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Wait staff are not paid enough. At least in my state, the minimum wage for tip-accepting employees is horrific. I was a waiter twice and understand all of tha

Wait staff are not paid enough. At least in my state, the minimum wage for tip-accepting employees is horrific. I was a waiter twice and understand all of that so I always tip and try to be generous. Also, I'm pretty bad at math in my head so I usually guesstimate tips too high. A downside of tipping on the checkout systems I see is the baked in 15 / 20 / 25% options. OR tap custom and probably stand there like a moron for 5 extra seconds trying to figure out how to work the thing while the next person is waiting to order. SO I click 25% or whatever the top one is and get out of the way, but it's less than I'd normally have tipped. I hope overall it leads to servers / wait staff bringing home more. Anyway, as a former waiter with math insecurity issues there's my $.08 (inflation).

_ea1k 4y ago
This isn't about wait staff who make the tip minimum wage, though. This is about fast food workers who make the regular minimum wage and get the tips as a sort-of bonus. From what I can tell, they are almost always pooled together, even across shifts in a lot of cases (for good reasons).
pc86 4y ago
I will happily tip 20-30% at restaurants without thinking about it, when there is even decent service (free-refill drinks refilled, server not overtly rude or clearly wishing they were elsewhere, etc). But this isn't about servers, it's about tipping having become expected or at least overtly requested in areas where it never was before. There's a Subway by my house that has the following options: 20%, 25%, 30%, custom, or skip. Before the advent of consumers swiping their own credit cards, no Subway employee received tips for anything. I will gladly tip someone $20 on a $60 meal because they're making less than $3/hr. I'll also vigorously support legislation and politicians that want to pay them a livable wage. I'll be damned if I'm tipping the Subway employee making $18/hr an extra $5 for the sandwich that took them all of 4 minutes to make. It's ridiculous.
- focusedone 4y ago
  Ahhh good point. That totally makes sense. Still, even the subway worker isn't exactly making bank over there. It's not bad to have the option for tipping.
lern_too_spel 4y ago
In California, minimum wage for tipped workers is the same as minimum wage for any other employee. Tips are in addition to the state minimum wage. I have noticed that several checkout systems compute tips after tax instead of pretax, so I always end up computing tip myself anyway.
- zeroonetwothree 4y ago
  It's odd that you think it's super important to tip a very specific amount.
  - lern_too_spel 4y ago
    It's important that I don't reward liars.
gamblor956 4y ago
Where I am, wait staff are paid too much. They are guaranteed minimum wage ($15.96/hour), and tips are in addition to minimum wage, not in lieu of it because CA does not provide employers a "tip credit" that would let them offset their employee wage obligations with customer tips. Wait staff, who do the least work in a restaurant, can easily clear 3-4x what the kitchen staff gets, even though the kitchen staff does 90% of the work.

_ea1k 4y ago

This isn't about wait staff who make the tip minimum wage, though. This is about fast food workers who make the regular minimum wage and get the tips as a sort-of bonus. From what I can tell, they are almost always pooled together, even across shifts in a lot of cases (for good reasons).

pc86 4y ago

I will happily tip 20-30% at restaurants without thinking about it, when there is even decent service (free-refill drinks refilled, server not overtly rude or clearly wishing they were elsewhere, etc). But this isn't about servers, it's about tipping having become expected or at least overtly requested in areas where it never was before. There's a Subway by my house that has the following options: 20%, 25%, 30%, custom, or skip. Before the advent of consumers swiping their own credit cards, no Subway employee received tips for anything. I will gladly tip someone $20 on a $60 meal because they're making less than $3/hr. I'll also vigorously support legislation and politicians that want to pay them a livable wage. I'll be damned if I'm tipping the Subway employee making $18/hr an extra $5 for the sandwich that took them all of 4 minutes to make. It's ridiculous.

focusedone 4y ago
Ahhh good point. That totally makes sense. Still, even the subway worker isn't exactly making bank over there. It's not bad to have the option for tipping.

lern_too_spel 4y ago

In California, minimum wage for tipped workers is the same as minimum wage for any other employee. Tips are in addition to the state minimum wage. I have noticed that several checkout systems compute tips after tax instead of pretax, so I always end up computing tip myself anyway.

zeroonetwothree 4y ago
It's odd that you think it's super important to tip a very specific amount.
- lern_too_spel 4y ago
  It's important that I don't reward liars.

gamblor956 4y ago

Where I am, wait staff are paid too much. They are guaranteed minimum wage ($15.96/hour), and tips are in addition to minimum wage, not in lieu of it because CA does not provide employers a "tip credit" that would let them offset their employee wage obligations with customer tips. Wait staff, who do the least work in a restaurant, can easily clear 3-4x what the kitchen staff gets, even though the kitchen staff does 90% of the work.