Posted by:
Brother Of Jerry
(
)
Date: February 07, 2023 03:05PM
Another thought - some restaurants have instituted a no-tipping policy and some have tried and abandoned it. Customers, at least in the US, are very resistant to the idea. They seem to think tipping is the only way they get good service, yet there is no movement to tip at hospitals, airports, highway construction, or auto service garages, all places were good service is quite important, and not just a matter of convenience, as it is in a restaurant. How does one get good service in those places? Would Southwest be a better airline if you tipped?
Which means it is not really about service. It's about pretending you are a middle class person in the 19th century throwing some crumbs to a servant class person from the 19th century. It makes you feel magnanimous.
[And for the record, I do tip, generlly 20% in the US because it is easy to calculate in my head, and whatever the going rate is in foreign countries, which is always lower than the US rate. It's the system we've got. I just think it is an asinine and counter-productive system]
Everybody claims they tip for good service and less for poor service. Statistics do not bear this out. Tips are surprisingly uniform, though some people are better at being charming (or manipulative) than others, just like in the mission field.
BTW, I looked up the minimum wages for tipped employees per state.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tippedIt's interesting reading (well, for me, but I like numbers). The entire west coast does not have a 2-tiered minimum wage for tipped workers. Some have exceptions for small employers, and in general their minimum wage is about twice the federal minimum.
CA, OR, WA, MT, NV are all western states with a single, considerably higher than federal minimum wage.
AZ, NM, SD and CO do still have a 2-tiered wage system for employers of tipped workers, but it is higher than the federal wage ($13.70 approx, $10 in SD) and a much larger proportion of it must come from the employer.
The federal requirement for the employer is $2.13, plus, in theory, the employer has to make up the difference between $2.13 and the federal minimum wage of $7.25, if the tips do not reach that threshold.
So most of the intermountain and west coast states require a much higher pay scale for tipped workers than the federal minimums.
Guess which states don't pay above the federal minimum?
UT, WY, and ID. ID does boost the base amount the employer must pay. UT and WY simply use the federal minimum.
I was somewhat surprised at how many states have increased minimum wage for tipped workers over the fed minimum, including a fair number of the so-called "conservative" states, like Montana and South Dakota. But Utah takes being their "right to work for nothing" law seriously.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2023 03:07PM by Brother Of Jerry.