Posted on 01/02/2017 6:57:54 PM PST by artichokegrower
The next time you wander into Sammy’s Wood-Fired Pizza for a burrata and pesto pie, indulge in a shrimp-filled bucket at Rockin’ Baja Lobster, or decide to splurge on beef tenderloin at George’s at the Cove, don’t be surprised to see an added charge when your check arrives.
Girding for the second minimum wage hike in six months and the fourth in 2-½ years, many of San Diego’s full-service restaurants are introducing for the first time an average surcharge of 3 percent of the meal’s cost to help cover increased labor expenses that some operators say amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single year.
(Excerpt) Read more at sandiegouniontribune.com ...
I personally don’t like restaurants where the manager feels compelled to walk around and ask every customer how everything is.
Tipping takes care of that. The manager can tell how happy a server’s customers are by how they are being tipped. No need to complain to the manager or give them a detailed review on their employee’s service.
Cities and State have taken to their own minimum wage laws separate from the Federal Minimum Wage. That applies to both the dollar wage and what classes of workers it applies to. In San Diego, Seattle, San Fransisco, etc. they have not only raised the minimum wage above the Federal $7.25 but apply it to restaurant servers.
Part of their rationale is that when the restaurant is slow, through no fault of the servers, they have to be there but are earning no tips. Requiring the minimum wage at least means they don’t lose money going to work after figuring transportation costs. $2/hr for a 6 hour waitress shift might not even cover gas there and back. That’s got to be fairly discouraging to a server. Requiring $10/hr or $15/hr seems excessive, though.
All the restaurants trying to break even with waged employees are going to lose business, and eventually crumble.
The only restaurants that survive will be the employee-owned restaurants with 100-percent profit sharing. They'll be capitalists.
“How do you get a “quinine” from a microwave?”
Maybe “quinine” = cuisine...?
“I see it as the most honest way to let people know that ... it is laws mandating higher minimum wages and/or benefits.”
Laws the liberals pushed through. Maybe print that on the tickets, too.
When I was waitressing in the late ‘60s, my pay was $.90/hour in Binghamton, NY. Tips paid for my college.
Part of the reason why our costs keep going up while wages remain stagnant - regulations and such cost companies more and.....
Sounds like diners then should lower their tip percent by like percentage
And don’t tip on the surcharge
Restaurants are Humbug?
The original income tax was 1% up to the first $20,000 (in today's dollars that would be more than $400,000). If you'd like to see the first 1040 form (4 pages with instructions) you can click here. Figure your own taxes. It's eye-popping even without taking inflation into account. The max was 6%.
Liberals have never understood the Law of Demand. Higher wages drive up the cost of eating out means fewer people will eat at restaurants. Restaurant owners can sugar coat it with a surcharge, but higher prices are higher prices and the result will be the same. Look for the fast food business to quickly adopt automated kiosks to take your orders and automate production even more. $15 per hour counter workers and burger flippers will soon be replaced with machines
The phenomenon is known as wage price inflation. That is the goal.
As prices rise from the minimum wage there is a hue and cry to raise all wages. That in turn causes the price of everything to rise. The costs of Obamacare are lost in the shuffle.
The value of the US$ declines and as a result the value of the federal debt declines. Inflating it away is the principle method for repaymant
Auto correct.
I didn’t invent the system but your typical waiter or waitress in Texas is paid well below minimum wage (Texas is $2.37/hr if I recall). The premise is that they will make well beyond that in tips left by grateful customers. That’s why you tip and if you didn’t know that I pity the food service people you do encounter.
What places like Seattle and San Francisco have done is replaced that wage scale with a $11-$15/hr minimum wage where tipping should be unnecessary because the food server is earning the same as your typical laborer.
As to the value of eating out versus eating in, you are trading your (or more likely your wife’s) labor at preparing, cooking and cleaning afterward for the convenience of having your meal professionally prepared in the ambiance of a stimulating environment.
I’m single and admit I overspend on dining out but if I am having a good time and pay my bills, why should you care? I tip generously, particularly for pretty young waitresses who treat me like I’m somebody special.
However, under socialist minimum wage laws, the servers have no incentive to be pleasing or attentive to their guests since they are already being paid the full wage for their labors.
Don’t waste your pity. It’s the waiters’ employers’ fault they pay low. It is not my duty to do employee evaluations and give them tips. Yes, I do, but it pisses me off. Customers go to eat, not do the managers’ job. If you have a good employee, then give them a raise. If you have a bad employee, fire him. But don’t leave it up to the customers to do that for you. Those same waiters who whine about their wages are bringing in $100, $200 or more a shift in tips. It has NOTHING to do with their hourly wage. Wanna bet they’re also lying on their IRS? You can’t lie because you get a statement from your job. You pay your taxes honestly. Waitstaff count a good portion of their income as tax free and laugh at the rest of us.
In Texas - I was waitressing in high school some 40 years ago and was getting $2 something at a little mom and pop 12 table dump so your $2.37 is wrong. Our kiddo was waitressing at a mall restaurant 5 years ago and she started out at $9 something and ended at $13.50/hr.
“then the waiter expects a tip for merely doing the job he’s already getting paid to do”
Waiters get paid far below minimum wage because they receive tips instead. How do you not know that?
“they receive tips instead”
As usual, you fell into that one. If, as you say they’re working for tips instead of a wage, then they don’t need $15.
I'll sneer at husbands who can't make their own lunches and shove that chore over to their wives. Bet she'd like a break from a lot of other things, too.
“As usual, you fell into that one.”
No, you did, son, you ignorant slob. Always a nasty critter bashing other people and making statements you don’t understand.
That is true is most of the country. However, California is different. In California, tipped employees earn minimum wage plus their tips. Under California law (different from the federal law) the tips belong to the employees, and employer cannot use tips to offset the employer's own obligation to pay the minimum wage.
As of January 1, 2017, for employers with more than 25 employees, the California minimum wage increased to $10.50 an hour. That includes tipped employees.
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_minimumwage.htm
This article refers specifically to employees in the city of San Diego. The minimum wage in that city is higher still, $11.50 an hour, due to a ballet initiative that passed in June 2016.
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.