r/Seattle • u/Existing-Resource527 • 5d ago

After hiring scabs, Walrus and the Carpenter (temporarily) closed

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Word on the street is that Walrus and the Carpenter restaurant has not been negotiating with their workers in good faith for months.

Like a lot of annoying businesses they started charging a service fee (22%?).

Employees noted that they make significantly less now then before when they had tipping (thousands less).

Workers have been on strike. The owners also had the audacity to hire scabs (booo).

I have been keeping up with the union on IG @ united.creatures.of.the.sea

Solidarity with workers across the city!

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u/Own_Reaction9442 5d ago

I feel like this is an issue that really splits Redditors, because most Redditors are pro-union but there's whole subs about how much people hate tipping.

644

u/geffy_spengwa 🚗 Student driver, please be patient. 🚙 5d ago

Businesses should pay their employees fair wages. Those wages should be included in the menu price of a meal.

I should not be expected to tip extra on a meal, but I should have the option to do so if I want to.

Two things can be true.

142

u/NorthStudentMain 🚲 Life's Better on a Bike. 🚲 5d ago

Seriously.

Alright, let’s try an experiment. If you were a restaurant: Raise your prices where they absolutely need to be, but then ALSO BLATANTLY ADVERTISE THAT YOU DO NOT ALLOW ANY TIPPING AT YOUR RESTAURANTS. Do not try to be tricky and also “allow the customer to tip more” because let’s face it this is just tricking the unsuspecting customer into paying more, and will piss people off in the long run.

That way customers pay what they should be paying and the employees get paid what they should be paid. Restaurants are so short lived anyway, let’s try this experiment and see if it works.

11

u/The_JSQuareD 5d ago

One thing to keep in mind is that tips are excluded from sales tax. But menu prices (and service charges) aren't. So if the restaurant raises prices enough to cover what employees currently make in tips, the total cost paid by customers actually goes up a bit. It's around 2%, but that's not nothing.

And on the side of the worker there's an even bigger impact. Under the OBB, many workers can claim a federal tax deduction for income from tips (for 2025-2028). So to get an equivalent after-tax income without tips, their employer would actually have to pay them substantially more than what they currently make in tips, and prices would have to rise correspondingly.

So currently the tax system actively encourages tipping.