Comment on McDonald's criticizes US restaurant industry for uneven wage policies
Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
I hate to ever agree with McDonald’s on anything, but…
Kempczinski also noted that in many states, sit-down restaurants are allowed to pay servers as little as $2.13 per hour, a federal minimum set in 1991, with tips making up the rest of their pay.
FFS. Burn the restaurant industry down if this is how they’re doing it.
Anyone who patronizes a place like that should know how workers are paid, and then not go there again.
Honestly Im for it.
I worked as a bus boy, trying to become a server in college. Much of my job was cleaning up and bringing out food, doing whatever the server was doing except taking orders. Never did get to work as a server.
And I got paid min wage with the expectations that I get tipped out by servers. And often, they’d get $500 a night and hand me a $5.
This is so bavkwards to me. I’d rather work somewhere where the patron can buy my labor directly, without the capital class taking a cut.
You’d rather pay the owner $20 so she can pay me $15 than pay me $20 directly, and you think that’s better for the workers?
Because restaurant patrons pay the wages of workers no matter what. The only question is whether the owners take a cut first or not. I’d prefer not, but what do I know? I’m just a career waitress.
I’d rather work somewhere where the patron can buy my labor directly
Ma’am, nobody should be paying a 30% tip for someone to pour a drink, or walk an order up to your table, simply because the employer isn’t paying a fair wage.
Restaurants should pay people like every other business, and kill tipping culture.
But what I do know? I’m just the customer who decides where my money goes.
It’s appreciable to want to be compensated directly, however that means not all servers are compensated equally for their time. Instead of a division between labour and ownership, tipping allows division to fester between labourers.
A few places in my area have removed gratuities and raised staff compensation, and the workers there enjoy not only feeling on par with their coworkers, but also the stability of having a consistent and predictable income.
That said, it’s understandable why changing the gratuity policy might seem offensive if your example of wait staff pocketing 75% of the revenue is anywhere close to accurate. I wouldn’t want it changed either.
fartographer@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Just an fyi, $2.13 isn’t all people get paid in food service industries. It’s part of something called “tip credit.” The national or state minimum wage remains the absolute minimum. What this means is that your tips supplement the restaurant’s duties to pay you minimum wage.
If you make at least minimum wage at the end of your pay period, factoring in tips, then the restaurant doesn’t have to pay you more. If you make less with your tips, the restaurant is financially responsible to make you whole.
This is one of the reasons that tip-pooling should be illegal as well.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 13 hours ago
It also needs to be pointed out this is a legal requirement, but it doesn’t always happen. If they don’t make up this difference it’s one form of wage theft, the most common form of theft in the US.
woodytrombone@lemmy.world 1 day ago
If you make less with your tips, the restaurant
is financially responsible to make you whole.fires you the next week, in practice.Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Of course, but we all know that tipping is used pretty much everywhere to make up for poor wages. The vast majority of the industry does this, and it should be dismantled and rebuilt, so people are treated (and paid) as people!
fartographer@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
As an ex service employee who had tips split and didn’t know about tip credit yet, I know that the options are to either get paid as a person, or treated as a person. The number of people who told me that they didn’t “do tips” but were willing to give me a high five as a substitute was as understandable as it was upsetting.
Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 20 hours ago
I’m sorry you went through that. The entire pay model is crap. The industry needs to scrap it and start over. It’s unbelievable, actually.
The good thing is, there are plenty of examples around the world (outside of North America) where service workers are treated and paid like people!