Submitted by jaydecay123 t3_11xiv7k in Connecticut
Connecticut is one of 13 states considering applying the minimum wage to restaurants, ending a special status that reaches back to the origins of the federal minimum wage in 1938. Seven states have ended their sub-minimum wage.
Should Connecticut raise servers' wages? - vote here https://connecticut.news12.com/ctdailypoll
Yes, and then get rid of tipping.
A better question would be will the economic impact of raising servers wages in terms of beneficial personal spending, reduced government transfer payments, increased tax revenue, etc. be better than the increased restaurant menu prices, the corresponding decreased demand for restaurants, the decreased/eliminated restaurant profitability, the decreased tax revenue, the costs to landlords of vacant locations, etc.
Sure, it would be great to raise wages. Minimum wages interfere with market forces. If you artificially set wages, you will keep capital out of markets because they won't get a sufficient return. Similarly, if wages were allowed to fall, all things being equal as no other market regulation, prices would have to fall because demand would fall as consumers wouldn't have enough to buy. It isn't always pretty on a day to day level but eventually the market corrects. Pervasive regulation prevents these mild and gradual market corrections. Every now and again, the market forces overwhelm government's efforts to regulate - see housing bubble, etc.
Where's the free market of supply and demand? Every time I go to a restaurant now the service is so slow because they can't find employees. Then raise the wage. If you raise it enough I'll quit my job and go work at the restaurant.
Everyone should get a raise, unfortunately that's not how supply and demand works whatsoever.
Do we decrease tip from 20% to 15 or 10 if the minimum wage goes up
Currently, 76% say yes.
When tips are factored in most of these people are making well over minimum wage, your plan would cost them
Terrible idea
I made more money on weekends serving in CT than working anywhere else full time. People here are great tippers. Serving is hard but the money is worth it. Servers should always be tipped workers. It’s a big part of American restaurant culture.
Auto 18% for tables over 3 people, state wide.
Why do you want servers to earn less? Are you that selfish?
I know I sound like a corporate drone by saying this, but profit margins in most restaurants are not booming and wages can't be raised much.
People claim they are willing to pay 25+ dollars for a burger if the restaurant staff is paid well, but most restaurant owners don't want to take that gamble.
In non-food/hospitality industries, it is often just corporate greed. So don't take my statements as me defending CEOs being greedy. And every restaurant type is different. For example, a Subway franchisee owner is just hoping not to lose his shirt (John Oliver does an excellent breakdown on franchising restaurants and how shitty it is)
Yes. No one should be making less than minimum wage.
Sounds like an unsustainable business model if you can't pay employees a living wage.
If you're asking this question, you don't tip 20%
More government interfering with free market economics, and the outcome is predictable. Many of these restaurants barely survived Covid and now they are going to see their expenses go up, they will have to increase prices, and many consumers will choose to just stay home.
Pay more and get rid of tipping. Tipping jumped the shark when tip jars were first place at counters for walk in.
This will put restaurants in a position to raise the cost of their goods. The only people who will benefit will be the servers as they will get minimum wage, and expect at least 20% on now a more expensive check average.
That's a nice quip and all, but its been functioning just fine for generations now.
Servers get paid WAYYYYY more than whatever wage you think would be good for them under the current system.
Dont do this, in seattle they get paid like $17-20 an hour and sometimes more and pass the cost onto the consumer making you pay 20% tips. I have stopped going out entirely, tips will not go down. Sometimes i wonder if companies just pocket this tip money or increased wage costs
Do away with them altogether.
> Every time I go to a restaurant now the service is so slow
Yet we're still expected to tip
Safe to say you likely don't own a business.
But no more tips
I'd like to see a minimum guaranteed payment for servers. If wage plus tip income is less than minimum wage, the business makes up the difference. In addition to providing some assurance to servers, this would maintain an incentive for servers to go above and beyond.
By all means, raise their wages so we can tip less.
That's how it is currently. You get server wage, plus tips. If there's no customers and you don't get tips to make up the difference you get paid min wage instead.
No more tips? Doesn’t work that way in any other state that has equalized minimum wage.
good burgers are already $15-20 at sit-down restaurants
yes, but it fluctuates wildly depending on weather, economy, and either way it still comes from how much the customer is willing to pay. I'd gladly pay more for food so servers and other tipped staff can earn a living wage and have tipping optional for really exceptional service like most other countries.
