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Gen Z be like "IF YOU CANT TIP DON'T EAT OUT" and then shoplift
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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Shoplifting
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Shoplifting is a statistically calculated loss that companies adjust their prices to accommodate. Not tipping punishes your server for working (they have to give a percentage of your bill back to the restaurant because whether or not you tip the server, the bartender and chefs get paid from the server). One is literally a victimless crime and the other victimizes a working poor person.
im not sure if I would say its a victimless crime but I came to say something similar. its kinda similar to stealing in relation to wealth. Its funny because it came into a meatspace convo I had where two people were being compared in stealing behavior but one is doing decently and the other is in a fucked situation and to me there is more of a moral onus on the person that can afford what they are stealing compared to one who can't.
You say all that as if that is the only possible system. I can understand creating a system where tips are pooled for distribution to everyone who has no supervisory duties. But a system where a tip is assumed so that there is a possibility of actual financial loss should be illegal.
I bet if we could organize a widespread "tip strike," the system, including legislation, would rapidly change in ways that make tipping unnecessary.
But that is the system we have and refusing to do it only hurts the server. Even a strike would not change anything. Restaurants would raise their prices to cover the higher cost of labor. You would still pay the “tip.” Only difference is people won’t be able to pay their bills during the “strike.” But hey you won’t have to do math signing the receipt anymore.
I get so tired of "but that's the system we have." It's just another way of saying "but we've always done it that way."
There are other ways. Is it a challenge to find the right path to those other ways? Yes. Does that mean we should just never work towards change? No.
I'll get on side with the idea that a tip strike is the wrong way as soon as someone offers suitable alternative tactics.
For myself, I live where the minimum wage for servers is the same as the minimum wage for other workers. As a result, I feel there is no particular need to tip. That doesn't mean I never tip, but I never feel ethically or morally compelled. I refuse to patronize any establishment that has tip pooling based on the bill rather than on a tips collected. I refuse to patronize any establishment that includes managers and owners in the tip distribution. I refuse to patronize any establishment with mandatory tipping.
Well I hope minimum wage for you is a living wage. Some of us don’t have that luxury. If I don’t tip where I live, my server takes a pay cut. I literally only know of one restaurant where tipping isn’t expected.
If you don’t want to go to any of those places, great. Glad you have that option. However if you patronize almost any restaurant in the U.S. and don’t tip you are hurting your server. Ideals are great, and you can hold them dear, but you have to take reality into account before you live by them.
You might prefer to end tipping culture… me too. You change that by voting, not screwing over people who are trying to make a living.
Seems like refusing to tip only hurts the people who have no power to change the system (and less savings to survive it than the bosses). We need to affect the business owners not their employees. Refusing to eat at restaurants who don't pay their workers a living wage would be more effective, but it'd have to be coupled with lots of communication about why it's happening so it's not passed off as economic trends or something. Unfortunately in the US, there aren't really many/any non-tipping alternatives to give your business during the strike.
Legislative action, starting in a few smaller test locations, might be actually be more effective at this one.