Typically, Americans do not have a second thought when it comes to giving a tip at the end of each meal. They simply calculate how much percentage to give their waiter (whether it be 10 to 15 percent) or they simply lie down a couple of wadded up dollar bills. However, some complain that tipping should not feel like an obligation at every meal, especially if the service is poor. Others argue, why should they be responsible for paying the waitstaff humanly? The reason behind why we tip today is because waitstaff do not get paid efficiently since they go on tips alone for income. And with that in mind, we have a debate on whether the customer should be responsible for paying the waitstaff a proportional profit or if the employer should ban tipping …show more content…
According to the United States Department of Labor, “Restaurants in the United States pay servers less than minimum wage, as low as two dollars and change per hour.” For restaurant employees or any employee whose income is based on the tips alone, living on a low salary and whatever tips they manage to earn a night creates an unstable income. That might be okay for a teenager trying to earn some extra cash during the summer, but what about single parents who have to afford day-care services and put food on the table? In addition, in some restaurants, employers do not provide benefits such as health insurance. According to a March 2014 report from the National Economic Council, “...servers are nearly three times as likely as other workers to experience poverty” (Stuart). Plus, some waitstaff have to rely on welfare programs to survive alone. “Tipped workers are heavily reliant on public subsidies to help make ends meet,” reports research economist, Sylvia Allegretto, who studies at the University of California and is a former waitress. She elaborates, “Who helps them bridge the gap? Taxpayers” …show more content…
Customers argue that “ [tipping]... at its best, humanizes rather than commodifies the experience of eating” (Baggini). Julian Baggini, writer of The Philosophers Magazine, explains that “The bill covers the purely financial exchange, but the tip, as a purely voluntary gesture, is a sign that the evening has been more than just a commercial transaction.” However, numerous studies found out that the relation between the tip quantity and the service quality is weakly related (Lynn). A study at Cornell University found that the real reasons people tip more or less are basically arbitrary and that customers who receive great service tip on average just one percent more than customers who do not (CollegeHumor). Tipping can also result in discriminatory pay. Research shows that white servers are consistently tipped more than black servers across the board (Brewster). Michael Lynn says, “Waitresses with larger breast, smaller body sizes, and blonde hair tend to earn more tips than those without those attributes” (Stuart). In a tip-based system, non-white servers make less on tips than their white peers for equal work. And since discriminatory pay is against the law it’s kind of surprising that tipping isn’t straight up illegal (United States Department). Basically, since customers either tip because of what the server looks like or just randomly it does not give the waitstaff sufficient income to
Ehrenreich didn’t want to be a waitress any more than some waitresses, but she did it for her research. Ehrenreich once stated that, “Waitres sing is also something I’d like to avoid, because I remember it leaving me bone-tired when I was eighteen.” (13). Her first job was at Hearthside, a restaurant in Key West, Florida. She was hired as a waitress, starting at $2.43 plus tips. She worked the afternoon shift. Hearthside was being managed by a West Indian man by name of Phillip. The management wasn’t the best. They treated their employees disrespectfully. At an employee meeting, they were threatened by the management. Ehrenreich stated, “I have not been treated this way-lined up in the corridor, threatened with locker searches, peppered with carelessly aimed accusation-since junior high school” (24). When they were just standing around, the manager would give them extra work to do. According to Ehrenreich, “You start dragging out each little chore because if the manager on duty catches you in an idle moment, he will give you something far nastier to do. So I wipe, I clean, consolidate catsups bottles and recheck the cheesecake supply, even tour the tables to make sure the customer evaluation is standing perkily.” (22). They were hired at Hearthside to serve the customers. There are twenty-six tables in the whole restaurant. All the food must be placed on the food trays; small items were to be carried in a bowl, and no refills on the lemonade (1...
The commonly used practice of tipping has been receiving backlash, nothing new there. Do we really know what a tip truly mean? What effects it has? Brian Palmer explains to his audience that tipping has become a moral obligation rather than what it is perceived to be: gratitude. In Brain Palmer’s “Tipping is an Abomination”, he argues that while tipping has grown into a common habit for many, tipping is a bad habit because no one knows what tipping actually means. Brian Palmer begins shows his credibility with personal inputs and reliable sources, using convincing facts and statistics, all while using some emotional appeal to help his argument.
The rhetor of the article, For many restaurant workers, fair conditions not on menu, uses several rhetorical elements to construct her argument and build upon her ethos. She uses logos to expand her credibility and ethos, as well as to make her pathos statements more rational. She appeals to the reader’s sense of American patriotism and freedom to try to sway the opinions of the reader. The article’s main argument is that workers in the restaurant industry are being unfairly treated with their minimum wage.
Also, servers themselves know that certain things affect tips that aren’t usually included in most research on tipping influences. For instance many servers believe that gas prices affect the amount they are tipped or how busy the restaurant is. The thought is that the higher the gas prices the smaller the tip and vise versa. All the theories similar to this are why many servers and others alike believe that tips are too inconsistent of a form of payment to be able to live of...
Clincher: As Robin Williams would say, have a good night and be sure to tip your waitresses.
...is first come, first serve. There’s no waiter bringing you overpriced snack bar food. It’s more like sugary quarter waters, Halal trucks, dollar pizza slices, and of course Latin American food carts.
