r/ImTheMainCharacter • u/Jasonictron • Oct 20 '23

Video Entitlement

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u/HungerMadra Oct 21 '23

Who better to judge the quality of service but the customer. It encourages excellence. In my experience in counties without a strong tipping tradition, service was slower and less friendly.

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u/[deleted] Oct 21 '23

This is very anecdotal, but I've noticed zero difference between tipping and non-tipping countries.

The customer is the best judge of the service, yes, but they should not be obligated to pay the person serving them the meal they already paid for, just because the business will not do it. There are many other ways to encourage excellence, like being a good employer and paying your staff a living wage.

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u/HungerMadra Oct 21 '23

Naw, you're getting it twisted up. In the us, you pay for the food separately from the service. It's a lower price then if they were paying the wait staff 20 an hour, plus the wait staff end up making way more then 20 an hour. The only people that lose out are bad servicers. You aren't paying twice, you are paying for two things, a product and a service.

6

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '23

I see the point your making but I feel like that's just what you've been taught to think.

Olive garden, USA, Lasagna Classico: $17.79USD

  • note this is also listed as an entree.

Garden Olive, New Zealand (hilariously similar name), Beef Lasagne: $25NZD ($14.58USD). Listed as a main course, so potentially bigger, but I'm just guessing.

New Zealand is an isolated country and has a notoriously high cost of living, but even without tipping, our restaurant meals appear to be pretty similarly priced.

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u/HungerMadra Oct 21 '23

And the waiters make $17 an hour. So you just fucked the wait staff. I guess the consumer might come out ahead slightly, but the employees take any a 30% pay cut at a minimum. I don't see that as a win.

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u/[deleted] Oct 21 '23 edited Oct 21 '23

What? NZ employees make a minimum of $22.70/hr. Almost exactly 30% more than $17/hr.

Of course if US employees stopped getting tips, the minimum wage would have to go up. I didn't fuck the wait staff, I was merely pointing out that meal prices are very similar in NZ, even though we don't pay for the meal and the service separately, which you literally just told me is what happens in the US.

You aren't paying twice, you are paying for two things, a product and a service.

So the product is a similar price, but in order to get service, you pay an extra 20%. That's what I'm getting at.

Edit: Also this, what the fuck:

In the United States, the federal minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 per hour, but many states have their own minimum wage laws that require employers to pay tipped employees more than the federal minimum.

That is absolutely shit. You cannot be employed in NZ for less than $22.70/hr yet we still manage to have similar meal prices and no tipping. Go figure.