No, of course you’re not. And I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.
My only point is that this data is hard to get.
Though to be honest, nowadays it is much easier since most tips are CC and not cash (despite what some of our friends here may do personally), which makes it all that much better for the employee and employer in the long run.
Instead of cashing out every night (or every shift), most servers will get their tips either biweekly as part of their regular W2 paycheck, or weekly on a debit card.
While your traditional severs may not like this as part of the mantra of working tables is to go home every night with “cash in hand” it does create a nice paper trail, for both employee and employer. (And, heck, it makes buying a car or house or taking out a loan that much easier for the employee.)
When tips were predominantly cash, servers always had that Hobbesian choice of “take it, or report it”.
I think the move away from cash tips is what is at the heart of this ballot measure.
correct approach, but understand on the large scale, such data can only come from (?)city and state and federal tax authorities. and there’s that pesky “privacy” issue…
one could (foolishly) think that before lawmakers would embarked on stupid stuff, they would query the appropriate tax agencies for concrete data.
lawmakers do not, they simple legislate in a vacuum of ‘Vote for Me’
and I have never seen or heard of a taxing authority making such data available - public or private.
While your traditional severs may not like this as part of the mantra of working tables is to go home every night with “cash in hand” it does create a nice paper trail, for both employee and employer. (And, heck, it makes buying a car or house or taking out a loan that much easier for the employee.)
If it’s all reported, the worker also gets the income on their social security record for retirement benefits and potential SSDI benefits if disability arises, because the income was reported and they paid taxes on it.
Many people feel a greater need for immediate cash. I leave it up to them.
Definitely understand the difficulties of navigating the privacy issue, and working around long-standing non collaborative work streams with many government agencies. You would hope people could just produce anonymized aggregate data, but this is also assuming you have modern tools and someone who’s actually interested in analytics in this area. This is basic comp 101 for all companies, but I understand that this is not how the governments work.
This leaves it to businesses and workers, but there isn’t a lot of incentive to change this because it either exposes years of wage fraud or requires better management and practices, which many smaller businesses are loathe to implement. What’s frustrating with this is that many cities - some more expensive than Boston - can allow waitstaff to have no-tip wages and make a living. For all the complaints about the work, the tip stealing, and pooling practices, servers are also complicit in keeping it this way.
You don’t need to get this information from the government, it’s readily available through payroll companies like Shiftpixy or Paylocity (ask me how I know).
This data is not only readily available but easily anonymized to be marketed and used for either research or auditing purposes.
So neither access/availability nor privacy are issues.
Again, as I said up above, the issue isn’t availability, but accuracy.
Not to repeat myself, but when the data is fictionalized, is it really data? And if it is, do we still want it? I think based on the current state of affairs, the answer is “no.”
If you’ve ever been around servers, the majority of them want to go every night (or after every shift) with cash in hand (either literally or figuratively). It’s just the mentality.
Some of it stems from the “work today, live for today” mindset, and some of it is just FUD that there will be shenanigans and machinations going on behind the scenes with their employer, including just going poof! and out of business.
1 Like
ChristinaM
(Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))
68
It’s also, in my experience, frequently tax evasion.
An employer shenanigans and shady practices definitely encourage employees to take their pay home nightly.
The payroll company will never allow you to pull that data without the users’ consent. I’ve implemented several payroll systems and other HR systems, and work in industries where data privacy and complying with global privacy regulations is a fact of life. I can do this for my companies because it’s our pay data and I aggregate this and no personal data is shared.
Every time you start a data analysis exercise, you face the hurdle of bad data. This is from experience - no analysis starts out with perfect data, and it’s a process to clean it. But it can be cleaned, if you work with people who provide the data. The question of course becomes why would they help you clean it? It boils down to what I laid out - this data is being used as a critical data point for legislation and policy that is designed to address perceived serious problems in wage equity. If those problems don’t exist, help us understand why the data looks this way. If no one wants to help, then that’s an answer in itself that should prompt other important questions. To say the data is bad, therefore it makes more sense to guess if this is a real issue, rather than digging into how to get good data to help focus time on solving real problems, is just wasting time and effort.
Been thinking a lot about Question #5 this week and it looks like my fellow MA peeps are too.
I have learned a lot from other thoughtful perspectives here, so thought I would share my considerations.
For me, tipped servers and independent restaurant owners would need to be supportive of the measure because their livelihoods would be the ones affected. I haven’t been able to find indications of their support.
Just anecdotally, this week I noticed that two independently owned restaurants near me posted lawn signs asking people to vote “no.” (Thankfully I have not seen any of the annoying ads and hope not to!)
And the tip pooling element of the measure gives me real pause. I think that leaves an opening to unintended consequences. If an employer opts to do the permitted tip pooling, of course servers would of course lose a portion of the tips they have personally earned. But also I see a potential opening for back of house wages to be held down in the future, on the promise of new eligibility for pooled tips.
