No tipping means better business

Re:No tipping means better business by lostphilosopher on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @10:57AM (#13263830)

This idea of "making up the difference" comes up in every convo on tipping. The counter point is usually that it doesn't happen. (Debate ensues...)

But even if it happened FOR SURE EVERY TIME. What an inefficient system! Rather than just paying the minimum wage up front, with predictable, projectable costs, businesses spend person hours on calculating tips, hours worked, per employee, etc. And then have to pay (potentially) widely varying amounts at the end of the cycle.

I get that some customers and some servers like the practice of tipping. But why not require employers to pay (at least) the minimum wage, period. You could still tip if you want to, and an you can still try to earn a tip if you want to. But now it's more like a bonus, gravy, than the difference between rent and no-rent.

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Re:No tipping means better business by andrewflnr on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @02:18PM (#13265402)

  you can still try to earn a tip if you want to.
  But now it's more like a bonus, gravy

Isn't that where we started? I don't think that's stable. If some people get tips, the next tier of goodish servers is going to think they deserve tips, until you end up where we are now.

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Re:No tipping means better business by srinathrajaram on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @11:04PM (#13268352)

You can start there and stay there. This does not escalate like you assume. The rest of the world works just fine with this system.

I suspect that the escalation in the US has something to do with employers getting greedy and trying to reduce wages to factor in tips. I don't have any evidence to back this up.

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