field and compensate for what nature messed up. Why is it bad?