Comic for Friday 2/11 (Early High Res)
First and foremost, I wish we could do away with the tipping construct as a general requirement; I don't think it should be built into certain service industries as a way for employers to avoid paying their staff a decent wage, and there are a lot of studies and articles on the various imbalances/discriminations the entire practice creates.
However, it is ingrained in our society at the moment, and certain professions rely on it. So until we can all agree to do away with it, I'm fine with participating in the practice where appropriate. I used to be a waiter and I remember what it's like, so I am generally an across-the-board 20% tipper in restaurants.
But I feel like "where appropriate" is starting to get a little blurred. What I hate the most is when I'm asked to tip someone before even receiving service (or without even receiving a service at all).
Since the pandemic started, I have ordered food for pickup far more than I ever did before, and drastically more than I've done any "dining in" in the past two years. And more and more on these apps, I'm seeing I'm being asked to assign a tip when placing the order, before any service has taken place. (To be clear, we are not talking about delivery drivers, I am aware tips are entered prior to the order on those apps, and can often be adjusted after the fact based on performance.)
In a lot of these instances, I don't feel like a tip is warranted; I'm paying for the food, and I'm going to pick it up. Somebody at the restaurant (most likely a host, being paid an hourly wage, not waitstaff-pay) stands behind the counter and hands me the food, sure. But for that thirty second interaction, should they get the same 20% tip as a waiter who took care of me through sixty-minutes of dinner/dessert and coffee? Doesn't feel like it (though I'm open to hearing arguments to the contrary).
But at the same time, I don't love the idea of telegraphing NO TIP way ahead of time when these people are about to handle my food, either. Now, this is most certainly my anxiety at play; deep down I don't really believe people fucking with food because they didn't get a pre-tip is something I need to be worried about. Buuuut, it still doesn't feel great. It starts to feel more like ransom at that point.
I'd love to hear others thoughts on this, especially anyone working on foodservice where these apps are used. Where do these pre-tips go to? Does the restaurant just keep them (which would be even worse)?
Comments (13)
I don't tip if service has not happened yet or if my butt never touches a chair (and sitting in my own car in a drive through doesn't count). We need to pass laws that removes tipped wage as a legal thing. Until we do that, we're just enabling the status quo every time you tip. Any worker that depends on tips should find other work, imo, and if they choose not to, they abandon their right to complain. That said I still tip when service is actually rendered first, and adjust my tip to the level of service (20% as default).
Whenever possible, buy from venues that pay their workers. The tipping approach sucks, and the best way to get rid of the whole idea is to avoid the businesses that push for it by not paying their employees.
Delivery tips are the primary reason I get in the car and drive to pick things up. I'm in favor of doing whatever we can to do away with this system and make the actual costs real and transparent.
Also, as far as I understand, tips for non-service are split among all the people working there, at least that was the practice I've always been told when I ask(which I ALWAYS ask, because I refuse to tip if it goes to the owner).
Legally speaking, in Canada at least. No tip is allowed to be taken by the owner, It is against the law. Though I do know that some places like doordash that have gotten busy with this lockdown do not pay enough to deliver the food for the first couple of people. I do try to avoid using delivery service though, and would rather the workers want to work there by making enough than to being forced to tip.
Agreed, I hate Doordash/Uber/etc. I have problems with them about 95% of the orders I place, whether they got the order completely wrong, or they just cancelled it randomly, or they delivered to 6 other places first, etc. The tip doesn't even matter, I always tip well, and I always get screwed. So I just don't use them period anymore because it's bullshit.
The minimum wage for servers (which is the only amount paid in most cases) is $2.13 / hour. It has been that way for at least 20 years. When I waited tables I had to have health insurance. Working more than full time, I still didn't make enough in my hourly wage to cover the cost of the insurance. So every 2 weeks I would get a bill, rather than a paycheck. It was absolutely absurd. We also had to give at least half of our tip to the bar tender if we served any alcohol to a table. In my case, since I was good at fixing things, a lot of my hours were spent doing repairs rather than serving tables so that the management didn't have to call in a service tech. The service techs usually cost > $20 / hour. Plus, you usually had to wait about half a day for them to arrive. If the ice machine was down, it caused huge problems for everyone, so there was absolutely pressure for me to just take care of it.
I’m Australian, we don’t tip. It generally isn’t a thing. You’re paid to do your job and there’s a legal minimum wage tied to the cost of living. You’ll hardly be living it up but it’s gets you by. Generally speaking it’s why the jobs that get minimum wage are largely only worked by students and people starting out. Every now and again you see a restaurant or an app try the compulsory tip, or one of those sneaky eftpos machines that make paying awkward as it asks for a tip and you have to really obviously hold a button to say no, but they don’t last long. About the only way to chase an Australian away faster is to have those massively fake Walmart style greeters at the door!
I mostly agree that the standard requirement to tip should be abolished. However, that would mean increased prices on goods, which I'm fine with. I am not sure if all wait staff would feel the same though, as they would likely not be paid an hourly wage anywhere near what they were making on tips. My daughter is a waitress for a small diner and on average makes about $16/hr and can easily go up to $20/hr on a good week. If tips did go away, I would be surprised if she got paid even 12/hr at that place, unless the prices drastically increase. Her current hourly wage without tips is about $3/hr. As for tips through the online delivery apps, from my understanding that all goes to the delivery driver, and none of it goes to the restaurant you are ordering from. Also, not all locations have a dedicated "host" to handle online orders and frequently the wait staff have to handle these without any additional compensation.
The prices wouldn't increase as much as people think it would. Why? Because a LOT of people don't tip at all. The current system just makes decent people pay more for everything. If it was put in as prices increases instead, everyone would pay the same.
It's a massively American practice. I don't understand it at all. You go to a restaurant and order food which has been "marked up" in order for the restaurant to cover their costs and make them a profit. Said costs need to cover the premises, rates, utilities and (the major one) wage costs. Now, if you get a brilliant experience from your waiter/waitress and want to tip them for their service- do so. And I'm not adverse to doing so. But that shouldn't be in lieu of the restaurant not paying them enough or be "expected". A tip, to me, is a bonus. An extra or reward. But the culture in the UK is different. I get particularly annoyed by automatic service charges added because of party size. If I go with my full family, suddenly an extra 15 or 20 percent gets added before you even see the bill. Why? The job done has been the same.. and its way too presumptive and puts you right off tipping anything. Anyway.. Ban it and pay people a proper wage
If they automatically add a tip, that's the tip, there's no reason to tip even more.
I 100% agree, but with being from the UK it's different over here. I don't mind tipping when the waiter/waitress has been great but the idea that it's expected before they've done anything is horrible.