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As Minimum Wages Rise, Restaurants Say No to Tips, Yes to Higher Prices
The New York Times ^ | 23 Aug 2015 | Patricia Cohen

Posted on 08/25/2015 5:54:35 PM PDT by Theoria

Restaurant owners, customers and staff have long railed against the tyranny of tipping, but like a love affair gone bad, it has proved difficult to quit.

Now, prompted by a spurt of new minimum wage proposals in major cities, an expanding number of restaurateurs are experimenting with no-tipping policies as a way to manage rising labor costs.

Here in Seattle, where the first stage of a $15-an-hour minimum wage law took effect in April, Ivar’s seafood restaurants switched to an all-inclusive menu. By raising prices 21 percent and ending tipping, Bob C. Donegan, the president and co-owner, calculated he could increase everyone’s wages.

“We saw there was a fundamental inequity in our restaurants where the people who worked in the kitchen were paid about half as much as the people who worked with customers in front of the house,” Mr. Donegan said.

Nearby, the Walrus and the Carpenter instituted a compulsory 20 percent service charge. At Manos Nouveau and Sous Beurre, both in San Francisco, the menu prices include tips and taxes. Dirt Candy, an upscale eatery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, tacks on a 20 percent administrative fee.

Amanda Cohen, the owner of Dirt Candy, said she had fielded a flood of phone calls from other restaurants asking how her no-tipping policy was working.

“I think that restaurants will have to do this,” said Ms. Cohen, who pays servers at Dirt Candy $25 an hour, well above the $7.50 for tipped workers that will go into effect in New York at the end of the year.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: economy; minimumwage; restaurants; tips
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To: downtownconservative

If you’re going to “fine dining” I assume you’re spending a lot and want to be waited on hand and foot. If I’m going to Red Lobster or Olive Garden, I don’t need that kind of service.


21 posted on 08/25/2015 7:05:54 PM PDT by JediJones (The #1 Must-see Filibuster of the Year: TEXAS TED AND THE CONSERVATIVE CRUZ-ADE)
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To: downtownconservative

Yes, it might be a hard job, but it’s not an artistic or creative task. It’s something a robot could be programmed to do and would be better at it. That’s not the kind of thing I believe deserves a tip. It’s like tipping your mailman for delivering the mail on time or your checkout girl for getting the items quickly through checkout. Some do it quicker than others, but that’s part of the job description. I think the structure of giving them a direct salary without the tip option makes more sense.


22 posted on 08/25/2015 7:09:07 PM PDT by JediJones (The #1 Must-see Filibuster of the Year: TEXAS TED AND THE CONSERVATIVE CRUZ-ADE)
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To: downtownconservative

We pay starting servers $2.50/hr. Min for the state is $2.12. Our polished top servers get paid $5.00/hr. They take home around $65-85/hr with tips. Some will make $300-$400 per night on busiest days, so they’re not complaining.

If a restaurant can make a 10% profit margin, it’s doing way better that average. That’s why this new wage issue poses such a major need for reassessment of operational approach. If this new min-wage for servers takes hold, the losers in the long run will be both customers and employees. Not surprising for implementation of “progressive” ideas.


23 posted on 08/25/2015 7:15:16 PM PDT by downtownconservative (Mohamed was a tranny)
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To: JediJones

They won’t make as much and therefore will look elsewhere for jobs that are less demanding. And as restaurant costs will go up, so will pricing. Prepare for European restaurant pricing. You won’t be pleased. And you will enjoy eating out far less frequently, unless you’re a 1%...;-)


24 posted on 08/25/2015 7:21:53 PM PDT by downtownconservative (Mohamed was a tranny)
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To: downtownconservative

It is certainly not a job I am capable of doing.
Muti-tasking four or five tables each with four or five customers-I would be gone within the hour.

When the service and food is good, we don’t hesitate to leave a 20% tip. I am sure the wait staff at many fine restaurants will be taking a large pay cut with loss of tips.


25 posted on 08/25/2015 7:33:10 PM PDT by Maine Mariner
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To: Maine Mariner

Yeah, you’re right-on in your assessment. I sometimes take a table or two when we’re short staffed, and it just makes me realize how good our top servers are. It is not an easy job!


26 posted on 08/25/2015 7:56:13 PM PDT by downtownconservative (Mohamed was a tranny)
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To: JediJones
If I had a restaurant I’d move to touch screen/cell phone ordering only and text or signal the customer when their food’s ready so they can pick it up themselves.

That's Panera Bread.
All restaurants will be called Panera, instead of Taco Bell (demolition man) :>)

27 posted on 08/25/2015 7:56:52 PM PDT by libertarian27 (FR Cookbooks - On Profile Page)
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To: libertarian27

Panera uses the paging coasters. So does Mickey D (the Southern fish eatery).


