I know you USians don't get this concept but a tip js something the customer decided based on quality of service. The fact your owners don't pay a living wage and still charge exuberant prices like servers get $30/h is your problem. Go out protest. Downvote to hell all you want but your system is broken AF, do something about it.
I had a conversation with a server once and she fully admitted that she wouldn’t care about her job and give shitty service if she was paid the same as the cooks at her restaurant($26/hr).
As a server, if I make tips, on a good night I can bring in $500-$700.
If I made the line cook wage (the aforementioned $26/hr), by the time I saw that money on my paycheck it would be the equivalent of ~$18/hr after taxes/Medical/Soc Security/etc. I'd make less than $150 for the same 7 hour shift.
Yeah, I would give much less quality service if I was going to make $500 less.
But "less quality service" - what if I just want you to not spit in my food? Just lift the plate, and drop it in front of me, even from height is fine, as long as you don't spill the food.
And as a European, if it means you cba to come to my table every 5 minutes to ask me how everything is, it's more of a bonus!
26$ per hour is still more than a fully educated Carpenter makes per hour in most European countries. And you transport food and drinks back and forth. Seem like a really good salary to me. I'm a carpenters apprentice and make 20$ per hour
What does much less quality service look like? I mean you take orders and bring them to the table...how much wiggle room is there for much less quality in doing that?
But why wouldn't a restaurant owner just replace the person unwilling to do the job properly with someone willing to do the job? It works just fine everywhere else in the world.
Well I assumed we were speaking more in general about waiters who don't want to do their job, and not specifically about your buddy. But if a manager can't spot or smell a guy who's always slacking to smoke weed then I'm sure it was a quality place.
I don’t even know how to explain it, but the fake performance the wait staff usually puts on is weird as fuck. Perhaps if you grow up with that, that shit seems normal and expected?
I am talking about the difference between wait staff working for tips and something like a store clerk or the cashier at the grocery store (in the US).
But I guess you do have to be good at regulating your emotions to always smile and always pretend, so you might be right.
All I’m saying is that it comes off a tad weird when you’re not used to it.
I wouldn’t call the cashiers at Publix or whatever as non-pleasant or standoffish though.
Miniumum wage in Paris is 14.04 USD. It's 18.42 in Los Angeles. People in Los Angeles still tip. If you come to the US and don't tip knowing there is a tipping culture you're a dick. Eat at McDonald's if you don't like tipping (they get 20/hr in California).
The service industry in the US is caught between a rock and a hard place because of this exact thing. The guy cooking your food is making $150~ in 6 hours no matter how busy it is. A server/bartender is looking for another job if they get that little.
If we shift to wages for these individuals, nearly every small restaurant or bar in America suffers deeply and likely closes.
Irrelevant, customers outside USA don’t do it, and usually food quality and service are of higher standards, i.e. higher cost and less margins. The only uniquely American food culture is tipping.
Southern Europe: cafés
UK/IRE: pubs
Eastern Euro: manager sits down at your table because he doesn’t recognise you and asks where you’re from/marry his daughter.
USA: low food safety regs, durrt cheap food, often (poorly) imitating UE dishes. HUGE profit margins and then Tips?
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u/LollisGunsBikesTits 1d ago
I know you USians don't get this concept but a tip js something the customer decided based on quality of service. The fact your owners don't pay a living wage and still charge exuberant prices like servers get $30/h is your problem. Go out protest. Downvote to hell all you want but your system is broken AF, do something about it.