Tipflation

[ronandannette]

My apologies as that is not at all how I read your response.

When I was attending college you were paid a minimum serving wage plus tips.

That minimum serving wage + tips had to be greater than or equal to the minimum wage for the area.
If enough tips were not made the restaurant would have to pay the server more to get them to the actual minimum wage.

Restaurants love servers as they make them do extra work without having to pay them for all of the extras as in the end the customer ends up paying them. It is rare that a server does not meet the official minimum wage for their area.

Obviously times have changed as @tvguy pointed out in CA they must make a minimum of $16 PLUS tips.

It’s $15.00 PLUS tips here, but in fact many are paid an even higher base wage due to labour shortages. And that’s how it should work on the wage end, based on supply and demand. But the ever-more-outlandish tipping guidelines, when nothing about the job itself (except the price charged for the food on the plate) has changed for 100 years? Nope - it’s totally out of hand.

 

[dvcgirl67]

I own a business where we get a lot of tips, especially at the holidays (dog walking/pet sitting). We tip everyone, including our postal carrier, UPS and garbage/recycling guys. I don't tend to think..."oh, they make this much, have benefits...etc." If you're showing up at my house in all kinds of weather....you're getting a tip. It's more difficult to tip Amazon because they are always different people. I will say that the UPS guy rarely comes to my house anymore and always did in years past. It's all amazon now....they're really taking away business from UPS and FedEx....by not only selling everything, but also delivering it.

I don't tip at any kind of establishment if the person behind the counter isn't preparing something for me in some way. So I'd tip at Starbucks if someone is making me a drink, but not if I just bought a pound of coffee....etc. I never do a percentage on take out anymore, like I did during the pandemic. I'll choose "other" and tip a dollar or two.....because it's gotten crazy.

 

[barkley]

No you can tip them but I think the limit is $20.

no, the official policy reads-

Employee Tipping and Gift-Receiving Policy​

All postal employees, including carriers, must comply with the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch. Under these federal regulations, carriers are permitted to accept a gift worth $20 or less from a customer per occasion, such as Christmas. However, cash and cash equivalents, such as checks or gift cards that can be exchanged for cash, must never be accepted in any amount. Furthermore, no employee may accept more than $50 worth of gifts from any one customer in any one calendar year period.

 

[TippyThomas]

no, the official policy reads-

Employee Tipping and Gift-Receiving Policy​

All postal employees, including carriers, must comply with the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch. Under these federal regulations, carriers are permitted to accept a gift worth $20 or less from a customer per occasion, such as Christmas. However, cash and cash equivalents, such as checks or gift cards that can be exchanged for cash, must never be accepted in any amount. Furthermore, no employee may accept more than $50 worth of gifts from any one customer in any one calendar year period.

I had no idea the gift card I give my rural mail carrier each year was against the rules. Now I feel bad for putting them in that position.

 

[tvguy]

It's making CNA's and In Home Support workers angry. We still get $16.50 an hour here doing medical care for people. HOWEVER, Having worked in management in my young years in fast food/retail, I can guarantee you that many had their hours cut and they are making less than they did before. My two McD's next to me just installed ordering kiosks so I'm assuming at least one job was eliminated. Back to tipping: I usually tip very well unless someone just doesn't come back, doesn't offer more coffee, find out if everything is good (unless I can see that they are short handed and the waiter/ress is running around). I do not tip at places like Subway, McD's etc. I do tip the person cutting my hair. I do not tip my mail person, garbage person etc even on holidays because they make good money. They are city/federal/government jobs with excellent retirement benefits.

Regarding mail person and garbage person and tips. They can get in trouble if they accept tips.

 

[tvguy]

agree to disagree.

from your posts i believe your wife is close to my age. we grew up in the same region.

i knew PLENTY of my high school male peers who opted to work in tipped jobs-and there were tipped jobs that females knew only hired males. in the 70's despite any laws about equal hiring requirements, no females in our region, no matter how qualified, would apply for certain highly paid tipped positions (incredibly high as compared to low/midrange dining and other jobs). to name a few-

catering server
bell man
valet
caddy
WAITER/busBOY (higher end restaurants only wanted males).



where did your wife work in a movie theater and get no tips vs. her parking lot drive in co-workers? she got to watch movies while her co-workers did not?


i worked in the same area for a company that owned 2 enclosed movie theaters/1 drive in. no one ever was tipped-on site or at the drive in. i also worked for a second (MUCH higher end) enclosed movie theater-no enclosed theater employee EVER got to watch movies for free more than the drive-in employees if they were actually doing the job they were paid for. enclosed theaters had closed theater doors and unless an employee was going on their off time (which the drive in movie employees had the same ability to do) the only way they were seeing more 'free movies' was b/c they were in there watching instead of doing their job (i was able to watch/hear many more movies while doing my duties at a drive vs when i worked in an enclosed theater).

She worked at Sac Six and Century. No, she didn't get to watch movies on the job, but got in free during her off hours.

