Why are customers responsible for paying the wages for restaurant employees?

Question

i dont understand this whole concept. i'm not only talking about restaurants, i'm talking about any place we go where you pay first for whatever product or service you're getting, then on top of what you just paid for, you also have to pay tip to whoever served/helped you. don't get me wrong, anytime i go to a restaurant, i pay at least 15% min, usually 20%, whether the service was good or not.

let's say i go to bennigans, i order food and the bill is $100. then i pay another $20 for tip to pay the server who is employed BY bennigans. i just spend $100 to bennigans and now i have to spend antoher $20 to pay for their employee? i don't understand why bennigans only pays them $2/hr and then the customer is pretty much responsible for deciding whether they have a good day or not. the whole tipping concept doesn't make sense to me.

same thing as hair salon, i pay $20 for a haircut, then i have to tip her $4. why doesn't the employer just pay them with the $20 i just paid.

another example is getting your car washed at a full service car wash. so i just paid $20 to get my car washed and then on the way out, there is a box for tips. i'm thinking to myself, i just paid you guys frickin $20 to wash a damn car and now they want us to tip to contribute to the employees? i just feel that that's their responsibility, not mine.

where is it going to stop then? next time i go shopping, i'm going to be in banana republic, find a nice shirt that i pay $70 for, and then i'm going to have to tip the guy who helped me find the shirt $14 for helping me find a shirt i like.

i just feel that if i go to a restaurant and i'm already spending that much money anyways, i shouldn't have to be troubled to pay additional to pay for their employees wages.

MAYBE I SHOULDN'T HAVE USED RESTAURANT AS AN EXAMPLE. I THINK A BETTER EXAMPLE IS VALET PARKING. I'M ALREADY PAYING THE VALET COMPANY FOR THE PARKING. IT'S NOT LIKE HE'S GIVING ME GOOD SERVICE. AND IT SHOULDN'T BE THAT IF I DONT TIP HIM, THEN HE MIGHT MESS UP MY CAR. IT SHOULD BE PART OF THE ORIGINAL SERVICE AND FEE THAT I'M PAYING.

Answer 1

I totally agree!! These people are working and it is their employer's responsibility to pay them a good wage. I have always thought that and I even had a college professor make a big issue out of this.
It will continue to be this way, until people stop tipping and until people are paid what they are worth by their employer.
I feel compelled to tip and I hate to feel compelled to tip for service, good or bad, because it is expensive enough already. But I feel bad if I don't. It is such a shame that people have to rely on tips and that customers have to think that it is their duty to tip to give someone a compliment or help them financially. I am a teacher and I have never had anyone tip me for anything. I get a slight increase yearly in pay, but the most parents do is to help their child learn and maybe send in some tissues or snacks for the classroom.
Then I have to live on my paycheck and tip others my hard earned money and try to live on what is left.
I always tip too, but I hate to feel like I have to do it. It is no longer seen as just a courtesy. It is expected. That is not right.

Answer 2

It's part of the whole economic mind game that they play on us daily. Like the way prices are 29.99 not 30.00 and sales tax (in the U.S.) is added on after. Your Bennigan's example means that when you're ordering, you perceive your costs as $100 when it's actually $120.

It also puts any financial risk onto the employee. The company is guaranteed their share, but the employees are most likely to be the ones who lose out if something goes wrong -- even if it's not their fault -- and the customers get to act on their frustrations without harming the corporate profits. (Supermarkets do this big time with their suppliers; the farmers wind up absorbing all of the losses for low demand, really twisted practices.) And the employees have to hustle to make sure that they can afford to pay their rent at the end of the month. That's not to say that they would be lazy otherwise, but that the restaurant forces them to work extra hard. (Have you ever been a waitress/er? It's exhausting.)

Third trick is that they know that some of us will tip well because we have some sympathy for the staff. What a bonus for the restaurant, we're actually paying more because they treat their staff poorly?

Tipping practices are different in Europe, the extra for the service is included in the bill in many countries. Which just proves that it can work just fine with a different way of doing things.

Answer 3

I think you are looking at the issue from the wrong perspective. Think of it from the server's eyes. They have the opportunity to make more money getting tips than just what Bennigan's pays them. All they have to do is work hard and they're doing better than Bennigan's could ever afford to pay them. You only pay based on the quality of service. That is the point of tipping.

If the restaurant were not to function based on tips, they would have to charge you more for the food in order to pay the servers minimum wage. Then, the servers would also not be motivated to provide high quality service. You would be paying more and getting worse service.

Answer 4

Yeah probable. I were to the U. S. earlier. I went to Guam, a US territory 3 hours through jet from Tokyo. the U. S. have strict regulations on tipping. once you stay at a motel in Guam, you at the prompt are not allowed to recent the top out of your palms to the recipients palms, the top is a compulsary cost which will go with the help of the bill and also you'll be able to be certain it on there. US tipping is a spread of a products and amenities Tax. In Australia, that's stated as the GST.

Answer 5

If you didn't have to pay a tip, then a burger would cost $15 to cover server wages. Do you want a $7 burger and then tip accordingly for great service? Or do you want a $15 burger and get crappy service because the server does not care if you get a hot or cold, dry burger?

Answer 6

If the tip wasn't included, your haircut would cost $24.

Every business relies on customers to pay workers' wages. A person who puts the caramel swirl in ice cream all day wouldn't have their job if it weren't for people who liked caramel swirl in ice cream, you know?

That said, a person who works really directly with the public, like a waiter or hairdresser, is paid in tips as a motivator for them to do a good job. If your haircut's choppy as hell, you don't tip, right? So they're inclined to pay attention to you, in hopes that you'll tip well. Same with the food server.

Answer 7

Notice you don't have to tip at McDonald's?
And who said you HAD to tip? Try it a few times and see what happens.
There are a few sleazy places that can legally pay their employees about half minimum wage BECAUSE they get tips.
Do you wanna put food in your mouth handled by people who would then be the lowest rank of the service class?

Answer 8

I guess I just look at it as were paying for convience. I mean if you don't want to pay a tip or whatever you will cut your hair yourself or you will go the resturant like Mcdonalds. Sometimes we just have to pay for convience.

Answer 9

It is a good question. Here is the rule i follow. I don't tip unless i get satisfactory service.