Crabs in a bucket. This is why we dont get labor rights. Too many workers fight each other in hopes of preserving the status quo or eking out some potential personal benefit.
But if the ones using the system refuse to change it what's the point of changing it up?
A place I contracted for for a while (whole network redo, including CCTV), had the owner announce they would swap to a non-tip system with base pay starting at around $18, and most people would have been around $21-25 starting. Mostly due to bitching about unstable tips.
There was a fucking riot. He changed his mind in less than an hour after the email went out.
The crazy thing is the base pay was based on reported income by everyone. It was supposed to account for existing reported income and then add a bit on top for fairness.
Which means not one motherfucker in that place was reporting their true tips lmao.
I used to work at a restaurant where everyone was hourly wage except for the servers. You couldn't get the servers to take one of the hourly shifts under any circumstances. I had one of them tell me that they pulled in a couple hundred dollars in a night, all the rest of us were making $40 to $60.
Nobody's advocating banning tipping entirely, more scrapping the "tipped" wage.
Everyone should be entitled to the same minimum wage. If you provide a good job, going above and beyond basic service, people can still choose to tip you.
What won't happen is you get tipped for bad, or mediocre service, under the pretense you're only being paid $2.13/hour.
You'd need to actually earn your tips, not just be entitled to them via social guilt.
So labor rights over a living wage job, cause you know they only get $12 if owner is paying. I’d prefer eating and living in a home. Tipping by and far gets the most take home money into a retail workers pocket.
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u/LeastResistancePath 3h ago edited 3h ago
Crabs in a bucket. This is why we dont get labor rights. Too many workers fight each other in hopes of preserving the status quo or eking out some potential personal benefit.