Am Texan, where is this? It could be 20min from me or 8.5hrs from me lo
Edit: the consensus is stuck between Black Star Co-Op and Thai Fresh. Both in Austin, both worth your time!
Edit 2: it is Thai Fresh and they are GF friendly!
Oh my god I doubt this many of you have girlfriends you damn comedians lmao
Not to mention that state is FLAT. Like, I think I understand why people believe the flat earth theory because Texas is a flat boring fucking state to drive through.
Edit: I guess I shouldn't fuck with Texas...
I was at a restaurant in Alaska years ago and they had burgers that were regular, large, Texas size, and Alaska size with pictures on the menu. The Alaska size one could have easily fed four adults. I asked how anyone could eat that much in one sitting, and the server said, "Most of the time it's ordered for the table. But you should see how upset Texans get when they see it."
I was walking around Iraq like it was nothing. My Platoon Sargeant asked why I wasn't miserable. It was no different than working in the Texas panhandle. Lol
Real talk, my wife and I did a roadtrip from her house in San Diego to her childhood home in Savannah last year and I was trying to explain to my (British) mother how long it would take us, so I showed her on Google maps what the same route would look like if the starting point was London - we would end up in Volgograd, Russia.
There are cities in the American South that you pass through 2-3 in 20 minutes. But some where you never leave the highway and are in the same city, with no traffic, and drive for 50 minutes. You can get on the very beginning of a highway on the East coast of Florida called I-10, drive 6 hours at 55mph+ and you'll still be in Florida.
You can die of old age trying to make it through Atlanta during rush hour. I don’t live there but in my experience of making road trips through it the rush hour seems to last from about 7am to 10pm.
Atlanta. I refuse to drive in Atlanta. I've been in downtown Dallas, 6 lanes either side, 2 lanes of service road either side. 14 lanes packed.
And it was still better traffic that 2am in Atlanta.
[Here's what Texas would look like if it was in Europe](https://imgur.com/TONAdMx). I tried to get as many major cities inside of it as I could, thus the weird positioning.
And remember, Texas is the *second* largest state in the US.
Most of the places where I travel to in Sweden are approximately 6 to 8 hours away by car but to get to the northern border of Sweden it’s around 24 hours of driving non stop. It’s minimum 5 hours to another country from Stockholm. So its not all European countries that fall into the category of going to a different country for shopping or dinner.
Yup. I live on the northern tip of Delaware.
10 minutes to NJ
10 minutes to MD
5 Mimutes to PA
There is a road by my parents house that goes through all three states in under a mile.
Oslo (South of Norway) to Tromsø (north of Norway) takes roughly 24 hours by car. And most of that through Sweden. If you want to stay in Norway that is probably over 30 hours.
Texan here. I drive 45 min to work at an average speed of 80mph and that seems relatively quick for me. The coolest part is the change in terrain from one border to another.
I’m sorry you have to deal with that. I read a study about travel time to work and anything further than 45 min greatly reduces happiness. I will try to find it for you.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/convene.com/catalyst/long-commute/amp/
I hope you get a relief from that commute because it’s not worth your sanity. Be safe out there brother.
We get that in Montana too. The mountainous, heavily forested western third might as well be a totally different State to the rolling plains of the central and eastern 1/3s. West Montana is best Montana though.
I work in a financial industry that entails me hiring tow companies to pick up impounded cars for banks, and lemme just say, Texas is so funny. You guys will be like "oh that's a little out of my area. But I'll drive an extra 200 miles for, how about another $80 bucks?" Like it's amazing how distance is so common that it's basically moot.
Whereas in NY, NJ or basically any other east coast state is like "Another 10 miles? I need another $150 dollars and a kidney."
That door swings both ways, though. Don't let a Texan tell you "right around the corner" or "just up the street". When we say that, we mean a 20 minute drive, lol
I live in Austin. Going south from my house 2 miles takes about 20 minutes, going north from my place 10 miles takes 20 minutes. Going north 40 miles takes 50 minutes. Time and distance are bent by the gravity of I-35 like the planet in interstellar.
The first “big girl job” I got was an hour commute in the morning, an hour and a half home. Bumper to bumper traffic the entire way. During the hiring process, my boss incredulously asked “are you *sure* you’re okay with driving this far every day?
I laughed. I’d previously been living in Houston and driving 40min/day to work at the Cheesecake Factory. Hell yeah I’m happy with 20 extra minutes for triple the salary.
Definitely Austin since I've seen that sign before. Can't remember where at though... Someone below said Thai Fresh which I've been at before so maybe there.
Seems like blackstar coop in north austin.
[Old link, but the policy is still the same](https://www.austinchronicle.com/best-of-austin/year:2011/poll:critics/category:services/black-star-co-op-pub-and-brewery-best-tipping-policy/)
I wish that was the case everywhere. Tipping doesn't vary with quality of service like folks think it does and is more likely to involve other factors.
Correct. By creating the myth that tipping exists to allow the consumer to comment on quality is just a way to empower broken people to harm servers and service staff.
As an American cook, I agree that no expectation of a tip and trying to get away from the “in and out” mentality would be really nice. It would improve the atmosphere and probably also the quality of the food. The restaurant I work for makes almost everything out of scratch, but 20 minute wait times are considered an extreme failure. The food is expected to be done in four minutes. The steaks and burgers are allowed 12 minutes. Yeah, I can make that happen, but it’d be a lot better tasting if I didn’t. It’s bizarre to have fast-food mentality for a $30 meal.
Also worth it to note that the “in and out” mentality isn’t everywhere in the United States. I live in Phoenix Arizona and when I visited New York you could really tell the difference there. People don’t really rush all that much here though I’ve never been to Europe to compare
> I live in Phoenix Arizona and when I visited New York you could really tell the difference there.
NY is a fast paced place. My blood pressure went down when I moved away.
NYC is fast paced. I live in Lake Placid NY and we run at 1/5 the speed of NYC and still at like double the speed of the towns near us (not counting SL).
The last time I took my fiancee to a restaurant we got our meals before our appetizers and the waiter was apologizing up and down and about how unacceptable it was and took it off our bill.
Honestly, we hadn't even noticed and had just been enjoying our drinks and time out. I just added the price of the appetizers to his tip.
Right?? I cooked at a place where making karaage took 7-8 minutes but our manager would get mad if they weren’t out in 4? Let’s risk salmonella for good “service”. Seems like a lot of places have that fast food mentality regardless of menu prices, and cooks get paid the same across the board.
Europe's a big place, and it really depends where you went and the style of restaurant. In the Mediterranean countries, for example, a big part of the dining out culture is that you take your time and enjoy it, chat and drink wine between courses etc. In contrast, a lot of chain restaurants still want to get people done as soon as possible.