Whether the government should impose a tax on employers to provide workers with benefits such as unemployment insurance or mandate employers to provide workers with benefits, which are normally benefits such as health insurance or workers compensation will ultimately depend on how much their employees value the benefit. Mandated benefits are those benefits that are protected by federal law. Firms are liable to make these benefits available to their employees and failure to do so will result in severe penalties. Payroll tax is relatively different from mandated benefits for the reason that payroll taxes are imposed on the wage of employees, which are either paid by the workers or the firm. When analyzing to see how successful a mandated
The idea of tipping has always been normal to myself, as I was a kid and still now I see my parents leaving tips for the waiter/waitress when we go out to eat. It never occurred to me until I got older that it was hard for these workers to get by as their salary depended upon their tips. Once I read Saru Jayaraman’s article on “Why Tipping is Wrong” I was unsure of what I was getting myself into. However, it brought light and told how we should be getting rid of tips and giving the workers a fair and decent salary.
Although tips can often lead to servers making well over regular minimum wage per hour, overall, tips are very inconsistent and are completely dependent on restaurant customers. Not only does the customer decide how much to tip based on his/her enjoyment of the dining experience, but also servers need busy restaurants in order to make good money.
Another thing that stood out was they way these fast food places treat their workers. Their policy of automation has created a whole group of people that do not have to think to do their job. These people – usually teenagers – are paid minimum wage to push buttons and do all of the jobs that used to be done by hand. It gains governm...
Tips are generally a small amount of money given to a person as gratitude for a service that has been provided. There are many times throughout our everyday lives in which we are put in a position to leave a gratuity. Whether it be dining at a restaurant, getting your hair cut at the salon, or having a few drinks with friends at a bar. In each case there was a service provided to you, now you have a decision to make, how much of a tip is considered acceptable and should you tip everyone that provides a service to you? There are many guidelines for consumers to follow. With modern technology there are convenient tip calculators available as features on most new cellular phones. When deciding on the tip amount the service is one of the major determining factors along with whether or not you plan on visiting the establishment again , and how the tip will play a role in your further dealings with said business. Michael Lewis explores a few interesting reasons why tipping is getting out of hand in a recent essay. I strongly agree with many points and examples he provides.
If the server does an excellent job in tending to customers by catering to their every need, the customer will leave a higher tip, as opposed to a server who completes the bare minimum. Poor servers will receive a lower tip. The tip represents the server’s skill and ability. Merit pay for teachers follows the same idea. A teacher who caters to every student’s need and completes exemplary work will receive a bonus similar to a server’s tips. The better the job a teacher does, the better bonus he or she will receive. On the other hand, if a teacher completes the bare minimum, mediocre work, he or she will receive a lower bonus or none at all. Susan Moore Johnson explains that school districts should give small incentives, comparable to tips, as small bonuses to teachers. Gary Ritter, a professor of Education Reform and Public Policy, proposes an idealistic way of rewarding these bonuses. School districts will reward core subject teachers up to $10,000 in bonuses per year, noncore subject teachers up to $6,000, and other staff, including teacher associates, up to $1,000 (Ritter). Teachers who transfer to hard-to-staff schools, teach subjects in which there are shortages, such as math, science, special education, and bilingual educaiton, and work longer days should be rewarded with these
The minimum wage has always been a controversial subject that has more and more people debating about the subject. While the talk about minimum wages are highly popular it is an important subject to get informed about if you’re an employee or employer because it has to deal with your money. What is minimum wage? Minimum wage is the hourly wage an employer can pay an employee for his or her work. While the talk about raising the minimum wage has caused some attention in both negative and positive. Nevertheless, the topic that the minimum wage offers substantial benefits to low wage workers without any negative effects to business owners has a growing view among economists.
When entering a restaurant, I usually expect to leave full, satisfied, and wanting to come back again. I believe that many people expect the same thing. The way people react to service can be very different from person to person. Depending on the way the customers are feeling, or the way that the server is feeling can be a big factor for the way service comes across. Service is an important part of everyone’s lives because majority of the jobs that people preform are service related. Poor service is an unfortunate part of life that everyone comes across. The way that I react to the poor service I receive is important and can change in the blink of an eye. Whether I react in an outspoken way, by getting loud and voicing my opinion. Or if I react in a quiet or apologetic way, it can affect my server, and the people around me, and myself.
In America, many are not aware of the inequalities that exist in the Food Service. The food service sector has at least 125,951 companies and approximately 12 million employees with almost 7 million foreigners. This sector includes individually owned restaurants, mid-priced chains, quick service (fast food), hotels, and beverage establishments. Food service plays a major role in institutional establishments like schools, hospitals, prisons and meals on wheels. They cater to the tastes of their particular customers and are often leaders of food innovation. In the food service, we find: bartenders, wait staff, hosts, busboys, chefs, cooks, managers, and dishwashers .The food service workers perform a variety of customer service, food preparation and cleaning tasks, all that which are very important to keep a business running. More concerning , some of the major working conditions that foodservice workers face with daily is no health benefits and significantly low wages. These employees working in the food industry make it possible for millions of people to enjoy food in restaurants but are not being treated or appreciated fairly.