Right now, most waitstaff makes far less than minimum wage. Why is that fair?
Really good waiters and waitresses do the job because they make good money. The better they are at their job, the better restaurants they can work at, the more money they make.
I agree with you 100%. The restaurants that hire these people should recognize and reward such employees with generous pay and bonuses, just like any other employee working at just about any other employer is similarly rewarded.
And since tips are pooled, good wait staff tend to appreciate each other’s skills and will get a bad waiter fired if they are getting bad tips for bad service.
Is it really fair that your peers have a say in whether or not you'd be working? Shouldn't that be your boss' call? And again, why can't the restaurant do this, after all, it is their employees.
Are we really asking what is fair all of a sudden?
Why is it fair that a textile worker in South Carolina made $18 an hour while a textile worker in Guatemala makes $1.50 an hour?
It’s the same clothing after all.
Wait, that’s why the textile industry collapsed in South Carolina.
Likewise, you change the way restaurants are run... you change and eventually shut down restaurants.
Now you have made it clear that you don’t like to eat at higher end restaurants, and that’s fine. But the way that wait staff is paid in the U.S. means they make more money that most wait staff in other countries.
And guess what? It’s all voluntary. No one is forced to eat at a restaurant that requires a gratuity. No one is forced to enjoy fine dining at all.
But the waiters and waitresses that work at higher end eateries would not be thrilled with your idea of what is “fair”. They would be looking for a new line of work as soon as they could and we would no longer have the best of the best in the wait staff game. Fine dining in the U.S. would suffer, and many restaurants would go out of business as poor service would drive customers away.
Then I guess we could all join you for a nice date at Golden Corral.
Just do what I do - don’t go out to sit-down restaurants. Eat at home. Too many restaurants in US. No need for it. We aren’t going to be needing as much retail and we aren’t going to be needing as many restaurants.