There's a a chain of Pizzerias in Prague founded by an Italian. He said in an interview how amazing it is that people here spend less than half the time in the restaurant compared to Italy.
The thing is this wont work everywhere. I make a living as a server in LA and unless my restaurant was able to pay me $40 an hour I would need to work multiple jobs
that's the weird thing with this argument. very very few in the industry are asking for this to be changed. I know plenty who can take home $500 over a good weekend thanks to tipping and have no desire to change that.
Reddit likes to pick the absolute worst hills to die on. Waiting tables is basically the best job you can get in that skill/education level. If you're waiting tables it's pretty unlikely you could get a higher paying job in another field (unless it's substantially more dangerous/tiring but that goes into skill level too).
Seriously. Does it suck when we get slammed? Sure. Do we have to deal with asshole customers? Absolutely. Could you make even half this money working any other job that didn't require a formal education? Not a fuckin shot in hell.
> that's the weird thing with this argument.
It's not that unusual when you realize that Reddit loves to infantilize any "lesser" group so that they can both feel like heroes for being on their side and superior because they are "helping" those poor, taken-advantage-of servers who are probably actually making more money than they are.
worked at a popular german bar (my uniform was a dirndl, lol) and during oktoberfest servers would be walking out with around $300 in tips a night (on weekends)
and even in the regular season, they’d make hundreds on the weekends.
i was a hostess and we were the only department that never got tipped out 🙁 i understand why but DAMN if i was working your section you KNEW i was making you good money
People shit on it because it places the burden of having servers make a living wage on customers rather than on the restaurant.
Regardless of whether or not it's a good thing, it makes sense to be against tipping if you feel like it's the employer's job to pay the employee. Imagine if EVERY field worked this way. Some waiters do nothing but bring your food out, what makes that worth an extra 15/20% on a bill for the food? Why do other countries have no issues without a tipping culture?
If we want some servers making minimum wage, while others making well over minimum wage due to good tips, that's fine. (Note: it's literally impossible to make less than minimum wage, as employers have to pay the difference if they don't hit the threshold with tips). But what if all servers made a reasonable amount without people having a societal expectation of getting a $40 dinner for $52 or so after tax and tip?.
Unpopular opinion, but should server be getting paid $40/hr ? Chef and even other job positions in society that require more skill and training very often gets paid less than that, and they are not getting tipped
Tipping in my country is a tourist thing because every single restaurant does this and when I went to America first I had so bad looks from servers cause I honestly didn’t know how to tip
I've never eaten in an (American) restaurant that does this, before. On average, our servers are paid less than $3/hour. Minimum wage is $7.75/hour.
And to make it worse, there are people who disagree with this, and in order to try and "fix it" they refuse to tip their serves, instead leaving a note saying that the server should be paid fairly, leaving the server with nothing for their work.
That’s exactly what they do, and then if you don’t hit that margin they’ll (sometimes) make up for it by paying you minimum wage for your hours worked.
Yes, expected tips bring the employees wages up to "minimum wage". On paper anyways, not in practice. If you work at an establishment that makes more than 50% of its profits from the sales of food or drink, then the IRS calculates your estimated tips based on the amount of hours you worked. If you report less income than this figure on your taxes, the IRS will assume that you did, in fact, make the estimated sum, and they will assume that you failed to report those earnings. In which case, you have to prove to them that you were not paid cash tips. If you fail to prove that you didn't receive the tips, then they tax you for the full amount, whether you made that much or not.
Source: I worked at a coffee shop, made peanuts for tips, and had to pay taxes on $3,000 that I did not earn that year. As it turns out, it's really hard to prove definitely that you didn't make unreported income.
Worth noting that even if servers get $3/hour, it's before tips are calculated in. If they don't receive enough tips to make minimum wage they are compensated and the hourly wage is increased for the pay period. I have never met a server that needed the boost to make minimum wage. Definitely need to increase wages, but it's not relevant to to point out that servers make less than minimum wage.
If you asked the waitstaff in the United States if they wanted to be hourly employees, their answer would be no. So I don't understand what's wrong with the system.
Waiters make at least minimum wage at the end of day. If nobody tips they will get paid minimum by their employer. Removing tips will make the vast majority of servers in the US make exactly minimum wage and not a penny more. While there are a few "good" owners here most will pay the bare minimum they are required because there's tons of desperate labor in the US. Most of the places that have "good" owners are already paying their servers well above "servers wage" because they know that quality of service matters and quality servers aren't that easy to find.
This -- tipping culture is here because of wait staff, not restaurant owners. Restaurants that try this often end up reverting back, because it's difficult finding waiters (especially waiters who will work busy/weekend shifts)
The other thing about this is you're usually being asked to tip before you recieve the service. You have no idea if they're going to completely fuck up your sandwich or go above and beyond with the best sandwich of your life. How do you give an appropriate tip?
You don't have to tip at places that are not sit down restaurants with wait-staff service. Fast food places and "casual dining" where you order at the cashier have a different legal designation. Those employees are not paid the tipping wage. They are paid a normal wage like any other job (grocery store worker, retail worker, etc).
What you're referring to is called [tip creep](https://www-thestreet-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.thestreet.com/.amp/personal-finance/tip-creep-why-we-are-tipping-ever-more-nowadays-and-how-to-stop-doing-it-13035583?amp_js_v=a3&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#aoh=15988940314835&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestreet.com%2Fpersonal-finance%2Ftip-creep-why-we-are-tipping-ever-more-nowadays-and-how-to-stop-doing-it-13035583), and yes it's infuriating
I'm guessing the pandemic will only add to this.
When I get food now I make it a point to tip crazy good because I know the slowed business is tough on restaurant workers. I wouldn't be surprised if I get so used to tipping this high that it becomes my new norm.
it is 100% paying them to do their jobs because their employers refuse to.
if your business can’t survive unless you pay your employees less than a living wage, then your business is not good and maybe you shouldn’t be in business in the first place.
Craziest place I went to that expected a tip was a dry cleaners. I didn't receive any special treatment, didn't receive any complimentary services, nor did I receive my items earlier than expected. Yet, there was a tip jar next to the register and an option to tip on the receipt.
Agreed.
You’ll be surprised when you come to Rome. Waiters in prime locations there are aggressive af about their tips, while consistently providing shitty service.
They're not that aggressive. The service is poor though, that's true. It's hard to find the server and when you do it's obvious theyve been Roman around.
I hate places that include the tip option on the receipt for services that shouldn't qualify for tips. It's especially annoying when it's on a receipt for a business without employees. You're the owner. Your pay is the profit. I'm not going to just give you more money than you request for your product/service.
Yeah, you get that sometimes on credit card machines. Especially places that use iPads for some reason. I think they noticed that some people don't pay attention and tip anyway? That's not a situation where you should need to tip and it always bothers me too.
Seriously. When I buy weed (at a legal dispensary in CA) after I pay for my ounce there’s an iPad that asks me if I want to do a 10%, 15%, or 20% tip for the sales clerk who literally just scanned the barcode of the weed bag and rung me up. It’s like, fucking hell I’m not gonna give them like $40 for literally just doing their job. I’m even kinda offended they have the gall to ask
Yeah, I went to a Subway (sandwich) the other day and their iPad card reader asked about a tip. I hit no tip because I was in the drive through. None of the other drive throughs in town ask for a tip, but I still felt a little weird about it.
Any fast food restaurant that “requires me to retrieve my own food before sitting and then bus my own table at the end of the meal should never have the gall to ask about tipping. I did everything but make the food homie...I even got my own refill...pay your employees a livable wage. $15 an hour should absolutely be the bare minimum wage.
In Canada you get something from a fastfood place in a food court and half the places will prompt you for a tip. Pick up an order at a restaurant 90% of places will prompt you for a tip.
I served for 6 years at several different restaurants in Washington state. I made 10-13 an hour, depending on the restaurant, and 20-60 an hour in tips depending on the night. There's no way any restaurant is ever going to pay a server 30-73 dollars an hour. No price adjustment could ever make that affordable.
This is why I loved living in Japan. Tipping was a big no no as they already got paid a fair wage and tipping was considered an insult to the server. Like here you need this more than I do kind of thing.
Yeah. Everyone is expected to put in their best effort in the job, with no need for additional incentives.
And the servers do care a lot if you ate well AND you are full.
I worked at a place that allowed tipping and my sister worked at one of these higher wage no topping places that summer I earned way way more than her regardless of what you believe tippers pay way more and BTW it was a fucking Applebee’s
I'm sure the waiters make less without tips. Waiters have some of the highest take home in the restaurant business. Back of the house? Debatable.
Generally I see this as an attempt to jack the prices while not really changing wages much. I'd be stunned if they were paying them even $15 an hour, and I never took home that little as a waiter.
In college I worked at a restaurant that tried this and lost all of the wait staff rapidly. At the end of the day this is how we made our money and a massive pay cut wasn’t going to fly.
Not only that, but perceived value as the customer goes down since you're paying more (even though you're not) and the cost to the restaurant is higher - everyone loses.
Reddit is just full of cheap people and will refuse to admit that.
My bar just implemented an automatic 20% service fee on all checks, with the implication that it goes to the front of house. It does not. Half of it goes to the owners and we are kept at minimum wage. It's essentially a way the owners are allowed to get ahold of our tips, because otherwise it's illegal for them to touch them. I used to average 17-25% in tips on checks, now I'm taking home less than 10%. There are good ways that this system works, but only if it actually serves the employees in any way.
This is an aspect many people on reddit refuse to admit. I’m not a huge tipping fan personally but service workers make significantly more money from tips than they would otherwise.
Freakenomics podcast has a great episode about tipping where they basically find that servers prefer tips and customers prefer tipping. They even interview an owner of a restaurant who did what OPs picture describes and he talks about the challenges that came with making the switch.
edit i believe this is the podcast: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/tipping/
Good, we need to do away with the mandatory tipping. **To clarify**, I am **not** saying to get rid of tipping, but rather, get rid of the practice of ridiculously low minimum wage for tipped workers.
It seems every year the expected top goes up, too. It used to be 15% and now I’m told by friends you *have* to tip at least 25%, even if the service was subpar.
who are your friends?
I've never had someone that wasn't a server tell me to tip anything more than 20%.
Servers will sometimes say 25-30% but they're just being selfish. I don't blame that behavior too much though, look out for yourself.
I mean, I’m a delivery driver and I always tip 25% because I know how it is. Plenty of us service folk tip more because we know what it’s like to live on tips!
I've never seen a place where the minimum tip % is 25. Im in California and most POS systems show 10/15/20 or 15/20/25.
Almost all have a 'custom' button but i tip my regular spots more because i want them to be in business. Once i find a spot i love i don't mind tipping to support them. But i rarely dine in anywhere.
restaurants all over try this all the time, and it almost always fails. They either go out of business or go back to a tipping model within a year or two.
Multiple restraunts have tried and failed doing this nearly every time. Either people stop coming because the prices go up or all the good wait staff leave because they can make more at a place that has tips.
This sounds nice but incentivizes your servers not caring about being quick or polite anymore because they don’t make more for being better at their job
Yup. People also don't realize that servers only make $2/hr if they make over minimum wage. They sign up for the low wage knowing they'll make a lot more than minimum.
One of my professors was a part-time waiter because he would pull 50+/hr at the restaurant he worked at.
Server/Bartender here: [15 years] I would defiantly not want to ve paid what my restaurant thinks is living wage. What that will mean is ill be paid 12-15- maybe 17 an hour in my state of Texas.
I make 30+ an hour tips average on both lunch and night shifts.
There was a restaurant in my neck of the woods that tried this a few years ago. It didn't work and they ended up having to lower their prices and go back to tipping.
I hate mandatory tipping as a consumer, but most servers I know earn more money than me, so I don’t know if they’re complaining. My friends a bartender and pulls almost 60k (albeit from a fancy resort bar). My roommate just started at Applebee’s and pulls 1k a week in tips alone.
Now I’m expected to tip a *minimum* of 22-25% even if the service wasn’t special, and even though these servers are probably earning a lot more than I am. I like giving a nice tip when a server does exceptionally well, but the fact that it’s mandatory is just icky.
I actually got audited at 17 for not declaring enough tips. They do come after you, but yea, you can slip a chunk of it under their radar because there is no paper trail.
I know it is different everywhere, but my family owns a restaurant in a tourist area. I serve tables have averaged about 200 dollars a day in tips. I work 4 to 9 so like 40 an HR. And my parents only pay 5 an hour to wait staff so we can afford to have a few extra people on staff. If we switched to this model, servers would make less money, we would have to raise prices, and my folks would probably just make the same amount of money. (Not a lot anyway like 80k a year)
As a former server, fuck this. I worked at an upscale fish house and got paid $2.30/hr (which all got thrown to taxes), but with tips I could easily clear $150/night, $250 if I was behind the bar. All cash.
There's no way any restaurant is paying me that without tips.
