" I always thought, if you can’t afford to live in a place, or you can’t
find a job, then you move, like everyone I know has had to do"
Yes. We each have to decide what’s worth it to us. I used to idealize the SFBA, then I lived there for a year and got over it. Sure its a great city and the MOMA is a delight but its expensive and smells like human waste (I ended up living in Berkeley, much better smells). Oh, and the traffic! There will be people willing to struggle immensely to be there, people who will give it a shot then move on, and people who will do the math ahead of time and move directly to Portland or Seattle instead. (Though PDX and SEA have similar, if less amplified, issues with rising rents and cost of living.) The city will lose much of its charm if nobody besides tech bros can afford to live there, but they can have drones deliver Soylent and survive without restaurants.
I don’t see why anyone would stopping tipping just because the minimum wage was increased. Unless the person thinks the ultimate goal is to make sure that waiters don’t make very much money.
In the somewhat distant past, waiters used to be paid less than minimum wage and it was expected that waiters had to make tips just to get to the point where they could make minimum wage.
The decision to tip or not should be based on whether the institution has added the tip into the bill already.
The increase of minimum wage is unrelated to that. It is meant to be a consideration to help low-income workers, not a back-handed way to help consumers keep waiters in low-income jobs.
I don’t think anyone is recommending that waiting tables at the neighborhood gastropub should go directly from $11.50 an hour minimum wage plus $25 an hour in tips to nothing above $15 an hour minimum wage. I’m not convinced that bringing my dinner plate from the pass to my table has to pay $40 an hour. And since I do value the skills that put the perfectly cooked duck breast on my plate, I’d like to see the cooks earn more than $15 an hour as well, which is why I support the restaurateurs moving to a service charge. If waiting tables only pays $20-30 an hour, there may be some shifts in the industry but it won’t collapse.
There’s been more than one article in SF papers that restaurants are losing their cooks. And that some of them are living four to a two bedroom apartment. This is an issue WAY beyond tipping. And I’ve not a clue how to solve it.
This is one of the problems. Some servers in traditionally low tipping establishments will benefit from the new non tipping $15 p/hr base but most servers will likely see a SIGNIFICANT reduction in take home pay @ $15 p/hr no tips.
$15 will be the minimum wage, not the maximum. Restaurants where waiters earned significantly more will need to pay their waiters more than minimum. That will be reflected in the new pricing.
The way I see it, the answer would not be to stop tipping when it is largely expected, but seek out non-tipping restaurants as they become more available and, assuming they are good enough, eat there instead. If those can be shown to work for both employers and employees, others will follow suit eventually.
That is, if one thinks a flat-pay system is preferable, and I think it is.
I’m responding to the original post which asks about tipping in general.
But no I am in S Fl.
But IF minimum wage for restaurant servers was $15 and assuming my boss does not put up my wages I still don’t see why I should tip servers earning the same as me.
And nobody has the right to tell me not to eat out, even delivery food drivers expect a tip.
Typically restaurant owners seek out the cheapest labor available including risking significant penalties for hiring illegals. Been that way since the 1970’s when I worked in them and still is today.
I think most restaurant owners will not pay a dime more than they have to and many servers will take home less.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
103
Although that is not the case in low/no tip countries, such as Spain, where working in a restaurant is regarded as a “real job”, even if not well paid. I visit that country once or twice a year and still recognise middle-aged servers who were working in the restaurant a decade ago.
Yes, it’s an actual profession/career in Germany as well.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
105
There’s a mix in the UK. Some servers will be working as part-timers and perhaps have other jobs or simply just want part time work. For others it’s a fulltime job - our local college offers courses in the hospitality industry. They include courses which lead to the National Vocational Qualification for both serving and cooking staff. They have a training restaurant, open to the paying public, where your lunch was cooked and served by students. Yep, taken very seriously.
