Tipped workers were a way for employers to avoid paying (mostly black) workers, effectively providing slavery-lite even after slavery had ended

It's not just about being cheap though. It reinforces the idea that the worker is of a lower social status than the customer. The customer may, at their own discretion, choose whether or not to pay the worker a fair wage for the work they have done. That's a very clear power imbalance.

True but some states don't have this distinction and it means servers actually make pretty decent money.

And ironically one of the biggest proponents of keeping the tipped minimum wage was Herman Cain (who is black. Or was. He dead now).

Everyone gets their wage subsidized by the customers of the business (both B2B and B2C) they work for.

(I get it. It was just for the meme)

(I get it. It was just for the meme/joke)

Canadian from Quebec here.

Yes, we do.

Having worked in food service, and having many friends who do, I don't know a single person who would rather keep tips. The majority have openly talked shit about tipping. Everyone I know hates tipping except the management that benefits from it.

But the people who directly benefit will still fight you on it.

Is that still true? Even back when I has tipped workers as peers, their attitudes were mixed. If you have any polling data, that would be appreciated -- but, I don't have any data either, just vague memories.

People also choose individual lines at the cash registers rather than one shared line that splits into the next available opening. It doesn't matter that it's better on average, human intuition is really bad at statistics.

I'd much prefer a stable, livable wage over recieving tips.

The problem is that no one is making a livable wage. At least as a server, there's (on average) a pretty direct correlation between skill & effort and your income, so a decent server is probably making enough to live on. If you're working retail, you're barely making enough to survive on even as a low level manager.

My point still stands though that it has nothing to do with overly entitled wait staff as the cartoon would suggest but an issue with tipping culture and the restaurant industries unwillingness to pay anyone a living wage

I mean it literally started so owners wouldn't have to pay POC waiters, the rest was just added bonus

But yes everyone on a wage is underpaid

Sometimes it's children too

The source you are quoting is a US law that says tech workers don't qualify to get paid overtime if they are on salary or if they are paid more than $27.63/hour. This has nothing to do with minimum wage, this is a law specifically made to not pay developers overtime for crunch.

I think you are misreading this rule. This allows an exemption to the time and a half pay minimum for overtime for highly paid people in a computer related field whose job duties are sufficiently executive or administrative in nature. If they are very highly paid (~$150,000 per year) the exemption is easier to qualify for.

The referenced section of the FLSA exclusively reduces the wage protections of people exempted under its rules.

No. It will happen when you stop going to restaurants that underpay their workers. Patronizing those establishments and not tipping is just punishing the worker while rewarding the business. Business owners will not change unless you hit them in the wallet.

Absolutely!

But the people who say "just don't tip" aren't fixing anything.

If anything you should boycott the restaraunt.

This doesn't make sense. If the final check + tips is the cost for the whole service, just include the tip % in the base price and pay proper wages. Margins have nothing to do with this, it's just exploitation, it's offloading the risk of enterprise onto the workers.

You all have been brainwashed.

I don’t know if intentional or not, at the beginning I liked the comics, as they were showing how ironic certain situations are. But the past three ones were not ironic, not funny and just the result of a person who is very naive.

Maybe just the result of being successful, now they force themselves to produce, desperately looking for new things to draw, while forgetting what the core message should be.

I agree. Some US states do just that.

Though for this comic I'm just pointing out how the server is being singled out and shamed without the context of how their labor is compensated in comparison to everyone else in the comic.

they must be retarded if they're working for free as slaves when they clearly could be working for tips.

They're also required to be paid minimum wage in the US by the restaurant if tips don't cover it

Minimum wage being below poverty in the US is, of course, a separate issue

Ahh, they agreed to it! Perfectly acceptable then

This excuse for worker exploitation has always baffled me. 1. The contract was signed under duress: "Take this shitty job or continue to be unemployed." Consent made under duress is not consent. 2. It was agreed to under an extreme power asymmetry: If you refuse the job, your family will have to go hungry, but the company will easily find some other desperate soul to fill the position. 3. I haven't even begun to touch on all the class, racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination that workers face.

There's nothing even close to meaningful or fair negotiation under such conditions.

Not always. There are sales jobs that are 100% commission, but I'm the same way they do have to ensure you are paid a minimum. The person making the exchange is arbitrary.