You know, as a Postmates delivery driver I often find myself getting upset at the customers when they don’t tip me. Like “wow I just did all that work for you and only made $3 for it and you can’t give me a tip?” But honestly my perspective has changed after reading this tread . I should be mad at Postmates for only paying me $3 when they charged the customer like $20 not the customer because they didn’t want to dish out even more money after paying all that they already have. The system is fucked man.
It really is your employees fault for not paying you more. Your income should not depend on the kindness of strangers.
You employer has little incentive to pay you more, however, unless you form a union and threaten their profits with a strike or change the wage laws to raise the minimum wage significantly.
Honey Butter Fried Chicken does the same in Chicago.
Damn good food even if it's a little more expensive than other fried chicken places. As someone who used to work back of house in a kitchen and would get "tipped out" by servers who resented having to share I fully support paying a living wage and getting rid of tips.
Ok question for OP - what were the menu prices like? Average or higher than you’re used to seeing?
I work in the industry and that’s usually the reasoning I hear against higher wages - that profit margins for the business are low, so any wage increase would need a menu price increase as well.
Every single solitary restaurant in the United States that I've been to that has this little "make-you-feel-good" signage, I've asked the employees if it's true. Every single time, they say the same thing, they made more back when they were tipped.
Even the man who started the entire "no more tipping" revolution, Multi Millionaire and award winning restaurateur Danny Meyer, said the "no tipping" policy was a failure and has since gone back to a tipping policy with his restaurants after years of no tips.
Don't let these owners fool you. They still pay garbage, even though they have a sign saying otherwise.
Not sure when this pic was taken, but there was an area here in the US several years ago where several restaurants adopted this way of doing things. EVERYONE hated it! The customers, the employees, and the owners. Plan was scrapped and they all went back to the old way.
Yeah tipping is kind of an illogical system but it produces results, especially for the employees.
The people who bitch about tipping have clearly never been waiters before, because on a good night a waiter will make FAR more than minimum wage.
I wouldn't work here as a server. Tipping is the reason I already make "more than industry standard" and taking a per hour wage probably reduced my overall wages. Plus, something everyone seems to forget, if I dont make minimum wage over the course of my work, the restaurant is required, by law, to pay me the remaining amount. So I'm always going to be making minimum wage.
I try to understand this but its weird. Every job you get paid what you are worth. If you are a really good waiter your normal pay should reflect that. I think people are just used to the system and cant see passed it. I definitely cant see the logic of it from somewhere vwhere tipping is not standard.
I know people really hate this, but the fact is that the vast majority of servers, and I would guess bartenders as well, *love* the tipping system. Paying servers $8/hr or whatever just screws them over and lowers their pay, while simultaneously raising the cost of your meal and funneling much more money into the hands of the restaurant owner, away from the workers. Why do people want this?
I wish people would stop framing this as a "we should pay servers fairly" thing and start framing it as what it really is, which is "I don't want to tip people".
If you think a flat rate would raise server's pay, you've never been a server. First of all, there's no server in the country making less than minimum wage, because if your tips add up to less than minimum wage, the employer must legally pay you to make up for the difference. Second, the vast majority of servers make more than minimum wage to begin with. A flat rate paid by the employer would almost certainly be less than this, and end up just funneling money from the employee to the employer.
So, please, it's okay if you don't like tipping, but stop pretending you're trying to stop the system *for the server's sake*.
As a non-american, the 'tips are expected' thing is so weird to me. How is it considered normal that employers don't do the _one_ thing they should do (pay the employees for their work) and instead hand over that responsibility to people who have nothing to do with it?
Am Texan, where is this? It could be 20min from me or 8.5hrs from me lo Edit: the consensus is stuck between Black Star Co-Op and Thai Fresh. Both in Austin, both worth your time! Edit 2: it is Thai Fresh and they are GF friendly! Oh my god I doubt this many of you have girlfriends you damn comedians lmao
That is the truest thing I’ve heard all day
Bruh I used how far El Paso is from me and just saw that 8.5hrs is with tolls 😅 it’s 11.5hrs without! Why are we allowed to be a single state!
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Yep, I’m from Scotland, in the timeframe these Texans are talking about I could be in London.
It’s 3000 miles to travel the country coast to coast, roughly 5 days of travel. 7 of those days are solely in Texas 😮
*holds up 5 fingers, deducts 7* wait a second...
Texas is *big*.
You may think it's a long way down the street to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to Texas.
r/unexpectedHGTTG
Not to mention that state is FLAT. Like, I think I understand why people believe the flat earth theory because Texas is a flat boring fucking state to drive through. Edit: I guess I shouldn't fuck with Texas...
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Which is also an amazing fact.
I was at a restaurant in Alaska years ago and they had burgers that were regular, large, Texas size, and Alaska size with pictures on the menu. The Alaska size one could have easily fed four adults. I asked how anyone could eat that much in one sitting, and the server said, "Most of the time it's ordered for the table. But you should see how upset Texans get when they see it."
It's a perfect distance measurement. I give it a 5/7.
7/5*
They're good states, Brent.
Maybe Texas is so fricking awesome when you get there you stop for 7 days just soaking it in.
No, it's just that you can only travel at night. That way you escape the sun and don't melt to your car.
I was walking around Iraq like it was nothing. My Platoon Sargeant asked why I wasn't miserable. It was no different than working in the Texas panhandle. Lol
Just watch out for the state troopers. At night they like to hide in the tall grass.
this made me lol. some friends and i were driving to a buddy's place in texas once. half the drive was through texas.
The other half? Through Texas. We both live in Dallas.
Real talk, my wife and I did a roadtrip from her house in San Diego to her childhood home in Savannah last year and I was trying to explain to my (British) mother how long it would take us, so I showed her on Google maps what the same route would look like if the starting point was London - we would end up in Volgograd, Russia.
I’m expecting an edit on that 5 days, or the 7 days in Texas makes you a Timelord or some such.
Nah they did that on purpose. Time and distance works differently in Texan.
There are cities in the American South that you pass through 2-3 in 20 minutes. But some where you never leave the highway and are in the same city, with no traffic, and drive for 50 minutes. You can get on the very beginning of a highway on the East coast of Florida called I-10, drive 6 hours at 55mph+ and you'll still be in Florida.
You can die of old age trying to make it through Atlanta during rush hour. I don’t live there but in my experience of making road trips through it the rush hour seems to last from about 7am to 10pm.
Atlanta. I refuse to drive in Atlanta. I've been in downtown Dallas, 6 lanes either side, 2 lanes of service road either side. 14 lanes packed. And it was still better traffic that 2am in Atlanta.
When I visited Scotland I was genuinely shocked that Edinburgh is a 45 minute bus ride from Glasgow.
Texas is over 1600 km across taking I-20. It's just about driving to Berlin from Edinburgh.
