• Evkob (they/them)@lemmy.ca
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    11 days ago

    I want to share my perspective on this as someone who works for tips.

    I don’t like tips in theory, but I’d be below the poverty line without tips so I really appreciate them. I also enjoy that they act as a mechanism to adjust my wage to the work I’m actually doing; I produce much more value as an employee on a busy day than when it’s dead, and without tips I’d make the same amount despite working much more.

    I think realistically, unless we also massively adjust how the labour economy works, eliminating tipping would make profits higher for owners and make service industry workers poorer.

    Like I’d gladly trade my tips for universal basic income, I would not trade my tips for poverty wages.

    • hdnsmbt@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      I produce much more value as an employee on a busy day than when it’s dead, and without tips I’d make the same amount despite working much more.

      You’re not selling your work, you’re selling your time. If you’re at the restaurant on a slow day, you’re not seeing your friends and family and you’re not using your time however you want to. If you’re spending the exact same amount of time at the restaurant on a slow day as on a busy day, you should take home the exact same amount of money and I’m having a hard time understanding why you would argue your employer’s case of paying you less under any circumstances. I think it’s a question of self-respect. Who gives a shit about “producing value” for someone else? You’re there, sacrificing your time, and that’s what you should get paid for. If your employer can’t efficiently use the time they employed you for, that’s their problem and never yours.

      • Evkob (they/them)@lemmy.ca
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        10 days ago

        I’m not arguing for my employer to pay me less. I’m just saying I like the fact I make more money when I have to work more.

        On a slow day, I’m basically chilling with my coworkers and my customers (both of who I do actually enjoy spending time with). On a busy day, I can be running around making food, drinks, cleaning, without even having a thought for myself or a second to relax and breathe for stretches of like 5 hours straight.

        My wage before tips is fair to the amount of work I do if no one comes in. I would not be satisfied with my untipped wage on a day where we serve 80+ people an hour.

        Obviously, I wouldn’t complain if we eliminated tips and made the minimum wage close to what I make with tips on a busy day. That’s not what I think would happen, though. Realistically, under the current economic system, most restaurants could not afford to pay their employees that much. Which is why I said in my original comment that we’d need some sort of change to the labour economy before I’d be willing to give up my tips (such as UBI).

        • hdnsmbt@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          My wage before tips is fair to the amount of work I do if no one comes in.

          If that works for you, that’s great. I wouldn’t accept these conditions because, as I said, my time is sacrificed just the same, regardless of how busy it is. You’re not getting paid for the amount of food and drinks you prepare but for the time you spend at your employer’s disposal. But that’s why I don’t work a tipped job in the first place, I guess.

    • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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      10 days ago

      Wow what a massive adjustment to the labor economy that you give money to the workers what model on earth has something that advanced except every other nation almost on the planet that is not hyper capitalist class war pigs

      • Evkob (they/them)@lemmy.ca
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        10 days ago

        I’d love for the place I work at to be an employee-owned co-op or something but those aren’t really a thing around here, and sadly I’m not rich enough to start a business and open one myself.

        Also, could you please cut back on the snarkiness a bit? It doesn’t really make for pleasant conversation.

        • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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          7 days ago

          What I thought it was funny. It’s the best way to deliver humility blows to hyper capitalist zombies that don’t demand policy change with every fiber. If it’s so pointless to fight it, why stay in such a place? You are prisoners and it is wonderful to be a bit snarky when pointing that out. It’s because in your mouth is narratives that was just put there by the masters of your slave labour nation

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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      11 days ago

      The one good thing about tipping is that it goes 100% to the actual worker standing in front of you.

        • testfactor@lemmy.world
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          11 days ago

          I mean, it’s kinda true.

          Some places do tip sharing, but not most (though most have some sort of tipping out to the back of house staff,) and obviously you pay taxes on tips.

          But I think the sentiment was that it’s not lining the pockets of the business owner, which is true.

          • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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            11 days ago

            the sentiment was that it’s not lining the pockets of the business owner, which is true.

            You have a lot of trust in these owners for one… They steal from workers regularly

            But even if assume they are not outright stealing.

            I ain’t fucking tipping back of the house. Parasites turned tipping into full blown wahe subsidies for their shiti operations and I got a problem with that.

            Hence I why I tip cash. Fuck the owner. It is not my obligation to pay for his staff while having zero input on how staffing is being done.

            So, any tip that doesn’t go to the server is theft imho

            I don’t understand why the normie is so willing to accept these clown schemes

            • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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              10 days ago

              Because servers are abused so heavily they have no options to resist. They don’t like the situation either but if people stop tipping then they are worried they will be poor.

              Its like if you were imprisoned in my house, and I fed you home-cooked meals but put a somewhat tolerable amount of poison in each meal as well. If you complained about the poison, and I said well I guess you could just not eat at all, then you might say something like “well I don’t like poison necessarily but I do need it to survive right now.”

              I wouldnt call you pro-poison if you said that though, just like I don’t think most of these tipped workers support the structure of tipping.