“No tax on tips” is an industry plant

Re:“No tax on tips” is an industry plant by godelski on Thursday July 31, 2025 @08:05PM (#44751636)

  > I live in California and this isn't true here

I made a longer comment in the main thread[0] because I think there's a tendency for conversations about tipping to degrade as people are making different assumptions based on the different laws of where they're from or grew up.

To be clear:

  - Any worker that is not making *at least the state's minimum wage* (including tips) is suffering from wage theft. (with the exception of Georgia (WTF)) 
  
  - Any worker not receiving a positive valued check are suffering from wage theft
    - Tips only count as a credit and no state lets tips act as a 100% credit to the wage[1]. Credits may be amortized across "workweek" pay.

We always need to make sure we distinguish a conversation about wage theft and a conversation about tipping. I think they are unknowingly being used interchangeably (or as an assumption in a conversation)

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44751537 (sources linked here)

[1] Federal only lets max credit of 70% of min wage. Some states go up to ~75% of min wage, but their minimum wage is higher than federal.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:“No tax on tips” is an industry plant by FireBeyond on Friday August 01, 2025 @03:18AM (#44753891)

Servers, often, seem to think it's our (the customer's) obligation to compensate for the sins of their employer.

"Many restaurant owners illegally don't actually follow this law". "Report them to the DOL". "I don't want to do that. You should tip me to make sure I have a livable wage instead."

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:“No tax on tips” is an industry plant by godelski on Friday August 01, 2025 @04:21AM (#44754234)

Perhaps this would happen less often if people didn't just spread hopelessness

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:“No tax on tips” is an industry plant by kelnos on Friday August 01, 2025 @05:42AM (#44754698)

Or maybe that's a logical reaction to the situation these people live in.

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Re:“No tax on tips” is an industry plant by godelski on Friday August 01, 2025 @06:42PM (#44763237)

Sure, it is logical. But that doesn't mean it is a good reaction. Certainly it doesn't help make the problem go away.

Don't confuse "logical" with "correct" or even make the false notion that there is a "correct" reaction. The "right" reaction depends on your goals, short term and long term.

But defeatist attitude results in a tragedy of the commons situation. It's social debt. Think of it like a mess. Messes are easiest to clean up right after they occur. But as time goes on, it becomes harder to clean. If everyone is doing their share of their work messes are very manageable. But if people don't do their share, then it must be picked up by everyone else, right? I think most of us have been in a situation where we've had to clean up "everybody's" mess (if you haven't, you might be that asshole leaving that mess). The defeatist attitude is like that person grumbling "it's too big of a mess, we'll never clean it up." Well... not with that attitude. If the mess needs to be cleaned up, it needs to be cleaned up. Either you help or you make it worse for everyone else.

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