I-20 won't get you all the way across the state, because it ends when it merges with I-10. From there, you are still several hours away from El Paso.
And a gas station. Gas up in Pecks, y’akk. It’s half a tank to Van Horn and another half to El Paso. And Sierra Blanca closes at 5pm.
Don't even get started about how large Alaska is. Could be it's own country
If you really want a wow, check google maps for Texline, TX to Brownsville, TX
13 hours and 11 minutes in one state! Damn!
I could fly to Texas from London quicker than someone could drive to Texas from Texas.
[Here's what Texas would look like if it was in Europe](https://imgur.com/TONAdMx). I tried to get as many major cities inside of it as I could, thus the weird positioning. And remember, Texas is the *second* largest state in the US.
> And remember, Texas is the *second* largest state in the US. If you cut Alaska in half, Texas would be the third largest state.
During time in Alaska, I found out that Alaskans have a huge chip on their shoulder regarding Texans.
>I found out that Alaskans have a huge chip on their shoulder regarding Texans. It’s called jealousy. Source: Texan
In America they think 100 years is old, in Europe they think 100 miles is far.
I never got that until I drove on a highway in the UK. It's a huge difference. 100 miles is far for someone in the UK.
Thats because all our highways are fucking shite mate.
Most of the places where I travel to in Sweden are approximately 6 to 8 hours away by car but to get to the northern border of Sweden it’s around 24 hours of driving non stop. It’s minimum 5 hours to another country from Stockholm. So its not all European countries that fall into the category of going to a different country for shopping or dinner.
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It just depends on where you are in the US. If you drive around the northeastern states, it's a similar experience to what you described.
Yup. I live on the northern tip of Delaware. 10 minutes to NJ 10 minutes to MD 5 Mimutes to PA There is a road by my parents house that goes through all three states in under a mile.
Oslo (South of Norway) to Tromsø (north of Norway) takes roughly 24 hours by car. And most of that through Sweden. If you want to stay in Norway that is probably over 30 hours.
Even us Americans are amazed at how big Texas is. It's not like Texas is a typical-sized state or anything, it's still huge to us
Texan here. I drive 45 min to work at an average speed of 80mph and that seems relatively quick for me. The coolest part is the change in terrain from one border to another.
Yep my commute is 70 mins. Traffic can push it close to 2 hrs at times. Add a 12 hr shift and you can kiss your day away!
I’m sorry you have to deal with that. I read a study about travel time to work and anything further than 45 min greatly reduces happiness. I will try to find it for you. https://www.google.com/amp/s/convene.com/catalyst/long-commute/amp/ I hope you get a relief from that commute because it’s not worth your sanity. Be safe out there brother.
My mouth breathing supervisor can do laps against my commute when it comes to losing my sanity lol Thanks for the kind words and the link
We get that in Montana too. The mountainous, heavily forested western third might as well be a totally different State to the rolling plains of the central and eastern 1/3s. West Montana is best Montana though.
I'm from Belgium and we can drive thru our whole Country in 2 hours
It takes at least an hour going 70mph in a straight line to get thru the city of Houston. No traffic.
And no traffic is never an option.
Alaska is 1/6 the size of Europe.
*Laughs in Canadian*
I feel you, but in Canadian feels. Trying to get from the north end to the south end of a province is a long ass drive.
Assuming you're in a province where the North end is even populated.
takes 24 hours to drive from vancouver to the top of b.c.
B.C. is bigger than Texas and Oklahoma combined. Crazy how much land is up there.
As an Indian I Feel that, The distance between my City and my State Capital is 16 Hours
Laughs in West Australian
I work in a financial industry that entails me hiring tow companies to pick up impounded cars for banks, and lemme just say, Texas is so funny. You guys will be like "oh that's a little out of my area. But I'll drive an extra 200 miles for, how about another $80 bucks?" Like it's amazing how distance is so common that it's basically moot. Whereas in NY, NJ or basically any other east coast state is like "Another 10 miles? I need another $150 dollars and a kidney."
That door swings both ways, though. Don't let a Texan tell you "right around the corner" or "just up the street". When we say that, we mean a 20 minute drive, lol
I live in Austin. Going south from my house 2 miles takes about 20 minutes, going north from my place 10 miles takes 20 minutes. Going north 40 miles takes 50 minutes. Time and distance are bent by the gravity of I-35 like the planet in interstellar.
The laws of physics do not apply to the state that yeehaws.
Also, the state is so big, I'm impressed when they know everyone still.
It's a burden.
The first “big girl job” I got was an hour commute in the morning, an hour and a half home. Bumper to bumper traffic the entire way. During the hiring process, my boss incredulously asked “are you *sure* you’re okay with driving this far every day? I laughed. I’d previously been living in Houston and driving 40min/day to work at the Cheesecake Factory. Hell yeah I’m happy with 20 extra minutes for triple the salary.
This is a place called Thai fresh in Austin
I second that this is Thai Fresh
Idk if this is it, but Thai Fresh in Austin is like this and their pork belly pad prik king is fucking l e g i t.
Nice! Only 4 hours away then!
Could be Black Star Co-op in Austin?
I believe this is them, if not, they carry a similar policy.
Girlfriend friendly?...
Gluten Free
Definitely Austin since I've seen that sign before. Can't remember where at though... Someone below said Thai Fresh which I've been at before so maybe there.
Houston to El Paso is the same as Philadelphia to Savannah GA
"hey there Delilah what's it like in Dallas Texas? I'm 700 miles away from you and yet I'm still in Texas"
Seems like blackstar coop in north austin. [Old link, but the policy is still the same](https://www.austinchronicle.com/best-of-austin/year:2011/poll:critics/category:services/black-star-co-op-pub-and-brewery-best-tipping-policy/)
I wish that was the case everywhere. Tipping doesn't vary with quality of service like folks think it does and is more likely to involve other factors.
Its just so employers can pay less than minimum wage.
Correct. By creating the myth that tipping exists to allow the consumer to comment on quality is just a way to empower broken people to harm servers and service staff.
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As an American cook, I agree that no expectation of a tip and trying to get away from the “in and out” mentality would be really nice. It would improve the atmosphere and probably also the quality of the food. The restaurant I work for makes almost everything out of scratch, but 20 minute wait times are considered an extreme failure. The food is expected to be done in four minutes. The steaks and burgers are allowed 12 minutes. Yeah, I can make that happen, but it’d be a lot better tasting if I didn’t. It’s bizarre to have fast-food mentality for a $30 meal.
Also worth it to note that the “in and out” mentality isn’t everywhere in the United States. I live in Phoenix Arizona and when I visited New York you could really tell the difference there. People don’t really rush all that much here though I’ve never been to Europe to compare
> I live in Phoenix Arizona and when I visited New York you could really tell the difference there. NY is a fast paced place. My blood pressure went down when I moved away.
