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Rant on tipping
Me | July 6 2014 | Me

Posted on 07/06/2014 2:10:26 PM PDT by Ben Mugged

OK, here is my rant about tipping. Not the kind where folks in Frisco are standing little cars on end or the practice of pushing sleeping cows over but the kind that takes place in restaurants.

I worked in food service and as a bartender for many years while in the Air Force. When I started out the business would pay me to serve the customers. If my service was good, the customers would reward me with a gratuity. Over time the businesses noticed their servers were making a lot of money in tips so they reduced their pay to minimum wage. The difference between that and what you should have been paid was made up by tipping. In other words the burden of paying the server moved from the business to the customer. Instead of working for the business, servers were now working for the customer.

It is still that way today with some businesses adding the "gratuity" to the bill automatically. Folks it is no longer a "gratuity" if it is mandatory and the only way the server gets paid. Let's call it what it is, a service fee.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: gratuity; tip
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To: SampleMan
For me, I usually tip a fixed amount rather than a percentage of the bill at breakfast restaurants. The wait staff works just as hard, but the eggs and toast meals are so much cheaper than filet and sirloin dinner restaurant meals.

-PJ

21 posted on 07/06/2014 2:30:53 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: Ben Mugged

Personally, if there is a service fee on the bill, I complain. Get it removed, then give the cash direct to the server.

I ain’t going to stiff someone who has made a meal a pleasure (or tolerable). But I’m not going to play the restaurant game where people have to wait for months for a well earned tip either. They get cash up front.


22 posted on 07/06/2014 2:33:13 PM PDT by EC1
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To: txhurl

Cry if I Wanna
Since Jun 13, 2014

view home page, enter name:

~ About ~ Links ~ Contact ~ In Forum ~ Mail To ~
Return
Cry if I Wanna hasn’t created an about page.


23 posted on 07/06/2014 2:35:21 PM PDT by bramps (Go West America!)
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To: Ben Mugged; All
Restaurants should never have placed wage-earning servers at the mercy of the customers. Since everybody has different ideas about what such services are worth, it's a crude approach to justifying lower menu prices imo.
FR: This Kentucky Restaurant’s New ‘No Tipping’ Policy is Genius

24 posted on 07/06/2014 2:37:35 PM PDT by Amendment10
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To: C. Edmund Wright
I like the idea of you never ever having anything to do with any law or public policy EVER!!!!!!!

I am a county administrative judge and I do just fine upholding the constitution and the laws of my state.

25 posted on 07/06/2014 2:45:11 PM PDT by Cry if I Wanna
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To: bramps

Is there some bill before the house that includes tipping legislation?


26 posted on 07/06/2014 2:45:13 PM PDT by txhurl (2014: Stunned Voters do Stunning Things!)
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To: Ben Mugged

27 posted on 07/06/2014 2:45:53 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Cry if I Wanna

I am a county administrative judge and I do just fine upholding the constitution and the laws of my state.


I am an Egyptian dung-rolling beetle and you are smelling GREAT.


28 posted on 07/06/2014 2:47:50 PM PDT by txhurl (2014: Stunned Voters do Stunning Things!)
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To: txhurl
Your ‘living wage’ dream is about to become real in Seattle, I hope you’ll be around to analyze the labor/wage consequences of $15 minimum wage.

You misunderstood. By living wage I mean that waiters would be paid what the job is worth - let the market set that wage/value just as it does for all other jobs. My assumption would be that the pay would be competitive, especially for someone with a solid resume.

29 posted on 07/06/2014 2:48:28 PM PDT by Cry if I Wanna
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To: C. Edmund Wright

Friend’s daughter is a server at Cafe Boulud on Palm Beach. She can make $500/night on a good night in the season.

I’ve seen it from the golf perspective where clubs went to a no-tipping policy (with much higher hourly wages) in order to not have members one-upping each other. What results is overall good service in most cases, but gone is the exceptional service.

It also creates clock milkers. In the day, you hustled, made your tips, cleaned the place up, and got the hell out of there. Now everyone is on island time, which I don’t consider a good result.


30 posted on 07/06/2014 2:50:17 PM PDT by FlJoePa ("Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good")
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To: Ben Mugged

When I go to a restaurant I expect to pay. The way I see it... If I’m worried about a service fee on my bill, then I should not be eating out.

Moreover, when I tip I always start at 20% and work my way down.


31 posted on 07/06/2014 2:50:48 PM PDT by Enlightened1
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To: Cry if I Wanna

I bet by conservative standards you are an abject disaster. Your “living wage” slip gave you away.


32 posted on 07/06/2014 2:51:58 PM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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To: FlJoePa
Now everyone is on island time, which I don’t consider a good result

No, not a good result, but a predictable one. Oh, as far as a private club goes? Very different dynamic from a restaurant.

33 posted on 07/06/2014 2:53:32 PM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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To: Ben Mugged

Nobody tips in Japan. Yes, the prices are high, but the service is good. Other countries manage without the practice. I personally think tipping is extortion and I hate the practice.


34 posted on 07/06/2014 2:54:00 PM PDT by Ronin (Dumb, dependent and Democrat is no way to go through life - Rep. L. Gohmert, Tex)
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To: txhurl
I am an Egyptian dung-rolling beetle..

I bet you are.

35 posted on 07/06/2014 2:54:56 PM PDT by Cry if I Wanna
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To: Cry if I Wanna

The Market HAS set the wage. Great waiters make great money at great restaurants, lousy waiters make the inverse.

Your experiment with ‘changing the DNA of capitalism’ will fail, is failing spectacturaly, I wish you’d do something else with your time, like waiting tables.


36 posted on 07/06/2014 2:54:59 PM PDT by txhurl (2014: Stunned Voters do Stunning Things!)
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To: Ronin
Nobody tips in Japan. Yes, the prices are high, but the service is good. Other countries manage without the practice. I personally think tipping is extortion and I hate the practice.

I personally think you don't know anything about how tipping forces the free market into the F/B business, and I also know you don't know a thing about the startling differences between the Japanese and American culture. Feel free not to eat out and save your extortion problems.

37 posted on 07/06/2014 2:57:52 PM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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To: txhurl
The Market HAS set the wage. Great waiters make great money at great restaurants, lousy waiters make the inverse.

Your experiment with ‘changing the DNA of capitalism’ will fail, is failing spectacturaly, I wish you’d do something else with your time, like waiting tables.

What's horrifying is she is a judge (or claims to be). I bet she destroyes the free market daily with her ruling, and is too ignorant to realize it. I am shocked how many Freepers don't understand what you call "the DNA of capitalism" as it pertains to this. (btw, I love that phrase)

38 posted on 07/06/2014 2:59:25 PM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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To: Cry if I Wanna

let the market set that wage/value just as it does for all other jobs.


You mean, let new LAWS set that market wage. SEIU troll.
Did you not notice the SCOTUS just justifiably set you back on your extortionist heels?


39 posted on 07/06/2014 3:00:14 PM PDT by txhurl (2014: Stunned Voters do Stunning Things!)
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To: Larry Lucido
Businesses can charge however they like. You can choose to dine elsewhere.

Bingo.

40 posted on 07/06/2014 3:00:21 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Conservatism is the political disposition of grown-ups.)
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