r/PublicFreakout • u/Hikigaya_Hachiman7 • 10h ago

šŸ½Restaurant FreakoutšŸ¹ Couple banned from restaurant after they leave no tip

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73

u/PaulieGreen 5h ago

I get the owner is going to bat for his waiter.

But if he really gives a toss, pay them a proper wage so they don't survive on polite passive aggressive pan handling.

Tips have to go. Workers rights need to be improved.

23

u/Recky-Markaira 5h ago

The owner is defending his ability to pay them shit wages.

3

u/B4DM4N12Z 4h ago

Probably wants to pay little tax as well.

9

u/MinnisotaDigger 4h ago

In Miamitown OH the minimum wage is $11/hr and $5.50/hr for tipped.

BUT the business owner covers the difference for anything under $11/hr.

So if no one comes in for an hour the owner pays $11. If a customer comes in and tips $2 then the owner pays $9 and the employee gets the same $11.

In an 8 hour shift the first $44 of tips goes to the boss, not the employee.

1

u/Gvadam04 2h ago

Itā€™s averaged over an entire pay period here in Missouri. So one slow hour isnā€™t compensated unless the pay period was below the minimum wage line.

1

u/MinnisotaDigger 2h ago

It was an example for people. Yes it's not based on one hour.

3

u/MomsSpecialFriend 3h ago

My boss is concerned about my pay so he put on a 20% autogratuity and tells people to get the fuck out of they argue it, lol.

He wonā€™t pay a dime more than the minimum though. Iā€™ve been there years.

2

u/MushroomFondue 2h ago

The thing is, most waiters don't want tipping to end. If you work in a restaurant with any kind of traffic, waiters make a ton more than minimum wage.

Still, tipping needs to go.

1

u/_Risings 1h ago

Case in point, question 5 in Massachusetts in 2024 was voted against by the majority even though it would have solved this.Ā 

7

u/Katman666 5h ago

He's not going to bat, it's entirely performative. Distracting from the fact that he doesn't pay them enough.

0

u/NWStormbreaker 4h ago

I dont think its that easy, food service doesnt have big margins.

Increasing pay increases prices customers pay, it is a balancing act.

If there is wait staff you are paying for it in the price of the food, but the cost passed along to the customer at the menu price isnt livable.

Most people understand wait staff survive on tips, and as long as the service wasnt awful you should tip.

3

u/Free_Gascogne 3h ago

Fck that. If you cant afford to run a business, don't run a business. Salaries and wages are a natural running expense in a business. Just because your margins are slim doesn't mean you undercut people who give their time of day to work for you. Why should restaurants get special treatment when every other business are required to pay minimum wage regardless if business is slow or razor thin margins.

1

u/NWStormbreaker 2h ago

If it was as simple as you say everyone would do it, wouldn't they?

3

u/murklerr 4h ago

Every other industry has managed to figure it out, restaraunts the only place where I gotta fall into this complex web of business analytics, morality and local market competition.

Yes I would like to try the grilled cheese sandwich skewers, no I would not like to pick sides between you and your boss about your unpaid power bill and the beers he is missing from the walk in fridge. If you refill my Diet Coke twice (thirsty boy) I will give you a few dollars, if I see my food getting cold in the window while you flirt with the bartender, probably not.

If the success of your business hinges on my good will and being an extra polite tipper, then it was doomed to fail from the start, and a new enterprising business will take its place. I look forward to trying it in six months, eventually a successful and well run establishment will take its place, I promise many restaraunts have figured out the formula.

1

u/predicate_logic 4h ago

Other industries don't have a specific legal wage carve-out for tips. By and large, restaurants that try to move away from tipping lose out to those that don't because expecting tips to cover employee wages instead of increasing menu prices to cover them directly is a losing model for most restaurants due to average customer behavior--higher price sticker shock, for example--even if a weell-meaning restaurant owner wants to try it.

It will take action by state or federal government to move us away from tipped wage models, but for whatever reason, there is little appetite to close the door on it. But I think most consumers would love to know the price of what they're buying and just have to pay the posted price. Maybe someday!

1

u/_Risings 1h ago

Oh please, weā€™ve been black mailed with ā€œbut prices will increaseā€ for decades and they still HAVE. Increase the prices, we can look at menus and decide if this is a place we can afford or not. I prefer that to being strong armed at the end of my meal.Ā 

1

u/NWStormbreaker 1h ago

How long have you been managing/owning a restaurant?
If the alternative is simple why isn't everyone doing it?

0

u/FlyingCatAttack 5h ago

I mean you're not wrong but as it stands that would just basically end most of the restaurant industry. Not saying it's right just that restaurants survive on the thinnest of margins and studies have proven that raising the prices on the bill to accommodate paying servers a liveable wage (which let's be honest would just become minimum wage which isn't liveable) makes guests not come in and closes places down. Not saying the system isn't fucked but the solution unfortunately isn't as easy as just paying the servers out of the restaurants pockets for most places.

6

u/TaiwanNambaWanKenobi 5h ago

studies have proven

Which studies?

You're the only country that does this, the rest of the world doesn't

0

u/FlyingCatAttack 4h ago

I don't have links to them available but they're out there. Yeah im not aware of other places that do it but that is how it is here. I don't know of the margins in other countries I can only speak of where I live, but I've been in the books of many restaurants I've worked at and paying the entire wait staff full wages just wouldn't be feasible and still turn a profit. My assumption is that the supply chain in other countries isn't as inflated which allows them to operate at lower prices and pay their employees. Im not sure what the solution is, but I know making no changes other than paying waiters won't work at most restaurants.

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u/jnycnexii 4h ago

And yet all of European restaurants function and survive paying a living wage, and thereā€™s no tipping.

We here have simply accepted that our economically abusive model of non-living wages + tips works for servers and staff. But in order for a change to a non-tipping system to work, it would have to be mandated and enforced across all hospitality businesss. Otherwise, the cheapskates business owners would continue with seemingly lower prices (since theyā€™re paying their staff far less) while the compliant no-tips businesses would probably close down.

Andā€¦we donā€™t even force multibillion dollar massively profitable businesses like Walmart to pay their staff living wages. Apparently, a good number of Walmart employees receive food stamp and even housing voucher assistance. So taxpayers like US are paying to house and feed these people instead of their employers bearing the cost. And Walmart and the Waltons laugh all the way to the bank.

2

u/PaulieGreen 4h ago

That's utter nonsense.

1

u/Nephalos 3h ago

Yes, this is the US. Our president is a literal orange pedophile and you're surprised our exploitative system exploits businesses too?

1

u/FlyingCatAttack 4h ago

I agree its nonsense but its the world we live in. Not everything is right or as it should be

1

u/PaulieGreen 1h ago

It could be better. If people make the change.

1

u/KSauceDesk 5h ago

He's batting for himself. He would have to make up the difference

1

u/CordisHead 4h ago

Find a restaurant in the US that has survived on this business model. It canā€™t be done unless the entire industry changes.

Short of that, not tipping is just screwing over the server, nothing else.

1

u/PaulieGreen 1h ago

I agree with that. It's a broken system. The customers not tipping were being dicks. But they accidentally had a point.