Posted on 12/06/2005 12:33:26 PM PST by George14
It has recently been publicized that a 20 percent tip is now appropriate because servers are usually only guaranteed $2.13 an hour and the tips have to be split. Let me explain something. It is the customer's sole right to determine whether a tip is given, the amount and who will be the recipient of his tip. Such rights are not only guaranteed by our constitution they are clearly explained in the Code of Federal Regulations. Customers may tip any amount they choose. Instead of a higher tip being appropriate, what is now actually appropriate is for the public to start questioning why they are being expected to tip more.
While it has been widely publicized that tip splitting and lowered wages are both creating a need for higher tip percentages, what is not being publicized is an explanation of what these business practices actually are and why they create a need for the public to tip more. You see in both cases, such practices equate to employers being allowed to take part the tips away from the employee to whom the customer has presented a tip. You see, tip splitting is the business practice whereby employers take part of the tipped employee's tips and give them to workers whom the customer had every right and ability to tip but didn't. The $2.13 an hour business practice which has been publicized is actually called a tip credit. The tip credit also allows businesses to take or credit part of their employee's tips for themselves. In both cases the public's tips are being taken by businesses owners. The problem is not that customers should be tipping more the problem is that business owners should not be utilizing their employee's tips for the business's interests.
The truth is, business owners are using the customer's tips which undeniably and indisputably are not intended for the business owner for the business's own interests. Such business practices are being allowed by our government even though such business practices are an illegal dominion over the customer's property. To put it simply, businesses are being allowed to steal the money customers present as tips. Now, the public is being expected to tip more because the workers are not receiving the financial benefits of the tips they have been presented.
What is needed is not a higher tip percentage but some educating of the public of what is actually happening to their tip. Businesses have lobbied our federal government and I believe have probably even paid off many of our judges so they can steal the financial benefits of the tips our public is tipping workers in the service industry. The stories you read on how the public is being expected to tip more are actually stories about how our country is allowing businesses owners an ability to blatantly steal from their workers. If the real issue was resolved there would be no issue.
Employers should be prohibited from using their employee's tips to establish a lower minimum wage for their tipped workers. Customers are not tipping so the business can lower it's payroll expenses and thus benefit itself to the customer's tip. Customers are not tipping so the business owner can decide who should share in their tip. Both these business practices are fraud on the public for they are clearly the misappropriations of the public's property. Because our public has sat back and done nothing as business owners misappropriate the public's tips to their own interests, there now exists an undue pressure on the public to tip more to make up for such criminal acts.
The reason I believe our public has sat back and done nothing as business owners reap the financial benefits of the tips presented to their workers is because the media has also been paid off to avoid informing the public of what is actually happening to their tip when the courts ignore the constitutional rights of the customer and when our federal government so blatantly misappropriates the public's tips. The courts have ruled that employers may share the customer's tip among employees whom the customer had every right to tip but didn't. The federal government has allowed businesses to benefit themselves to the customer's tip through the tip credit without the consent of the customer. Such acts by our federal government and courts are not only unconstitutional but criminal. The media is covering up such crimes by intentionally avoiding the issue and keeping the truth from the public.
The tipped employees of this nation need some help from the public on these issues. The truth of what is happening to the customer's tip is being withheld from the public so that employers can continue to steal our tips while the public is left to foot the bill.
Auf....you're way back East somewhere.....Oh well. Wanna buy an Integrated Circuit?
That much has changed in the few years since I left?
PS Stimmt so literally means "That's true".
I know literally, but I was telling the meaning, sort of how "We're good" can mean "The debt is settled" in English.
It is a very different place.
I loved Germany, and was there for a very long time. WTF did Schröder do to it? I got to see the start of the downturn before I left though.
It's a mess. When I left, the SPD was proposing an additional income tax increase of 29% to fund 300,000 new jobs. Layoffs are coming right and left.
The Free Democrats got 10 seconds to say that was unrealistic.
But no one is saying that it is just not profitable to do business in Germany, so what's the reason for it.
I think the point here is the employer pools the tips to allocate to a broader class of workers that are not typically "tipped" and thus can reduce overhead by paying less and making up the shortfall by pushing the need for higher tips. I always tip 20% unless the service sucks from the waiter, but I remember when tipping went from 10% to 15% and excused by the fact that the waiters need the increase because of the rise in the cost of living. WTF...They have a built in raise when the restuarant rasies prices due to increased cost and desire for greater profit. This system takes the "tippers" for suckers. I would like all my tips to go to the waiter because I have essentially made a determination on the level of service from that person and the restaurant owner can pay they kitchen crew, bus boys, dishwashers out of the price on the menu and I'll determine if the price is competetive before I come and order. That is the American way.
1)what is the incentive to work hard if you know you're possibly going to give half of what you work for away?
Incorrect underlying assumption here. You are operating under the assumption that the tip belongs to the waitress alone when it is clearly the rules of her workplace that it does not.
Why is this difficult to understand?
Let me ask you. What is the motivation for the busstaff to work hard and bust their butts for minimum wage while the waitress takes away free cash money every night? Don't employees work better when motivated? Isn't that the idea behind gratuities? Why should this only apply to the waitress and not the rest of the service team?
Granted, it is traditional, but traditions can change.
2)I guess you're also against "tax cuts" for the rich? ;)
I won't even bother to ask how this is supposed to relate.
SD
Again, incorrect assumptions. You are assuming the care of your cows is completely independent of the care of mine. This is a false model.