 

[barkley]

She worked at Sac Six and Century. No, she didn't get to watch movies on the job, but got in free during her off hours.

we were encourged to so we could talk them up.

 

[Holly]

I’m a generous tipper but I’m also resentful of tipping culture and the idea that businesses don’t pay their service workers a living wage and then the burden is put on the consumer. It’s just another way that workers are exploited.

 

[soccerdad72]

This obviously veered quite a bit away from the original point of the OP (shocking, being the DIS ), but I agree with the OP that the 'default' tips options keep climbing upwards. I have no problem with 20% tips and up, but when the lowest default starts at 22% or even 25%, it's going to turn people off from all tipping. Granted, there's always a 'custom' options which is easy enough, but stop trying to push people into higher and higher defaults on these credit card machines.

 

[dvcgirl67]

I had no idea the gift card I give my rural mail carrier each year was against the rules. Now I feel bad for putting them in that position.

I wouldn't feel bad Tippy....especially if your Carrier knows you to be a decent human being....not one who will rat him or her out, etc. My carrier takes our cash gift....and we get an official "US Postal Service" thank you card from him. So, maybe he's "reporting it" as some other kind of gift. But...he works in all weather to bring the mail, so I'll continue to tip him. In this case, I'll take the side of the "small government" folks and say that this transaction is between the U.S. Citizen...and their postal carrier. Stay out of my mailbox! .

 

[tony67]

if you talking about the u.s.p.s. and a cash or gift card that can be exchanged for cash (visa or mastercard) tip then your carrier accepting it is was in violation of federal law. a violation that could have resulted in their termination.

I know.

It's usually a gift card for a restaurant and a box of dog biscuits.

So since he was going to Florida its a gift card for Cracker Barrel.

 

[bakerworld]

We tip everyone now. Guy came to caulk our bathroom and DH tipped him. Crazy.

 

[barkley]

We tip everyone now. Guy came to caulk our bathroom and DH tipped him. Crazy.

we don't tip for stuff like this but i'm in the habit of always asking small buisness owners/private trades people if they would prefer me to pay with cash vs. using plastic so they don't get hit with a fee.

 

[TippyThomas]

We tip everyone now. Guy came to caulk our bathroom and DH tipped him. Crazy.

With as bad as I am with a caulking gun, I would have probably tipped him too.

 

[mjkacmom]

Well, we all bring our life experience here. Yes I worked a minimum wage job in High School, College and briefly after College. An untipped minimum wage job. I was the one washing, vacuuming and doing the safety check on your rental car outside on a 100 degree day. If your kid ralphed in the car, I cleaned it up. No tip. Next to an air conditioned restaurant where the servers were getting minimum wage plus tips.

So why didn’t you work there?

 

[mjkacmom]

It’s $15.00 PLUS tips here, but in fact many are paid an even higher base wage due to labour shortages. And that’s how it should work on the wage end, based on supply and demand. But the ever-more-outlandish tipping guidelines, when nothing about the job itself (except the price charged for the food on the plate) has changed for 100 years? Nope - it’s totally out of hand.

I do think salaries have increased in the past 100 years.

 

[tvguy]

So why didn’t you work there?

Like I noted, don't recall restaurants hiring males as servers in the early 1970's.

 

[tvguy]

we were encourged to so we could talk them up.

And free popcorn, if you dared eat it. She also popped a lot of pop corn every Thursday night. It was popped then for the next week. So the popcorn you bought for a Thursday movie, was popped the Thursday before. My wife did have a flashback to that last week when there was a post showing the bags of popcorn stacked in the hall ways and stored a couple of days before the Super Bowl at the stadium in Las Vegas. No fresh popped pop corn there either.

 

[barkley]

Like I noted, don't recall restaurants hiring males as servers in the early 1970's.

really? i think almost every guy i went to high school with who worked was employed at one of the local restaurants-waiter jobs were usualy held by college age or older but the bus boys, dish washers, prep workers were all male. servers at the mom and pops/coffee shops tended to be female but the steak houses, italian places and such were almost entirely male dominated. the most highly coveted (and well paying re. tips) was if you snagged the nights and weekends gig at a place that did banquets-higher hourly pay and a guaranteed cut of the mandatory 20% gratuity (those places wanted males b/c they did'nt think us weak and puny females could carry the big catering trays and 'it looks inappropriate to have female servers wearing pants').

 

[barkley]

And free popcorn, if you dared eat it. She also popped a lot of pop corn every Thursday night. It was popped then for the next week. So the popcorn you bought for a Thursday movie, was popped the Thursday before. My wife did have a flashback to that last week when there was a post showing the bags of popcorn stacked in the hall ways and stored a couple of days before the Super Bowl at the stadium in Las Vegas. No fresh popped pop corn there either.

we popped it at one theater for the 2 other theaters that were co-owned. made big batches and poured them into hefty garbage bags to transport. the other locations just did enough of a batch to get the smell (and that smell was timed out to coincide with when people were arriving, just prior to intermission).