28 posted on 08/25/2015 7:59:01 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: Theoria

People in WA State can’t figure out squat. I am surprised that they have not changed the name of their state to someone less offensive for WA State.


29 posted on 08/25/2015 8:08:54 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: JediJones
It does matter. I expect the server to verify that all of the food I have ordered has been prepared completely and correctly. The server is the buffer between the kitchen and customer. The quality control step. The person who can get your order tailored to your requirements. If that level of service isn't happening, I can just stay home and cook it myself. I've worked the full range of dishwasher, cook, fountain and waiter at Farrell's when I was in high school. The restaurant could seat 300 people and was often wall to wall.
30 posted on 08/25/2015 8:09:56 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: JediJones
Visit Chili's or Applebee's. The terminals are already on the table. Have been there for 2 years. You can re-order food, drinks, dessert and pay for your meal without waiting on the server. The camera on the terminal can scan a discount coupon off the face of your cell phone and apply the discount to your order. There has been a reduction in on duty staff with the terminals.

Jack in the Box in San Diego has a touch screen with credit card swipe for ordering. You do the ordering/paying and get a small paper receipt to pickup your order from the kitchen. In time, there will be a fully automated robotic kitchen with limited human interaction to clean and stock the robots.

The full service lunchroom at my office in San Diego was transformed into a self-service with debit card swipe. Security cameras monitor to catch cheaters. A "rover" restocks the refrigerators and shelves every other day.

31 posted on 08/25/2015 8:17:14 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: JediJones

You’ve never worked as a server, have you? They aren’t just standing around chatting while waiting for your food when they go into the kitchen. It can be challenging and not everyone has the organizational skills or temperament to do it. You have to really enjoy working to make people happy.

In fact, everyone in a restaurant busts their tail on busy nights-from the cooks down to the dishwasher.

The servers share their tips with other staff as well-you work as a team and a cash reward for a job well done is a great incentive.


32 posted on 08/25/2015 8:18:43 PM PDT by NorthstarMom (God says debt is a curse and children are a blessing, yet we apply for loans and prevent pregnancy.)
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To: Theoria

Third Rock tipping

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TVD5wvJ1ru4


33 posted on 08/25/2015 9:26:08 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (CA the sanctuary state for stupid.)
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To: gaijin
those people who will earn the $15/hr are in for a surprise....no more freebie tips most of which they do not declare and best of all, it'll push some of them into higher tax brackets and they won't get their EIC....lets hope so....

I really don't have any problem with paying people more, but I hate that its mandated by a govt that doesn't have to do the paying...

34 posted on 08/25/2015 9:37:15 PM PDT by cherry
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To: JediJones

there is skill in being a server.....you have to keep your dishes straight, be courteous even with the middle aged bald men who think they’re Casanovas and be charitable even to the most whiny and demanding people.


35 posted on 08/25/2015 9:39:33 PM PDT by cherry
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To: Theoria

I’m tired of the whole tipping culture here in this country. Everybody has their hand out for everything. Travel overseas and most likely,”The price is the price”.


36 posted on 08/26/2015 3:30:46 AM PDT by glorgau
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To: cherry

I think a lot of people who work for tips end up with the government estimating them for tax purposes; a friend who worked in a hair salon over a dozen years ago said they were starting to implement the practice back then.

I’m surprised at the places where I see tip jars now; I go to Dunkin Donuts probably twice a year (when I have to buy them for meetings at work), and didn’t expect to see a tip jar there. Also, a deli I frequented years ago (in the before-time economy) now has a tip jar as well - for making a sandwich?

Less and less people can even afford the places where people work for tips (restaurants, bars, etc.); in my area (northern NJ, where the Greater Depression hasn’t even hit rock bottom yet), many of these businesses are in dire financial straits. There aren’t enough 1%ers or childless yuppies to keep them open, and the “replacement Americans” (foreigners) are too frugal/sensible to waste their money there.


37 posted on 08/26/2015 3:48:23 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Theoria

I’m greatly surprised that Mother Government hasn’t gone after the honey pot of under-reported, ‘tips’ before now!

I mean, it’s a RARE day when She leaves money that COULD be confiscated from, ‘We The People,’ on the table!

*SPIT*

(I got no dog in this hunt; I’m, ‘Management’ so I’m abused in other VERY SPECIAL ways, LOL!)


38 posted on 08/26/2015 2:49:35 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set...)
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To: Theoria

AEI used a bad dataset to attack Seattle’s min. wage increase and that’s a big setback to our side. The reality is that these policies marginalize people in ways that you don’t instantly see and are diffuse. It takes good thinking to avoid these dumb policies, but good thinking has always been scarce.


39 posted on 08/27/2015 4:50:53 AM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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