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Not my experience running a restaurant. I just went through this last year. The last thing I wanted to add to my plate was changing the tipping options, but I a

Not my experience running a restaurant. I just went through this last year. The last thing I wanted to add to my plate was changing the tipping options, but I also have to retain staff who were adamant that the tipping options needed to be higher. There is no business without them, so what do you do?

eesmith 2y ago
Raise their salaries?
- randomdata 2y ago
  No way they would go for that. That limits the potential upside. Tips have unlimited earning potential. A salary, even if higher, is a fixed quantity. I'd be okay with eliminating tipping. Frankly, it would be way easier for me to take my margin if the price was baked into the menu! In a vacuum, it would be silly for me to do anything else. But you don't have a business without the staff. You are pretty much beholden to their whims. There is a restaurant on every street corner and they are all hiring. If you don't keep staff happy, they aren't sticking around.
  - eesmith 2y ago
    I wasn't suggesting to eliminate tipping, I was suggesting to raise salary as an alternative to changing the tipping options. The unlimited earning potential would still be there.
    - randomdata 2y ago
      Well, they didn't ask for a higher salary, they asked for higher tipping options. "That's not what I asked for" isn't exactly a great way to keep staff happy.
      - eesmith 2y ago
        Did they know that a higher salary was a possibility? Would you be able to give raises comparable in earnings to what they would make from higher "recommended" tips? As a reminder, the original article concerned people selling "coffee or a muffin", and not "table service at restaurants". Where do your employees fall on the spectrum?
        randomdata 2y ago
        > Did they know that a higher salary was a possibility? I certainly can't read minds, but I find it hard to believe that someone – especially someone who realized they could ask for higher tip options – would not realize that they could also ask for a higher salary. You have to be pretty savvy to make it as a server. I would be surprised if any of them were that out to lunch, but I don't have concrete data to go on. I get higher salary requests too – and usually have to fulfill them, you don't have a business without staff – but that isn't the instance I was talking about. This doesn't really have any relevance to the topic at hand. After all, if you are the server, you're going to want the highest tips you can get even if you also have a higher salary. Why wouldn't you? Let's be real. They are not doing the job of a server just for fun, they are there to maximize profit. > Would you be able to give raises comparable in earnings to what they would make from higher "recommended" tips? I wouldn't have much choice if that is what they wanted. You don't have a business without staff. I guess what you are asking is if it would bankrupt me? Who knows? There are too many hidden variables to even start to guess. I mean, you have to be pretty savvy to make it as a server. We all understand that there is some tipping point where bankruptcy becomes inevitable, so servers wouldn't push for a million dollars a year or something. But assuming you mean within reason. > As a reminder, the original article concerned people selling "coffee or a muffin", and not "table service at restaurants". Where do your employees fall on the spectrum? A segment of the staff would fit into that end of the spectrum. Unfortunately, the awful state of software in the industry means that variable tipping options wasn't a technical choice (absent of running two entirely separate system). As such, they got pushed into the same rates the other restaurant staff whether they liked it or not. I didn't hear any complaints, though. If they start asking for lower tipping rates, I might have to find a workaround for the technical limitations. But so far it hasn't come up (and I will be completely shocked if it ever does).

eesmith 2y ago

Raise their salaries?

randomdata 2y ago
No way they would go for that. That limits the potential upside. Tips have unlimited earning potential. A salary, even if higher, is a fixed quantity. I'd be okay with eliminating tipping. Frankly, it would be way easier for me to take my margin if the price was baked into the menu! In a vacuum, it would be silly for me to do anything else. But you don't have a business without the staff. You are pretty much beholden to their whims. There is a restaurant on every street corner and they are all hiring. If you don't keep staff happy, they aren't sticking around.
- eesmith 2y ago
  I wasn't suggesting to eliminate tipping, I was suggesting to raise salary as an alternative to changing the tipping options. The unlimited earning potential would still be there.
  - randomdata 2y ago
    Well, they didn't ask for a higher salary, they asked for higher tipping options. "That's not what I asked for" isn't exactly a great way to keep staff happy.
    - eesmith 2y ago
      Did they know that a higher salary was a possibility? Would you be able to give raises comparable in earnings to what they would make from higher "recommended" tips? As a reminder, the original article concerned people selling "coffee or a muffin", and not "table service at restaurants". Where do your employees fall on the spectrum?
      - randomdata 2y ago
        > Did they know that a higher salary was a possibility? I certainly can't read minds, but I find it hard to believe that someone – especially someone who realized they could ask for higher tip options – would not realize that they could also ask for a higher salary. You have to be pretty savvy to make it as a server. I would be surprised if any of them were that out to lunch, but I don't have concrete data to go on. I get higher salary requests too – and usually have to fulfill them, you don't have a business without staff – but that isn't the instance I was talking about. This doesn't really have any relevance to the topic at hand. After all, if you are the server, you're going to want the highest tips you can get even if you also have a higher salary. Why wouldn't you? Let's be real. They are not doing the job of a server just for fun, they are there to maximize profit. > Would you be able to give raises comparable in earnings to what they would make from higher "recommended" tips? I wouldn't have much choice if that is what they wanted. You don't have a business without staff. I guess what you are asking is if it would bankrupt me? Who knows? There are too many hidden variables to even start to guess. I mean, you have to be pretty savvy to make it as a server. We all understand that there is some tipping point where bankruptcy becomes inevitable, so servers wouldn't push for a million dollars a year or something. But assuming you mean within reason. > As a reminder, the original article concerned people selling "coffee or a muffin", and not "table service at restaurants". Where do your employees fall on the spectrum? A segment of the staff would fit into that end of the spectrum. Unfortunately, the awful state of software in the industry means that variable tipping options wasn't a technical choice (absent of running two entirely separate system). As such, they got pushed into the same rates the other restaurant staff whether they liked it or not. I didn't hear any complaints, though. If they start asking for lower tipping rates, I might have to find a workaround for the technical limitations. But so far it hasn't come up (and I will be completely shocked if it ever does).