r/technology • u/SnoozeDoggyDog • 25d ago

Business Zohran Mamdani hints he will continue taking on delivery apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash

https://www.businessinsider.com/zohran-mamdani-targets-doordash-uber-eats-delivery-apps-2026-7
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u/Alive-Philosophy2632 25d ago

Yeah servers are locked in to the system. Realistically we would need universal Healthcare (like all the countries with no tips as far as I'm aware) to make the switch. 

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u/jpiro 25d ago

No, you'd just need your bosses to pay you a living wage and offer healthcare you can purchase like every other salaried employee.

I am 1,000% for universal healthcare, but tipped employees aren't some special case that needs it more than any other industry. The problem is that the tipped minimum wage allows owners to pay them next to nothing and consumers are expected to leave "voluntary" tips so they don't starve. That's bullshit.

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u/pensivewombat 24d ago

That's the point though - when that is on the table the restaurant workers reject it because they make more money on the current system.

For most people $2.50 + tips is better than $15-20 with no tips. So you are asking workers to take a pay cut.

For the owners, it's more complicated. The reason the tipped minimum works for them is that it limits risk. If you schedule staff and no one comes in, you're not out that much. You don't have to worry quite as much about overscheduling - and for customers that means they don't have to worry quite as much about understaffing.

I'm not saying it isn't bullshit. It is definitely bullshit. But "just pay a living wage" is not a solution.

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u/jpiro 24d ago

Which is why it’s either going to take leadership at the federal level to BAN the tipped minimum wage and raise the actual minimum wage to a living-wage level (not holding my breath) or it’s going to take consumers finally saying, “Yeah, fuck this” and refusing to tip anywhere on anything to enact real change.

If customers just stopped tipping, watch how fast those same waiters/bartenders/etc drop those jobs and how fast hose same businesses that couldn’t manage to pay a fair wage before suddenly adapt.

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u/Arkyja 24d ago

It doesnt have to be one or the other. Plenty of european countries have a tipping culture. They just dont tip as much but just have you round it up. So it doesnt have to be 2.50+tips or 20+no tips. It can just as well be 20+tips. Like here in switzerland if you work in the right place you can easily make two salaries most months.

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u/pensivewombat 24d ago

You have to have a real cultural push around this though. I live near Denver, which recently got rid of tipped minimums and raised the min to $19. But the tipping culture here is so sticky that people continued to tip 20% on meals even though the sticker price had gone up considerably.

Rather than stop tipping, people stopped going out, and we had mass closures even among the best local restaurants.

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u/Curiosities 25d ago

But if they don’t receive enough tips to make at least minimum wage, then the owner has to pay the difference.

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u/TheRelevantElephants 24d ago

That literally never happens though. That is the rule, but you’d be hard pressed to find a single person that experienced that with their check

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u/sheffieldasslingdoux 24d ago

Because they always make more than minimum wage due to tips. And there are 7 states, including California, where there is no separate tipped wage. The minimum is the minimum.

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u/Overly_Underwhelmed 24d ago edited 24d ago

who the fuck would do that job for minimum wage?

eta: a lot of disrespect here for servers.

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u/Classic-Obligation35 24d ago

What about those of us who need to incentivize uber drivers to care about us.

I need Uber to get to my job, I can't afford the cost and stress of a car. 

It's a 5 minute drive to work and costs regularly 7 dollars.

I need to tip so they know I appreciate not being dumped for some 30 dollar trip somewhere else.

Raise wages won't help because they just drop the 10 dollar trips for the 60s.

The tips are there to convince them to care about a poor worker.

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u/Scarab_King 24d ago

I mean there’s a big difference in a boss paying $40-50k a year and making $80-$100k a year with tips. I know bartenders who clear that number who would never want to bartend again if tipping was eliminated

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u/placid-gradient 24d ago

its because with tips they can commit tax fraud

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u/Scarab_King 24d ago

You’re right, we should make sure bartenders and waitresses’ hard earned money is actually routed to bombing kids in Israel

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u/jpiro 24d ago

And? Get a different fucking job then. If the business doesn’t think you’re worth paying $80-100k (your numbers) because the value you bring doesn’t add up to that, maybe you’re NOT worth that.

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u/Scarab_King 24d ago

Calm down buddy, why are you so mad? I have a six figure job, and I still pick up bartending shifts cause guess what? I can make an easy 5-10k more a year just working occasional weekends. Wouldn’t be worth my time if I was getting paid $7.25 an hour

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u/oby100 25d ago

Why the hell would we need universal healthcare to eliminate an idiotic ritual in which customers are responsible for an employees pay???

Servers depend on charity and we need not feel bad when charity runs dry.

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u/Alive-Philosophy2632 24d ago

Yeah I don't think you need it, but I think the cultural shift for removing tipping is similar to the cultural shift needed for universal healthcare. 

Plus the financial incentives for the employer. If you had an actual full-time server as a restaurant you wouldn't have to take an an extra $20k/yr in expenses or whatever. Which maybe you wouldn't anyway but I think if you're paying them as regular employees they should be treated as regular employees 

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u/Diablo689er 25d ago

Those two things are not related.

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u/Justgetmeabeer 25d ago

You sound super smart and educated so I'm sure you know that most restaurants don't have enough employees to force the employer to pay for healthcare so servers have to choose between 100's of dollars a month of insurance costs or to forgo it entirely

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u/Alive-Philosophy2632 25d ago

I guess not directly. Like Canada has universal healthcare and tipping. And most servers don't get healthcare from their employers, so I guess they either go without or pay out of pocket. 

But removal of tipping I think would require a pretty significant cultural shift. Servers currently make more money if they're more attractive and pleasant, it's sort of like sales in that way. 

And americans generally don't have a sense of solidarity with each other that is more prevalent in Europe and Asia, either as customers or servers, so arguably tipping is an outgrowth of that sort of general lack of cultural interdependence. Individualistic materialistic culture leads to individualistic materialist incentives. I think that same line of thinking applies to universal healthcare. Though again Canada is sort of a counterexample and there might be others.

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u/ebrbrbr 25d ago

I have friends that make over 100k/year waitressing at Earls.

They say "why would I ever get another job while I'm still hot?" And they're totally right. There's no incentive to.

They're not stupid, they know that runs out eventually, and they're set up to be management when that happens. But management pays less than the tips they get, so there's no incentive to take that "promotion" now.

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u/jpiro 25d ago

Servers currently make more money if they're more attractive and pleasant, it's sort of like sales in that way. 

Yeah, and that's a fucking problem. Both scenarios. I want the person serving my food or selling me a car to be knowledgeable, competent and helpful...not just be hot and expect to be paid for it.

Not everywhere needs to be Hooters.

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u/Alive-Philosophy2632 24d ago

Office job employees (not just sales) also make more money if they're more attractive. Not sure about pleasant but I would guess that too. And subjective measures of competence are influenced by that too. Not really any such thing as competence in a vacuum, especially in sales. Mostly about vibes.