I’m definitely wanting to support my local restaurants so this question has significance for me, even though I am not in the industry.
tip pools are usually shared between waitstaff, runners and bussers.
(few other positions may be included…)
bartenders perhaps - the management must make it crystal clear who is in the pool and how the tip pool is “divided.”
raising the minimum mandatory hourly rate costs the business a lot more - in direct wages + payroll taxes. those increased costs will be included in the menu price - and they are not some trifling amount - it will be a significant hit to the business.
if the min is raised, menu prices go up, if people continue their past 15-20% tipping practice, you’ll be paying more in tips (as based on menu prices…)
the “living wage” thing for tipped employees has been tried, and for the most part rejected. and there’s a reason for that.
I think you won’t find much support from restaurants because they are trying to go the “easy” way by keeping everything the same as now. Ultimately, in the bigger picture this ballot question is also about the whole system and who has to pay for living wages of restaurant work (B and FOH) - obviously in the end it’s the customer but the current system is very intransparent how tips (and additional fees etc) are distributed within the system. The question is, if a more transparent system which would lead to raised prices might brake the overall restaurant system enough (closure of many more restaurants) to have a more broader discussion how to fix the system without tips (Europe clearly shows that it is possible to have such a transparent system with living wages and practically no tipping)
Most (and I stress “most” here so people please do not jump down my backside) people who are restaurant servers do not see it as a long term job, much less a career. For most, it is a transient employment opportunity – something to bridge them to what they really want to do (i.e., your stereotypical actor, screenwriter, or student).
So for those folks, they really have no skin in the game. No matter what measure passes or doesn’t pass, for them it’s really just a blip in their job because for most of them they think, “heck in a month or two, Spielberg will eat here, discover me, and off to stardom I go!”
I deliberately talked to the workers at our corner pub separately and individually, when the owners aren’t present (I know the owners). Each one said they were against it.
A very small sampling, to be sure.
The question has a lot of complexity as you pointed out with the tip pooling. A comprehensive solution that is fair to everyone needs to be found. I don’t think the wording of this question does this.
The same situation on some of the other questions (non food related) on the Massachusetts ballot, in my opinion. Lots of complexity and huge potential for unintended consequences.
How does the wording of this question stack up against the changes other states have made around tipping and minimum wages that some say are positive results and some say are negative results?
Not at all clear. What is clear is that the wording of this question is not going to solve this complicated issue in Massachusetts.
I’ve thought about this question too, and the industry really needs two tiers of waitstaff. There are professional servers, many of whom will likely work in the “high-end” restaurants where they want that experienced, well-trained high level of service. They should be paid well enough, or at least based on their experience and skills. High-end here is not necessarily just menu price, but restaurants that value a higher level of service for their guests. These folks likely do get large tips, and should continue to receive those tips based on their skills and the experience they provide to customers.
The transient servers who really are using it like a gig economy or as temporary work to wait for their true calling - in the smaller, neighborhood mom and pop places. For me, this feels similar to office temps (and I’ve had good ones - this is not being used critically), these folks should just be at at least minimum wage, and if patrons want to throw anything extra on top of that, they get that. It might never be the same big 20% tips every time, but it seems it would go a long way for people not always having big meals here.
Between brutal work deadlines and helping out my parents (thank goodness B is able to hang out a lot with Spring Onion—the guys even collaborated on a salmon dinner last night [see below]), I’ve not thanked you all for your input thus far. And yet, my mail-in ballot still taunts me from my kitchen counter. just when I think I’ve made a decision, I read some other argument that makes me waver.
ipsedixit, I use credit cards for the resto tab but I still try to tip in cash. And I get sincere thanks when I do so. I worked for tips when I was at university, mostly as doorman/bellman but for a while at a seafood restaurant, and I know the game.
The US tipping culture is a witches brew of conflicting forces. But the majority of cash tips do not get reported. With credit card tips it is the reverse.
I am on both sides of the fence on this issue.
Now, that really sums up where I am, too, and I’m in the same place on three of the other Massachusetts ballot questions. In the future, I hope we get better questions that provide real, positive change rather than a mix of positives and negatives.
So I voted as my server friends advocate…which was, no change.
4 Likes
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
79
We certainly do. In spite of minor differences in national cultures towards restaurant tipping, I’m not aware of any European country where servers would have a legal wage that was less than their national minimum. wage.
servers in USA get the higher of the local / state / Federal minimum wage.
people who think the ‘tip credit wage’ is all they get are woefully uninformed.
The Globe is endorsing “yes” on Ballot Question #5 (unlike some cowardly newspapers who are getting out of the business of endorsements [LA Times and now the Washington Post]).
I know I wasn’t asking people how they were voting on this question, but I was leaning towards “yes,” and this may help to bolster my decision. We’re going to vote early in-person this weekend at town hall and bringing Spring Onion who hasn’t been to an election since he was younger. He’s quite interested
