Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuepee
I reject the premise of what you say here generally and have provided info as to why.
Again my position has nothing to do with societies and restaurateurs setting a 'base wage' whether set to the 'minimum wage or choosing to pay above any set minimum wage, as many do.
The entire issue I am discussing her would be the 'extra' money these servers typically make above and beyond what would be included in that base wage.
So if you look at the IHOP server example I highlighted above who says servers in his industry 'average $25/hr in tips' ($52K/annum) which is ON TOP of any base hourly wage, should those tips and that EXTRA $52K/yr he is making instead be taken in by the restaurateur as a service charge and the restaurateur INSTEAD just pay the server a higher hourly wage utilizing some, but perhaps not all, of that money.
If that specific IHOP server said 'no thx, I would rather keep my tips and not get a bump in my base pay as I doubt I will make as much', the question is would other people who are not servers say 'sorry but for your own good I am getting rid of tips'?
Not sure what you're rejecting here. You can tip anyone, at any time, for anything. If Jeff Bezos holds the door open for you, you can tip him 5 bucks if you want. And if you wanted a Jeff Bezos that held doors open for people you should want to tip him, but most people don't even consider tipping rich people for things, why not?
Because tipping, while nominally having a idea of meritocracy, is primary used because we implicitly understand that service workers live precarious lives and we tip to help salve that precariousness. It's also why tipping is spreading through society and being mostly focused on lower income service trades. Because inequality means that people know that they have far more money than others and it's a way to help balance out that inequality.
So your hypothetical remains just that, a remote hypothetical. If service workers
were making a decent wage and
weren't extremely dependent on tips, it wouldn't even be much of a question of should you tip or not. Tip if you want, just like you can tip anyone right now if you want.