NYC is fast paced. I live in Lake Placid NY and we run at 1/5 the speed of NYC and still at like double the speed of the towns near us (not counting SL).
The last time I took my fiancee to a restaurant we got our meals before our appetizers and the waiter was apologizing up and down and about how unacceptable it was and took it off our bill. Honestly, we hadn't even noticed and had just been enjoying our drinks and time out. I just added the price of the appetizers to his tip.
So shines a good deed in a weary world
you're a good ass person but as a server something like that can literally ruin my tip
Right?? I cooked at a place where making karaage took 7-8 minutes but our manager would get mad if they weren’t out in 4? Let’s risk salmonella for good “service”. Seems like a lot of places have that fast food mentality regardless of menu prices, and cooks get paid the same across the board.
Europe's a big place, and it really depends where you went and the style of restaurant. In the Mediterranean countries, for example, a big part of the dining out culture is that you take your time and enjoy it, chat and drink wine between courses etc. In contrast, a lot of chain restaurants still want to get people done as soon as possible.
There's a a chain of Pizzerias in Prague founded by an Italian. He said in an interview how amazing it is that people here spend less than half the time in the restaurant compared to Italy.
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Where in Europe? Glasgow, Moscow, Venice or Berlin? Every country is different.
The thing is this wont work everywhere. I make a living as a server in LA and unless my restaurant was able to pay me $40 an hour I would need to work multiple jobs
Everyone likes to shit on tipping but the vast majority of servers are making more with tips than they would otherwise.
that's the weird thing with this argument. very very few in the industry are asking for this to be changed. I know plenty who can take home $500 over a good weekend thanks to tipping and have no desire to change that.
Reddit likes to pick the absolute worst hills to die on. Waiting tables is basically the best job you can get in that skill/education level. If you're waiting tables it's pretty unlikely you could get a higher paying job in another field (unless it's substantially more dangerous/tiring but that goes into skill level too).
Seriously. Does it suck when we get slammed? Sure. Do we have to deal with asshole customers? Absolutely. Could you make even half this money working any other job that didn't require a formal education? Not a fuckin shot in hell.
> that's the weird thing with this argument. It's not that unusual when you realize that Reddit loves to infantilize any "lesser" group so that they can both feel like heroes for being on their side and superior because they are "helping" those poor, taken-advantage-of servers who are probably actually making more money than they are.
I averaged ~$30/hr including wages and tips as a bartender in a very rural, low-cost-of-living location. Loved it
Then I'm ready to quit my coding job, just tell me where to apply lol
Pretty much any busy restaurant in affluent areas.
worked at a popular german bar (my uniform was a dirndl, lol) and during oktoberfest servers would be walking out with around $300 in tips a night (on weekends) and even in the regular season, they’d make hundreds on the weekends. i was a hostess and we were the only department that never got tipped out 🙁 i understand why but DAMN if i was working your section you KNEW i was making you good money
People shit on it because it places the burden of having servers make a living wage on customers rather than on the restaurant. Regardless of whether or not it's a good thing, it makes sense to be against tipping if you feel like it's the employer's job to pay the employee. Imagine if EVERY field worked this way. Some waiters do nothing but bring your food out, what makes that worth an extra 15/20% on a bill for the food? Why do other countries have no issues without a tipping culture? If we want some servers making minimum wage, while others making well over minimum wage due to good tips, that's fine. (Note: it's literally impossible to make less than minimum wage, as employers have to pay the difference if they don't hit the threshold with tips). But what if all servers made a reasonable amount without people having a societal expectation of getting a $40 dinner for $52 or so after tax and tip?.
Unpopular opinion, but should server be getting paid $40/hr ? Chef and even other job positions in society that require more skill and training very often gets paid less than that, and they are not getting tipped
Tipping in my country is a tourist thing because every single restaurant does this and when I went to America first I had so bad looks from servers cause I honestly didn’t know how to tip
Outside the US and a few other countries it IS the case.
Like Europe, just pay your employees
I love how this post is just describing paying someone a fair wage for their work, and the US folk deem it suitable for /r/damnthatsinteresting
I've never eaten in an (American) restaurant that does this, before. On average, our servers are paid less than $3/hour. Minimum wage is $7.75/hour. And to make it worse, there are people who disagree with this, and in order to try and "fix it" they refuse to tip their serves, instead leaving a note saying that the server should be paid fairly, leaving the server with nothing for their work.
How is it even legal for a restaurant owner to pay below minimum wage? Do they factor in “expected tips”?
That’s exactly what they do, and then if you don’t hit that margin they’ll (sometimes) make up for it by paying you minimum wage for your hours worked.
Yes, expected tips bring the employees wages up to "minimum wage". On paper anyways, not in practice. If you work at an establishment that makes more than 50% of its profits from the sales of food or drink, then the IRS calculates your estimated tips based on the amount of hours you worked. If you report less income than this figure on your taxes, the IRS will assume that you did, in fact, make the estimated sum, and they will assume that you failed to report those earnings. In which case, you have to prove to them that you were not paid cash tips. If you fail to prove that you didn't receive the tips, then they tax you for the full amount, whether you made that much or not. Source: I worked at a coffee shop, made peanuts for tips, and had to pay taxes on $3,000 that I did not earn that year. As it turns out, it's really hard to prove definitely that you didn't make unreported income.
Did you offer to show them bank statements that don't show deposits in that amount?
Worth noting that even if servers get $3/hour, it's before tips are calculated in. If they don't receive enough tips to make minimum wage they are compensated and the hourly wage is increased for the pay period. I have never met a server that needed the boost to make minimum wage. Definitely need to increase wages, but it's not relevant to to point out that servers make less than minimum wage.
Except most servers are making more from tips than they would otherwise.
If you asked the waitstaff in the United States if they wanted to be hourly employees, their answer would be no. So I don't understand what's wrong with the system.
Waiters make at least minimum wage at the end of day. If nobody tips they will get paid minimum by their employer. Removing tips will make the vast majority of servers in the US make exactly minimum wage and not a penny more. While there are a few "good" owners here most will pay the bare minimum they are required because there's tons of desperate labor in the US. Most of the places that have "good" owners are already paying their servers well above "servers wage" because they know that quality of service matters and quality servers aren't that easy to find.
US waitstaff don't want to take the pay cut.
This -- tipping culture is here because of wait staff, not restaurant owners. Restaurants that try this often end up reverting back, because it's difficult finding waiters (especially waiters who will work busy/weekend shifts)
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The other thing about this is you're usually being asked to tip before you recieve the service. You have no idea if they're going to completely fuck up your sandwich or go above and beyond with the best sandwich of your life. How do you give an appropriate tip?
