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TheCrotchyDoll t1_iufvjib wrote

Reply to comment by OfCourseIKnowHim in When someone in the service industry is angry with their tip, they’re not mad at you they’re mad at their job by BrandonLang

What do you want? You want to get paid a fair wage for the labor you provide or do you want to rely on tips only?

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OfCourseIKnowHim t1_iufxclp wrote

Dear internet person, as a longtime professional in the industry, my mind is torn about this.

Firstly, the only real correlation with higher tips is higher sales. The more sales I have, particularly the more tables/customers I serve, the more tips I earn. So, I literally make more the harder I work.

Secondly, an hourly wage for the way I do my job would sap my willpower and absolutely destroy my sense of working as hard as possible. I would make just as much hourly on $800 in sales as $1600, so why would I ever care about doing twice as much work?

Thirdly, I know that as a tipped worker, I’m an outlier in terms of earnings. Tipped workers encounter poverty at three times the rate of non-tipped workers. In nearly two decades in the industry, I can’t tell you how many past and even current coworkers struggle so hard to keep their kids fed, their bills paid, and a roof over their heads. Many of them have lived hand to mouth, using their shift’s earnings to buy essentials on the way home and then repeat the pattern the next day. I’ve seen a lot of people over the years have a run of bad luck and jump ship for another restaurant or job because they have to operate on a short-term budget.

Fourthly, I spent a long time calibrating and calculating my budget to accommodate the fact that I never know exactly what I’m making week to week. However, I do know how much money I need to put in the bank every month to keep myself afloat, and since I’ve been budgeting like that for a long time, I’m well ahead of living month to month.

So, I’m doing perfectly fine busting my ass and making good money doing it, but a lot of people don’t do as well through no fault of their own. Tipping is one of the most fickle, unfair, underhanded, unpredictable, ageist, sexist, racist methods of compensating people for their work.

It’s a complicated question with complex answers, but I make more money under the current tipping model than any restaurant owner would actually pay anyone.

Edit: Typos and grammar.

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BrandonLang OP t1_iug1r1f wrote

This all boils down to wether you enjoy the job itself or just the money it gets you. Because if you’re just thinking of money you should be working on getting a better higher paying job where you dont need to have a potential tip dangled in front of you to care if you do your job good or not.

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OfCourseIKnowHim t1_iug1x06 wrote

I fucking love my job. Part of the reason I love it is the money is good, but not the whole reason.

The person I replied to made a specific point about money, which is why I addressed it that way.

And I don’t give a shit about individual tips/customers. I operate on more of a month-long scale. If one person wants to be an asshole about their tip, I don’t really give a shit in the grand scheme of things past being momentarily frustrated. Still love the job, though.

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BrandonLang OP t1_iug2okc wrote

Oh i usually tip too much when im drunk anyways. Ill get a shot and tip like 5 or more just to see the bartender be happy. But i always wake up the next day with a headache and no money 😆😆

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OfCourseIKnowHim t1_iug37c4 wrote

Touché!

And I’ll amend my statement to address regulars. Those are individual customers and individual tips that I think any server is justified in worrying about. They come in more often than other customers, and I’ve seen servers literally survive slow periods just because they have faithful regulars, myself included.

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Mr_Quackums t1_iuiv3np wrote

tips do provide a fair wage for the vast majority of servers.

Getting rid of tipping and raising the waiter's hourly-pay to compensate is for the benefit of the customers, most servers are happy with the tips they get.

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