Lol just dripping with entitlement. I do tip, which is why I know the associated cost and how much more expensive servers have successfully guilted us into making our restaurant experience in the u.s.

I’m finishing up a vacation to an island nation in South East Asia and this afternoon I had some amazing ramen and thought of you. I walked in and ordered from a kiosk and then a few minutes later grabbed my food from the order drop, made by employees who earn a living wage and do not expect tips for doing their job as a means to try to earn more than the kitchen staff. The food was amazing and despite the markup of being on an island was cheaper than I could get it from the restaurant in my home town after the server tax.

Weird how nowhere in that engagement did i have some entitled person expecting a generous markup on my meal for bringing it and maintaining my drink. In fact thats been the experience this entire trip, even in instances where there was a server involved. Pleasant people who earn a living wage and do their work just like the rest of the staff in the restaurant. When it was appropriate we left more, the difference is it was a reward for excellent service, not just showing up.

So I have to organize for them, they are incapable of doing so themselves? I already tip, which is why I know the cost of the practice, and the social stigmas not giving in to servers begging comes with.

My experience is servers like the status quo because they make 2-3x what the kitchen staff does. What incentives do servers have to support the kitchen staff they’ve sold out in fighting for better wages? Servers do not do any more work than the people actually making the food.

The social expectation is baked into the exploitative labor relationship.

I agree, servers have been on the abusing side of the exploitative labor relationship. They choose to take less wages so they can expect the customer to pay more or bear the social stigma, giving the employer more savings and themselves significantly more than the kitchen staff. In the end both parties expect to exploit the customer.

Funny you assume I don’t tip. I do, and well, unless the service is dog shit. Which is why I know how much more things cost because of tipping. The problem is instead of it being a bonus for quality of service, its become the expectation to make up for the fact that servers choose not to throw their lot in with the rest of the staff and argue for living wages collectively.

Servers have been privileged with making 2-3x more such that the idea of making what the kitchen staff does is seen as being abused. You just don’t want to accept that the employer abuses you, and instead you abuse the customer with your expectations of having them supplement the poor wage you took expecting the customer will make up for it. Meanwhile the kitchen staff has always been abused but you didn’t mind because you got yours. Maybe work together and demand a better lot?

And here’s the scenario you didn’t care to consider. You quit, they don’t get servers because they don’t pay well, and the business shuts down making room for another that can try again with a better model. Dan can seek an employer that doesn’t treat him as a slave to minimize their costs, and Steve can choose to serve food himself or pay someone appropriately to do the work or close up shop. None of which relies on an expectation of a tip because the wage increase you collectively bargained for is baked into the price. So then when a tip is deserved it can be given, but there is no expectation of 20% for refilling my water at a buffet that I served myself at, or less.

I appreciate the discussion, hope you have a good day bud.

So it’s up to the server to look out for their interests and demand a better wage. Its not “keep tipping servers more and more because its the path of least resistance to prosperity for servers”.

Lots of jobs don’t pay enough in this country, but for some reason servers believe it entitles them to a donation. This is the status quo servers fought for because it made them more money than most of the rest of the staff until now.

Go get a better job if you’re unhappy with the responsibility of fighting for your earnings as a server. If nobody chooses to work serving jobs… then restaurants would have to do something more to compensate to bring in servers. Instead servers like the status quo because they make more money by culturally shaming people into donating to them.

they have no power in this situation

Quit. Find better employment. Go be a cook, though they don’t usually make as much as servers despite actually making the food. Funny how that works.

anything worth doing takes hard work and sometimes sacrifice

Just not by the server though right? It’s the customers responsibility to manage the terms of employment for the hapless server in your scenario?

You agreed to a wage when you took the position and make the choice to maintain that with your employer, but its everyone else’s responsibility to fix it?

The business owner didn’t even play a direct part in any of this.

Yeah they just make more money because the server and the employer made an agreement whereby the server takes less from the employer and expects more from the customer in return.

Totally not involved at all… just how they want you to think of the situation.

Are you sure about that?

https://time.com/5404475/history-tipping-american-restaurants-civil-war/

After the Constitution was amended in the wake of the Civil War, slavery was ended as an institution but those who were freed from bondage were still limited in their choices. Many who did not end up sharecropping worked in menial positions, such as servants, waiters, barbers and railroad porters. These were pretty much the only occupations available to them. For restaurant workers and railroad porters, there was a catch: many employers would not actually pay these workers, under the condition that guests would offer a small tip instead.

“These industries demanded the right to basically continue slavery with a $0 wage and tip,” Jayaraman says.

Servers want the status quo because they make more money expecting the rest of us to pay 20-30% markup as a tip with the risk of getting stiffed from time to time. Let them demand whatever they feel is a compensatory wage for their time just like the rest of us. They were fine when the scales tipped their way.

IMO servers sold themselves down the river because it allowed them to make more money than back of house staff. Now that everyone is getting tired of this shit it’s the responsibility of the customer to negotiate them a better position? Laughable.

As someone that worked the kitchen and made less than servers while doing as much if not more work, hard pass. Servers are just mad people are getting tired of this shit and they can’t easily double or triple what the person that actually made the food makes.

Sounds like our Agriculture industry. The people that unironically cry socialism when kids get free school lunch and shit…

Wells Fargo has entered the chat.