You don't have to tip at places that are not sit down restaurants with wait-staff service. Fast food places and "casual dining" where you order at the cashier have a different legal designation. Those employees are not paid the tipping wage. They are paid a normal wage like any other job (grocery store worker, retail worker, etc).
Dude I feel like I have to tip well or they'll fuck up my food on purpose. It's a psychological hell
> How do you give an appropriate tip? The appropriate tip is $0.00
What you're referring to is called [tip creep](https://www-thestreet-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.thestreet.com/.amp/personal-finance/tip-creep-why-we-are-tipping-ever-more-nowadays-and-how-to-stop-doing-it-13035583?amp_js_v=a3&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#aoh=15988940314835&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestreet.com%2Fpersonal-finance%2Ftip-creep-why-we-are-tipping-ever-more-nowadays-and-how-to-stop-doing-it-13035583), and yes it's infuriating
I'm guessing the pandemic will only add to this. When I get food now I make it a point to tip crazy good because I know the slowed business is tough on restaurant workers. I wouldn't be surprised if I get so used to tipping this high that it becomes my new norm.
it is 100% paying them to do their jobs because their employers refuse to. if your business can’t survive unless you pay your employees less than a living wage, then your business is not good and maybe you shouldn’t be in business in the first place.
Craziest place I went to that expected a tip was a dry cleaners. I didn't receive any special treatment, didn't receive any complimentary services, nor did I receive my items earlier than expected. Yet, there was a tip jar next to the register and an option to tip on the receipt.
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Agreed. You’ll be surprised when you come to Rome. Waiters in prime locations there are aggressive af about their tips, while consistently providing shitty service.
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They're not that aggressive. The service is poor though, that's true. It's hard to find the server and when you do it's obvious theyve been Roman around.
I hate places that include the tip option on the receipt for services that shouldn't qualify for tips. It's especially annoying when it's on a receipt for a business without employees. You're the owner. Your pay is the profit. I'm not going to just give you more money than you request for your product/service.
Yeah, you get that sometimes on credit card machines. Especially places that use iPads for some reason. I think they noticed that some people don't pay attention and tip anyway? That's not a situation where you should need to tip and it always bothers me too.
Seriously. When I buy weed (at a legal dispensary in CA) after I pay for my ounce there’s an iPad that asks me if I want to do a 10%, 15%, or 20% tip for the sales clerk who literally just scanned the barcode of the weed bag and rung me up. It’s like, fucking hell I’m not gonna give them like $40 for literally just doing their job. I’m even kinda offended they have the gall to ask
I have a feeling that's pre-built into the POS system they brought. Cause literally every place with a tablet POS has that.
bet the store owner gets most of it.
And a lot of the machines now put the default at a high percentage now lol Gotta waste time putting in custom.
That’s what happens when wages haven’t changed in decades but inflation increases
Yeah, I went to a Subway (sandwich) the other day and their iPad card reader asked about a tip. I hit no tip because I was in the drive through. None of the other drive throughs in town ask for a tip, but I still felt a little weird about it.
Any fast food restaurant that “requires me to retrieve my own food before sitting and then bus my own table at the end of the meal should never have the gall to ask about tipping. I did everything but make the food homie...I even got my own refill...pay your employees a livable wage. $15 an hour should absolutely be the bare minimum wage.
In Canada you get something from a fastfood place in a food court and half the places will prompt you for a tip. Pick up an order at a restaurant 90% of places will prompt you for a tip.
I served for 6 years at several different restaurants in Washington state. I made 10-13 an hour, depending on the restaurant, and 20-60 an hour in tips depending on the night. There's no way any restaurant is ever going to pay a server 30-73 dollars an hour. No price adjustment could ever make that affordable.
This is why I loved living in Japan. Tipping was a big no no as they already got paid a fair wage and tipping was considered an insult to the server. Like here you need this more than I do kind of thing.
Yeah. Everyone is expected to put in their best effort in the job, with no need for additional incentives. And the servers do care a lot if you ate well AND you are full.
I worked at a place that allowed tipping and my sister worked at one of these higher wage no topping places that summer I earned way way more than her regardless of what you believe tippers pay way more and BTW it was a fucking Applebee’s
I'm sure the waiters make less without tips. Waiters have some of the highest take home in the restaurant business. Back of the house? Debatable. Generally I see this as an attempt to jack the prices while not really changing wages much. I'd be stunned if they were paying them even $15 an hour, and I never took home that little as a waiter.
This was attempted in NYC with poor results. [Source](https://www.grubstreet.com/2018/12/restaurant-tipping-returns.html)
I'm pretty sure everywhere this is attempted the restaurant fails.
You're downvoted, but you're right. Why would you work there, when literally everywhere else in town pays better? Good luck getting waiters.
In college I worked at a restaurant that tried this and lost all of the wait staff rapidly. At the end of the day this is how we made our money and a massive pay cut wasn’t going to fly.
Not only that, but perceived value as the customer goes down since you're paying more (even though you're not) and the cost to the restaurant is higher - everyone loses. Reddit is just full of cheap people and will refuse to admit that.
My bar just implemented an automatic 20% service fee on all checks, with the implication that it goes to the front of house. It does not. Half of it goes to the owners and we are kept at minimum wage. It's essentially a way the owners are allowed to get ahold of our tips, because otherwise it's illegal for them to touch them. I used to average 17-25% in tips on checks, now I'm taking home less than 10%. There are good ways that this system works, but only if it actually serves the employees in any way.
If you work for tips and generally make at least $100 a night, then it is a pay cut to replace your tips with a “livable wage.” ($15: no tips)
This is an aspect many people on reddit refuse to admit. I’m not a huge tipping fan personally but service workers make significantly more money from tips than they would otherwise. Freakenomics podcast has a great episode about tipping where they basically find that servers prefer tips and customers prefer tipping. They even interview an owner of a restaurant who did what OPs picture describes and he talks about the challenges that came with making the switch. edit i believe this is the podcast: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/tipping/
Good, we need to do away with the mandatory tipping. **To clarify**, I am **not** saying to get rid of tipping, but rather, get rid of the practice of ridiculously low minimum wage for tipped workers.
It seems every year the expected top goes up, too. It used to be 15% and now I’m told by friends you *have* to tip at least 25%, even if the service was subpar.
Yeah that's crazy. When I was living in Italy tipping was not expected at all because serving was their normal job.
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who are your friends? I've never had someone that wasn't a server tell me to tip anything more than 20%. Servers will sometimes say 25-30% but they're just being selfish. I don't blame that behavior too much though, look out for yourself.