I already pretty much end up tipping 25% at a regular restaurant Unless the server is a complete tool, and 15% at a counter restaurant, so I really don't have an issue with this. It might bring me back down to twenty percent for a table server. In the end it's just a shell game for me.
Yes
I agree with whatever the waitresses or waiters want. So long as they understand that this will effect tip culture. My sister is working at Chilis and does very well tip wise, well over hourly minimum wage.
I'm gonna be honest...15-20 bucks for a burger is what I'm paying anyways.
Edit: Out of curiosity I looked up Red fuckin Robin. Burgers range from $13 - $17. The average is $15 and change.
They’re not. It’s made up in tips and if tips don’t make up for it, the restaurant is required to pay them additionally up to minimum wage.
This is the way.
How about we pay them a livable wage and do away with tipping? My European friends love it
Yeah but the restaurants don’t always follow that, even if required by law
I won't contribute to it. I'm not paying more for food and more for the person to hand it to me. I've just stopped eating out altogether for the most part.
Precisely why servers fight tooth and nail to keep the tipping system. It ain't about a "fair wage": it's about greed.
Raise prices/wages and abolish tipping IMO.
I wonder what percentage of people working in restaurants are doing so under the table or ineligible for employment?
What we all have to ask ourselves is which system maximizes the take home pay for servers? If you go to minimum wage they will make 30,800 a year if they work 40 hours a week X 52 weeks. I would think with tipping they make a lot more and can work a lot less hours. It would be interesting to see this piloted across the spectrum of different restaurant establishments and see how the servers like it. I know servers who make between $ 200-400 a night with tips and only work 6 hours. I think they would quit if they were being paid $15/hr and then had taxes taken out of that. But if you pay minimum then tipping will have to go away because most will not be able to afford to dine out. I say this based on recent data we’re it said over 40% of the population was working paycheck to paycheck.
Their wages should not include the tips they make alongside it. Tips should be on top of minimum wage
If they are getting minimum wage then tipping goes away. A large chunk of the population will no longer be able to afford to dine out.
Quite the opposite. We should eliminate the minimum wage. This will increase competition. Because really, there’s no such thing as “making money”. Nobody makes money. They take money. Because whenever you get it is has to come out of somebody else’s pocket. Every morning, the barista TAKES five of my dollars for my coffee. And every morning I TAKE seven of her dollars out of the tip jar while she makes it. We’re both entrepreneurs, but in this case, I’m the better one.
When I go out to eat, I always tip 20%, but I rarely go out to eat anymore unless it is a social event. Can't afford it anymore.
In theory that’s how it should work. In practice the business owner rarely does the work to assure workers are paid minimum wage if their tips don’t cover it.
they don't want to listen to that, just want to say yes so they feel better about themselves. Every waitress I know would much rather have the current system because tips are often much higher than minimum wage. The only issue is non peak days/times
Is wanting more than minimum wage for a really hard job really greed?
For low-skilled work? Yeah, it is.
Yes!!!!!!
Well they're making more than minimum wage currently, and there's a labor shortage which means nobody wants to do that job, so the laws of supply and demand say you're wrong
Get takeout or cook at home, your choice. Dining in…anywhere in the US…means you tip.
Yeah. Because people keep donating to them via charity aka tipping.
Folks realize it's kind of a shitty job, not a career. Can't be replaced by robots soon enough IMO.
Equalizing the minimum wage hasn’t impacted tip culture in any other state.
Raising the tipped minimum wage does not mean people stop tipping. It just means a higher base wage for the waiter at those places currently paying $6.38/hour.
Tipping will not “go away because people will not be able to afford it.” Some establishments already choose to pay the full $14/hour as they realize waiters have side jobs and properly compensate for them. There’s no difference in the tipping percentage.
Then theres no reason change anything. The point is to get rid of tipping all together. Similar to other countries. If you are paid a fair hourly wage I cant see any reason to tip you.
If they eliminate tipping they'll have to pay an equivalent salary or lose everyone which means you're paying the same anyway.