I dislike tips as much as probably any of us here. I have worked for tips, and distinctly remember how much I wished I could just make a consistent amount that basically came to the average even at a loss of what I was making with them. There were tipped jobs I was working that I made well over some of my first jobs in software engineering even when I worked at fine dining. I still wanted that stability at a loss. Now it's been a few years removed, but my sentiment remains the same. I'm not saying they should be paid $15/hr or something here but this holds for any job; any person should be able to pay the median low end apartment without gov assistance, should be able to save or invest, should be able to afford food, and a second bedroom for a child with only a single full time job. I want that amount as the low bar even if it's through the form of welfare but they should still be able to invest in their futures to some degree. This all of course assuming they are semi competent with finances, but I'm not talking high level.

That made as the assumption yes fuck tip systems and fuck commissions. Why am I including commissions when it's the employer that pays unlike tips? Because of the reason these two are kinda similar both of these jobs incentivize the individual to perform better for higher pay. In theory and practice when averaged together this holds true. It benefits both the company and the individual; at least on paper. This does also leave room to exploit and abuse. Usually this is seen with people in sales who look out for themselves only and will exploit the system even if it costs their peers. For example insurance sales in the US they get some commission or deal as long as the deal is sold. It doesn't matter if that feature they sold it on was non existent or years in the future they made that sale and get the perk of commission at least for a while until they get canned when the customer realizes what happened. Serving tables isn't exactly like this but there are things an individual can be rewarded for that may hurt others if they are unwilling to share certain burdens because it lowers their bottom line like idk filling soy sauce containers after hours. They should be getting paid some higher rate of course but that rate is often much lower than what they make with tips so they may not want to do it.

So I do see a practical reason for tips and commission, but I feel they both are bad for different reasons and should not be expected.

From my original comment:

If we were to improve the whole system for workers in general, I’d want to get rid of tipping, but not until then.

I now live in Germany and people with little training, strength, or desire to risk their health are able to support themselves at all types of jobs, plus they’re able to gain qualifications in their chosen field if they want, to further increase their wages. That just requires reworking the whole system.

The US absolutely could do that, but do you think they’re going to?

To me the issue seems to be that they are blaming the server for asking tips and not the restaurant for not providing a liveable wage to their employees.

Yes, that's my entire issue with this comic. It seems like they're upset about wait staff "demanding" tips for just doing their job, when the real issue is that restaurants don't pay their servers what their job is actually worth. It's often an opinion of people who look down on "unskilled labor" like service industry employees. Fun anecdote: airplane mechanics were considered "unskilled labor" throughout WW2 and into the early Cold War, when the profession was suddenly rebranded as "skilled labor" due to a pressing need for aircraft mechanics with the rising demand from fighter jets and airliners and a lack of people entering the field. There's no such thing as "unskilled labor," just undervalued work.

And my second bit that I always make about the 2 years retail service is that it would either destroy the country or make it a nicer place where people respect each other more, and at this point I don't know which is better.

I mean, I agree with you, but the comic comes off as complaining about wait staff "demanding" tips for doing their job when the other jobs in it don't despite the fact that the waiters get paid a fraction of what the others do and are expected to make up the difference in tips.

It comes off as complaining about the workers being greedy and not the system that abuses them, and that's what I was responding to. It's the kind of opinion frequently held by people who act like "unskilled labor" is a real thing.

The service I got was slow. I come here all the time, so i should know how things should be around here. My waiter sucks, I demand that he be fired.

[Paraphrased, but this is actual feedback I got the day before mothers day, when our dishwasher was broken. And yes, he stiffed me, because of course]

I've also had a father tell his children that "tipping is optional and they should be happy with 5%" after I spent an hour and a half busting ass for his family's ridiculous requests. After taxes and tip out 5% can literally be less than zero into your waiter's pocket, fwiw.

Y'all suck. I assume anyone I see bitching about waitstaff getting tips, or implying they dont tip, is an asshole, because IME those are the complaints of an asshole. Tipping culture in general is a whole other topic that there can be reasoned and nuanced discussions about, but if your take is "tipping sucks and I don't have to," then you are willingly taking advantage of a system that denies people of the fruits of their labor.

You’re every bit the asshole that they are.

You don't even know me, but hey.. whatever.

The fuck... No.

Sure, but it won't be restaurant quality, which is the whole point of going out to eat.

Yeah, customers are literally already paying that amount.

Even if they could there is no bar in the world that is going to pay its staff $50/hr.

None of the down votes are for the opinion that the service industry requires skill. They are because tipping culture is anti-consumer, anti-worker, predatory and just generally terrible, yet the comment is advocating for it because apparently it works for them personally.

Thank you! I think most people commenting here don't understand how the industry works as a whole.