This is a link to a podcast that I made about the tipping culture in America. It’s
about five minutes long. Listen for as long as you want and I hope you enjoy it.
As a hostess working in a restaurant, I would say I make a pretty good working wage at $15 an hour. On multiple occasions, I’ve heard servers say how little money they made at the end of their shift. Even on busy nights or serving big parties that either barely tipped or didn’t tip at all. Not to mention the servers have to share their portions of the tips with food runners, bartenders, and the busser. As servers, you are dependent on making a living wage from patrons that come and go in a restaurant. As we all know, in America it is standard to tip 20%, however, some patrons feel that they do not have to do so.
I wanted to look at raising the serving wage from three different angles and how it can affect certain groups. For example, how will raising the serving wage to $15 an hour affect the servers, managers of restaurants, and patrons? For servers, tip sharing can affect their lives because they may not make enough money to support themselves or their families. They also have to work long hours just to get by. Often working well over the forty-hour standard. After discussing the tipping issues with some of the servers, who work with me at Yardhouse, most seem to be on board with raising the wages for servers while others caution that higher wages could also mean paying more taxes. That could be one consequence of the policy change. In Pennslyvania alone, the serving wage is higher than $2.13 which is the average serving wage but still lower than the minimum wage. Should restaurants raise the serving wage to $7.25 or keep things how they are? After doing some research there still seems to be an ongoing debate about this issue. Some restaurant managers think raising the service wage will raise costs and eventually lead to job losses. I can see how raising the service wage could affect small businesses because they may not make enough profit if they don’t belong to a big restaurant corporation. I spoke to one manager at my work and she mentioned that all restaurants are different and raising the service wage could affect all food-serving industries individually, however, it would be a good way to recruit new people if they know they are going to receive a higher pay raise.
There have already been eight states that have already raised the serving wage to the minimum wage state standard however, servers do not receive tips Those states include Alaska, Hawaii, California, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Montana. According to the Economic Policy Institute, these states are doing fairly well, and “there has been little to no significant impact of minimum wage increases on employment,” (Economic Policy Institute, 2). Plus restaurants were able to adjust to the additional labor costs. So what does this mean for paying patrons?
One alternative to tipping can be adding service fees or automatic gratuity. This way servers are ensured to receive proper payment from guests and restaurant owners will not have to increase menu prices. Perhaps this could be more beneficial than raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour.