Mike Paranzino writes at the Washington Times:
The labor movement has found a new enemy, and this one may surprise you: tipping. Yes, the distinctly American practice that has helped so many people move from the working class to the middle class has become the new bogeyman of the labor left, but tipped workers are fighting back.
Leading the charge against tipping is Saru Jayaraman, co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a labor union front group known for its raucous protests of restaurants and aggressive lobbying for the labor agenda.
While tips are one of the very features that make restaurant jobs attractive to workers, Ms. Jayaraman has no time for anything that suggests pay for performance — a big union no-no. As she recently told the University of California, Berkeley’s alumni magazine: “Ultimately, this system of tipping needs to go.”
She repeated that position recently in Seattle, where the Seattle Times reported Ms. Jayaraman “described tips as institutionalized sexism” and added the “best option, she suggests, is to eliminate tips.”
The startled Seattle Times writer noted Ms. Jayaraman was using “rhetoric making her sound like socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s twin sister.” When even Seattle liberals are shocked by labor movement radicalism, we should take note.
He was right, though: The other person waging war against tips is Ms. Sawant, a leader in the Seattle campaign to raise the minimum wage, who complains: “We don’t want any worker to be beholden to the mood of the customer on any given day.”...
Ms. Jayaraman, who recently told a Ford Foundation panel: “No portion of anybody’s income should be tips because tips are not wages.” (The Restaurant Opportunities Centers United has received more than $2 million from the Ford Foundation to advance the labor agenda.)...
Ms. Jayaraman runs Berkeley’s labor center, and previously taught at City University of New York, where a sign by her desk read, “Capitalism is not healthy for children and other living things”.
While I agree with the analysis above on the current situation, the problem with tipping is the social expectations. The people in these tipped jobs have ever increasing expectations of what should be tipped as a minimum. Those not tipping the minimum percentage, make themselves subject to intentionally slower service and worse.
ReplyDeleteAre we tipping because of performance or are we tipping as a bribe to go to the front of the line or as protection not to have our food spat in?
If those in tipped jobs just considered any tip to be a bonus for doing a good job that would be great, but there is an expectation to it, and if it's expected, then why not do away with the practice and code it into the prices and wages?
"If those in tipped jobs just considered any tip to be a bonus for doing a good job that would be great, but there is an expectation to it, and if it's expected, then why not do away with the practice and code it into the prices and wages? "
DeleteI prefer the flexibility of tipping- it allows me to reward a server for better performance and if someone is outright lousy, I can tip accordingly...
Jimmy Joe, you forget that your patronage is voluntary. If you get bad service, eat somewhere else. Your eatery will have new wait staff pronto if they drive the customers away.
DeleteUnknown,
DeleteOf course, but sometimes you just get the new guy at a place you want to go back to. What's the floor? If it were zero, fine... but when we have social minimums for tipping is it really a tip anymore? Seems more like a different way to pay wages.
BINGO!
ReplyDeleteI knew a LOT of my co-workers were makng 50-60k/yr but only reported a third as much. When I was a bartender I always reported every penny to the government. Always.
Now that most transactions are on credit cards, hiding that extra cash is harder. I usually tip with cash, especially on large bills, and pray that they stick it in their pocket and pretend they got stiffed.
I always reported a little extra in case I forgot some...
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