If I slack off and do no work then your cows suffer as well. Imagine we together have cows (customers). You are responsible for feeding the cows. I am responsible for going to town and getting feed and bringing it back to the farm. If the cows are contended, they give you milk.
Now, I want a drink of milk, too. But you claim since you are the one who delivers the feed, you are entitled to all the milk.
Well, without getting any of the milk, I am less than intersted in going to town to get feed for you in any hurry. You can go get the sacks from the feed store, for all I care. Your cows suffer if I don't do my job.
Get it yet?
SD
Let me ask you. What is the motivation for the busstaff to work hard and bust their butts for minimum wage while the waitress takes away free cash money every night? Don't employees work better when motivated? Isn't that the idea behind gratuities? Why should this only apply to the waitress and not the rest of the service team?
The motivation can still be tips! That's the point! If they work hard, the restaurant should stress to the servers that tips will make the busboys your friends- your tables will be cleaner sooner - thus more customers - more tips. But it shouldn't be "required". What is the incentive for the busboy to get to your table quick if they know they're going to get tips if they do or don't? It should be up to the server - PERIOD - NOT THE MANAGEMENT! They're the ones the customer tipped!
My God man, you are a socialist!
I was OK with things until I got here. Do you honestly think that the media is paid off by someone so that they won't report to the public what is happening with tips!? Really???! Come on, I've read many conspiracy theories before but this one is out there.
And this is different from waitress because....
The motivation can still be tips! That's the point! If they work hard, the restaurant should stress to the servers that tips will make the busboys your friends- your tables will be cleaner sooner - thus more customers - more tips. But it shouldn't be "required".
What business is it of yours whether it is required by the restaurant or not? If you are so exercised by the idea of a busboy sharing a tip, start your own restaurant and forbid it.
What is the incentive for the busboy to get to your table quick if they know they're going to get tips if they do or don't? It should be up to the server - PERIOD - NOT THE MANAGEMENT! They're the ones the customer tipped!
You really don't think busboys are smart enough to figure out that if they do their job well, the tips will be better? If tables are cleared and customers served more efficiently and turned over more quckly, the tips will increase. You think only waitresses can figure this out?
I tip for good service. I don't really consider it to be tipping "only" the waitress. If she shares with those who helped her serve me well, I don't care.
I'm not tipping double because of this. I still tip the same. I just don't think it's some secret conspiracy.
My God man, you are a socialist!
And you're hysterical. What is it about encouraging better service with cash incentives that makes me a "socialist"? If a busboy makes the same wage whether he turns over 50 or 75 tables in a night, what is he going to choose to do? Now if he stands to make a "per table" bonus, he will endeavour to do more. That's capitalism, not socialism.
SD
I think's it's elitist and unAmerican.
I absolutely agree with you.
It's one of the reasons I avoid eating out as much as possible.
Another reason is less chance of someone sptting in your food.
Lets see I am given a tip by a farmer that likes the care I give the cows directly. You have NO input on that action whatsoever by your own admission. Yet you feel that you should be entitled to a share of that tip somehow? Explain how you have any right to any portion of that tip at all.
There is nothing socialist about stopping individuals from stealing other's property. When employers use the customer's tip to reduce the wages of their employees they are stealing the financial benefits of the money customers have intended financially benefit the worker. Customers who universally tip to increase the worker's earnings are having their tip used to reduce the business's payroll expenses which subsequently financially benefits the business owner. This is simply theft. The tip credit is theft of the tipped employee's property, his tips.
Commissions and tips are totally different. Commissions are based on an amount that must be paid. Tips are based on the customer's constitutional right to give his money to whom ever he chooses. It's called liberty. If you cannot see a problem with stealing other's property then you have a problem. The problem is customers are tipping employees only to have the business financially benefit itself to the customer's tip through the tip credit. If businesses need to benefit more from their customers then they should raise their prices not steal their employee's tips.
Oh, they're seeing the tips now. Every tip that goes into an employees pocket is now money an employer can use to reduce the hourly wages of his employees. Every dollar an employer is allowed to reduce his worker's hourly salary is a dollar the business owner sees going directly into the business owner's pocket.
Customer make all tipped employees work possible. Without them their would be no businesses and no tips. Business do not force customers to tip. If they did, the money wouldn't be a tip it would be business revenues. Customers have every right and ability to tip those workers who clean cards, sort card and bring customers in etc. If customers do not tip them then they should have no legal entitilement to any tip. Why is the customer's tip being split among those workers whom provide direct services to the dealers?
If a tip was not given to these workers then they should not be given part of the dealers tips. If the dealers actually want to give other workers part of their tips there is no problem. But, when the business is forcing them to give part of their tips to others there is a big problem. Such actions amount to nothing more than stealing.
I don't know about you, but if my employer did anything that could be construed as theft, I would seek different employment. Right now, the biggest theft I get is 40% of my gross wage taken to support illegal aliens, welfare cases, foreign governments that sponsor terrorists, and a socialist infrastructure that won't even benefit me when I retire.
And for future reference, there's a reason why unskilled labor has its share of unfair pitfalls: it's unskilled labor. The worker could walk out tomorrow and they'd be replaced by the next person in the unemployment line without skipping a beat.
If anything, this situation should be ample incentive for someone to better themselves, learn a marketable skill, and improve their lot in life. Even this busboy from 25 years ago can tell you that.
self ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.