3 ms·

Simple: they shouldn’t be able to use the word tip. That word has meaning and expectations. Call it “wage subsidy” and see how many people leave anything.

deogeo 8y ago
A very apt suggestion, given how strictly corporations like to define the meaning of words when it's to their advantage: https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/11/17661254/bethesda-sell-used-games-amazon-block https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/11/17661254/bethesda-sell-use...
astura 8y ago
... Does it? I mean, "mandatory"-ish tips have been legal "wage subsidies" for a very, very long time yet are still called "tips." https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-tipping-minimum-wage-service-workers-0402-20180328-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-pe... >The origins of tipping go back more than a century, to the days when only well-heeled Americans dined out and waitstaff constituted a tiny fraction of the nation's labor force. Government left the custom alone, even though — or perhaps because — it reinforced the hierarchy between mostly white, male restaurant customers and their servers, often women and minorities. Even New Deal-era minimum wage laws exempted tipped workers until 1966. By then, tipping was so culturally embedded that Congress took it for granted that certain workers "customarily and regularly" received tips, while others did not. It created the "tip credit" system, whereby restaurants could pay customarily and regularly tipped personnel a much smaller minimum wage than others received, as long as tips offset the difference.... The June 19 ballot initiative in Washington would gradually replace the "tip credit" with a system under which all local restaurant employees would get the statutory minimum wage — soon to be $15 per hour — and servers could still receive tips on top of that. Similar laws prevail in seven states, mostly on the West Coast. However, servers wouldn't necessarily get to keep all of the tips, because the law Congress just passed lets restaurants that pay servers the statutory minimum and don't use the "tip credit" redistribute tips to their back-of-the-house employees. Sounds not so straightforward to me. (That's before we get into tip pooling, which is an extremely common practice.)
- TomMarius 8y ago
  > reinforced the hierarchy between mostly white, male restaurant customers and their servers, often women and minorities Sounds weird. It used to be a big faux pas to have non-male non-white waiters and still is sometimes in some kind of restaurants.
  - improbable22 8y ago
    Indeed. I think it goes back much further too. Restaurants are basically a 200 year-old technology, but rich people dining well when visiting each others' country houses goes back a lot further. And I believe it was the custom that, on departing, a visitor would tip the host's servants. It's my impression that this is where the custom came from (but not an expert opinion).

deogeo 8y ago

A very apt suggestion, given how strictly corporations like to define the meaning of words when it's to their advantage: https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/11/17661254/bethesda-sell-used-games-amazon-block https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/11/17661254/bethesda-sell-use...

astura 8y ago

... Does it? I mean, "mandatory"-ish tips have been legal "wage subsidies" for a very, very long time yet are still called "tips." https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-tipping-minimum-wage-service-workers-0402-20180328-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-pe... >The origins of tipping go back more than a century, to the days when only well-heeled Americans dined out and waitstaff constituted a tiny fraction of the nation's labor force. Government left the custom alone, even though — or perhaps because — it reinforced the hierarchy between mostly white, male restaurant customers and their servers, often women and minorities. Even New Deal-era minimum wage laws exempted tipped workers until 1966. By then, tipping was so culturally embedded that Congress took it for granted that certain workers "customarily and regularly" received tips, while others did not. It created the "tip credit" system, whereby restaurants could pay customarily and regularly tipped personnel a much smaller minimum wage than others received, as long as tips offset the difference.... The June 19 ballot initiative in Washington would gradually replace the "tip credit" with a system under which all local restaurant employees would get the statutory minimum wage — soon to be $15 per hour — and servers could still receive tips on top of that. Similar laws prevail in seven states, mostly on the West Coast. However, servers wouldn't necessarily get to keep all of the tips, because the law Congress just passed lets restaurants that pay servers the statutory minimum and don't use the "tip credit" redistribute tips to their back-of-the-house employees. Sounds not so straightforward to me. (That's before we get into tip pooling, which is an extremely common practice.)

TomMarius 8y ago
> reinforced the hierarchy between mostly white, male restaurant customers and their servers, often women and minorities Sounds weird. It used to be a big faux pas to have non-male non-white waiters and still is sometimes in some kind of restaurants.
- improbable22 8y ago
  Indeed. I think it goes back much further too. Restaurants are basically a 200 year-old technology, but rich people dining well when visiting each others' country houses goes back a lot further. And I believe it was the custom that, on departing, a visitor would tip the host's servants. It's my impression that this is where the custom came from (but not an expert opinion).