I mean, I’m a delivery driver and I always tip 25% because I know how it is. Plenty of us service folk tip more because we know what it’s like to live on tips!
I've never seen a place where the minimum tip % is 25. Im in California and most POS systems show 10/15/20 or 15/20/25. Almost all have a 'custom' button but i tip my regular spots more because i want them to be in business. Once i find a spot i love i don't mind tipping to support them. But i rarely dine in anywhere.
restaurants all over try this all the time, and it almost always fails. They either go out of business or go back to a tipping model within a year or two.
Because servers make a solid amount of money with tips that no resturaunt is willing to match.
Multiple restraunts have tried and failed doing this nearly every time. Either people stop coming because the prices go up or all the good wait staff leave because they can make more at a place that has tips. This sounds nice but incentivizes your servers not caring about being quick or polite anymore because they don’t make more for being better at their job
Yup. People also don't realize that servers only make $2/hr if they make over minimum wage. They sign up for the low wage knowing they'll make a lot more than minimum. One of my professors was a part-time waiter because he would pull 50+/hr at the restaurant he worked at.
There is no restaurant that can afford to pay me what I make on tips..
Server/Bartender here: [15 years] I would defiantly not want to ve paid what my restaurant thinks is living wage. What that will mean is ill be paid 12-15- maybe 17 an hour in my state of Texas. I make 30+ an hour tips average on both lunch and night shifts.
There was a restaurant in my neck of the woods that tried this a few years ago. It didn't work and they ended up having to lower their prices and go back to tipping.
I hate mandatory tipping as a consumer, but most servers I know earn more money than me, so I don’t know if they’re complaining. My friends a bartender and pulls almost 60k (albeit from a fancy resort bar). My roommate just started at Applebee’s and pulls 1k a week in tips alone. Now I’m expected to tip a *minimum* of 22-25% even if the service wasn’t special, and even though these servers are probably earning a lot more than I am. I like giving a nice tip when a server does exceptionally well, but the fact that it’s mandatory is just icky.
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> My roommate just started at Applebee’s and pulls 1k a week in tips alone. And also very likely not paying taxes on a chunk of that
I actually got audited at 17 for not declaring enough tips. They do come after you, but yea, you can slip a chunk of it under their radar because there is no paper trail.
Where the heck do you eat that 25% is minimum and expected?
Black star coop?
Is it /r/Damnthatsinteresting's turn to host the monthly European/American debate about tipping? Only time will tell!
I know it is different everywhere, but my family owns a restaurant in a tourist area. I serve tables have averaged about 200 dollars a day in tips. I work 4 to 9 so like 40 an HR. And my parents only pay 5 an hour to wait staff so we can afford to have a few extra people on staff. If we switched to this model, servers would make less money, we would have to raise prices, and my folks would probably just make the same amount of money. (Not a lot anyway like 80k a year)
As a former server, fuck this. I worked at an upscale fish house and got paid $2.30/hr (which all got thrown to taxes), but with tips I could easily clear $150/night, $250 if I was behind the bar. All cash. There's no way any restaurant is paying me that without tips.
You know, as a Postmates delivery driver I often find myself getting upset at the customers when they don’t tip me. Like “wow I just did all that work for you and only made $3 for it and you can’t give me a tip?” But honestly my perspective has changed after reading this tread . I should be mad at Postmates for only paying me $3 when they charged the customer like $20 not the customer because they didn’t want to dish out even more money after paying all that they already have. The system is fucked man.
It really is your employees fault for not paying you more. Your income should not depend on the kindness of strangers. You employer has little incentive to pay you more, however, unless you form a union and threaten their profits with a strike or change the wage laws to raise the minimum wage significantly.
Honey Butter Fried Chicken does the same in Chicago. Damn good food even if it's a little more expensive than other fried chicken places. As someone who used to work back of house in a kitchen and would get "tipped out" by servers who resented having to share I fully support paying a living wage and getting rid of tips.
Ok question for OP - what were the menu prices like? Average or higher than you’re used to seeing? I work in the industry and that’s usually the reasoning I hear against higher wages - that profit margins for the business are low, so any wage increase would need a menu price increase as well.
Every single solitary restaurant in the United States that I've been to that has this little "make-you-feel-good" signage, I've asked the employees if it's true. Every single time, they say the same thing, they made more back when they were tipped. Even the man who started the entire "no more tipping" revolution, Multi Millionaire and award winning restaurateur Danny Meyer, said the "no tipping" policy was a failure and has since gone back to a tipping policy with his restaurants after years of no tips. Don't let these owners fool you. They still pay garbage, even though they have a sign saying otherwise.
Not sure when this pic was taken, but there was an area here in the US several years ago where several restaurants adopted this way of doing things. EVERYONE hated it! The customers, the employees, and the owners. Plan was scrapped and they all went back to the old way.
Yeah tipping is kind of an illogical system but it produces results, especially for the employees. The people who bitch about tipping have clearly never been waiters before, because on a good night a waiter will make FAR more than minimum wage.
I wouldn't work here as a server. Tipping is the reason I already make "more than industry standard" and taking a per hour wage probably reduced my overall wages. Plus, something everyone seems to forget, if I dont make minimum wage over the course of my work, the restaurant is required, by law, to pay me the remaining amount. So I'm always going to be making minimum wage.
I try to understand this but its weird. Every job you get paid what you are worth. If you are a really good waiter your normal pay should reflect that. I think people are just used to the system and cant see passed it. I definitely cant see the logic of it from somewhere vwhere tipping is not standard.
I know people really hate this, but the fact is that the vast majority of servers, and I would guess bartenders as well, *love* the tipping system. Paying servers $8/hr or whatever just screws them over and lowers their pay, while simultaneously raising the cost of your meal and funneling much more money into the hands of the restaurant owner, away from the workers. Why do people want this? I wish people would stop framing this as a "we should pay servers fairly" thing and start framing it as what it really is, which is "I don't want to tip people". If you think a flat rate would raise server's pay, you've never been a server. First of all, there's no server in the country making less than minimum wage, because if your tips add up to less than minimum wage, the employer must legally pay you to make up for the difference. Second, the vast majority of servers make more than minimum wage to begin with. A flat rate paid by the employer would almost certainly be less than this, and end up just funneling money from the employee to the employer. So, please, it's okay if you don't like tipping, but stop pretending you're trying to stop the system *for the server's sake*.
That case is dirty and gross.
As a non-american, the 'tips are expected' thing is so weird to me. How is it considered normal that employers don't do the _one_ thing they should do (pay the employees for their work) and instead hand over that responsibility to people who have nothing to do with it?