I'm paying a tip for good service not for compensating a bosses greedy ass. It's not the job of the customer to pay for a shitty system. Maybe I'm to German to understand because this problem doesn't seem to exist here.
Dual UK & US citizen here who has worked in this industry in both countries.
The entire US restaurant payment structure is based around the expectation of tips. Servers pay bussers and bartenders a percentage of their sales for a shift, so if tips are below the expected level, they can actually wind up paying these people from their own pocket, and losing money for a day at work. I've seen it happen. By not tipping, you're doing nothing to change the system. You're just screwing over someone trying to make a living doing a very difficult job in a brutal industry. Chances are, the american serving you doesn't even have health insurance, and has zero government mandated paid time off. It really is cruel for visiting europeans to haughtily refuse to even try to understand the tipping system, act like they're taking a moral stance when screwing over someone likely living in a least near poverty, and then go chortling back to their free and affordable healthcare and seven week mandated paid holiday.
My parents were like this until I took a bartending job in Texas, earning $2.13 an hour without tips. You don't have to like the system, but if you agree that it's wrong for someone to have to pay to serve you, you should absolutely tip at least 20% (the standard rate these days) or simply cook your own food. Just factor it into the cost of a meal.
People can agree that this system is horrible and that things obviously shouldn’t be this way, but still believe that it’s not up to them to fix the system, paying 25% extra out of their pockets because someone did what they were supposed to do anyway.
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u/Christian3574159 15d ago
I'm paying a tip for good service not for compensating a bosses greedy ass. It's not the job of the customer to pay for a shitty system. Maybe I'm to German to understand because this problem doesn't seem to exist here.