Idc if it's a career I know I wouldn't wait tables for minimum wage that's for sure
I'm fine with that. I'd rather the price be upfront and transparent instead of this shitty guilt-laden tipping system.
No, if I get exceptional service I tip
I'm for that, but this is not a scientific poll. It is not a random sample of CT residents.
Why can't they get minimum wage and tips?
I give 20% tips even of mistakes are made. Because the person is working for a living and not on the welfare dole. They are probably getting more profit than the restaurant. No overhead, no liability, no payroll taxes, no rent. Leave it alone CT. Don’t muck it all up. Remember, generational welfare was created by good intentions.
Doesn’t matter, I stopped eating out regardless.
Between Food Inflation, Doordash Inflation, and Uber Eats Inflation, I just got tired of seeing the shit on my credit card.
If you don’t make enough money to pay someone $14hr your food isn’t that good. If you can’t afford to go out maybe you need to ask your employer for more than minimum wage.
The non peak times are just cushion for the weekends. I would clear $1000 from Thursday to Sunday easy. Even on slow weeknights in Milford I would make atleast $100. That’s not the amount of money it used to be but it’s better than being a desk jockey and I liked socializing with customers. It’s the least oppressive job, imo. If you don’t like a restaurant or their management you can move on to the next within a weeks training. Power to the people. Lol
They can. But a lot of people today treat tipping like it should be mandatory and get pissy if they don’t get tipped.
Raise their minimum and I’ll drop from 20% back to 15%
I'm not arguing they shouldn't. I'm arguing if they had to work for minimum wage and no tips it would be a large pay cut.
Most of the world doesn’t have a tipping culture.
Ok. That has nothing to do with the comment I replied to. They said no one should make less than minimum wage. It’s just a fact that servers don’t make less than minimum wage.
Some of you do not pass the vibe check, smh. A lot of excuse to not pay people a consistent living wage. The key word is CONSISTENT. So much affects how much you are tipped that you cannot control. I’d rather have a consistent stream of income than a boom and bust cycle I cannot reliably predict. The individual cannot be held accountable on the good-will or lack thereof, unfortunately people are shitty and nothing can ever change that, so the system around it must change to acquire equity.
Tipping is retarded to begin with.
If I go out with my friends and we get 4 burgers instead of 4 steaks, the server gets less than half the tip for the same amount of work simply because of what we ordered.
Server wages should be raised to be somewhat commensurate to an average if what is typical after including tips, and then tipping should be fully abolished. Tipping is a perverse system that puts undue social pressure/burden on patrons and servers. It also makes it very difficult for servers to qualify for loans (cars, homes, etc.), since they don't have verifiable income, which this would solve.
Seeing enormous food prices will dissuade people from eating out and tank the industry. If we're to get rid of tipping, which I'm (mostly) in favor of, they should add labor costs to the bill. And I agree with it being optional, despite it being people's jobs, some do really go an extra mile for you and it would be nice for them to reap an unexpected reward.
I’m pretty sure that’s due to inflation and not getting even minimum wage from their employer.
[deleted]
Really? This was going on before the seventies?
That's what I'm saying, to put the labor costs in the cost of the food.
No
Servers make a liveable wage being tipped 20% in nice establishments. If you go down to minimum wage it’ll ruin the entire job. You’d have to work 40 hour work weeks to make half what you used to make in 15-25 hours. People will just stop doing the job and do something else, all service will be bad for the most part because it won’t make a difference wether you work hard or not. mom and pop shops will suffer more and only the chains / well off places will thrive. People say owners are greedy for not paying servers enough but the servers make their own money same way a realtor gets a commission off a house sale.
The income is only not verifiable if they don't claim it on their taxes.
You should try talking to people who work in the industry & get their opinion.
The income is not considered applicable for larger loans, which was the intent of my comment. My apologies for the incorrect semantics.
I'm not sure what would change then. If the law already states that servers have to make Min wage, but people aren't following it, a law that says the same thing doesn't change anything. What needs to be changed is people learning workers' rights in high school. I've taught plenty of high schoolers working their first job to stand up for themselves and know their rights.
red_purple_red t1_jd382hu wrote
Inflation is out of control, now is the time to tighten our belts, not throw money at every problem.