Hard no. We need to avoid shopping with any store that pressures us to leave a tip on a simple merchandise purchase. Tipping expectations are already out of control in the U.S.
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Unionized Maryland Apple Store Workers Request 10% Raise and Option to Accept Customer Tips
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Speaking as someone who worked in hospitality for many years, I couldn’t have survived without tips. At the same time, the jobs that should receive tips make less than the hourly minimum wage and could not realistically make ends meet without tipping. If you don’t tip the staff on cruise ships (who make just a couple dollars an hour) you’re a monster.
I said all that to display there is a sharp contrast between positions that probably should receive tips, and this. Me personally, I won’t ever providing tips to Apple Store employees. Should they be permitted to give customers the option to tip? Sure, but I really don’t see it going over well with people.
I said all that to display there is a sharp contrast between positions that probably should receive tips, and this. Me personally, I won’t ever providing tips to Apple Store employees. Should they be permitted to give customers the option to tip? Sure, but I really don’t see it going over well with people.
Yes and no. You make a great point, but if you don’t make enough in tips to meet federal minimum wage, then the employer must make up the difference. Straight from
Department of Labor:
“If the employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage”…
It would definitely still be a pay decrease compared to what they make now, should that nightmare scenario come to pass.
Perhaps if these positions didn't pay tips, people wouldn't stay in them for years.
The bottom line is this. If people just stopped the damned tipping, businesses that rely on it would either pay their staff more or go out of business. I'm fine with either outcome.
I worked as a server, and bartender for almost 10 years. Don’t be sorry, you are spot on in everything you said.
If I'm a monster because I refuse to subsidize what an employer should pay their employees but isn't, to an employee who chose that position willingly, then I am happy to be a monster!
Even tipping at restaurants is ridiculous, but unfortunately we're already grandfathered in to that obligation.
And if people just stopped paying tips to full service employees, those employees would be tue ones hurt the most, not the businesses. Also, many restaurants operate on the slimmest of margins. I bet there is a place you love to eat at and that you would be surprised to see how little profit they make.
That said, I know many service industries around the world don’t tip because they pay better livable wages, but those countries also often have better social programs like government health care. I do think it would be a net positive to pay full service employees a living wage instead or relying on tips, but it’s definitely not as simple as turning of the tap to those who stand to lose the most.
Asking for tips should be illegal. I pay $4 per cookie at Crumbl, and they have the nerve to shove a "How much would you like to tip?" screen in my face before they'll let me move on. More and more places have started doing this, probably because the pressure of having the person staring you in the face as you tap "None" is too much for some people so they go ahead and tip the minimum, which is usually 10% or more.
My cruise ship example… for many of those people, that is the best option of a job from where they are from. They may have had a choice between that, or collecting palm oil, or something similar.
Cruise Companies get away with paying low wages and having lax standards in general (but not always) because they often officially register in countries with very weak labor laws.
I was being hyperbolic when I made my monster comment. Really, not tipping these kinds of workers often comes from just not knowing.
But if you don’t tip someone who just waited on you hand and foot knowing they are getting paid approx $2 an hour, well that certainly says something about your character. Not everyone has many options of where to work, or when opportunity presents itself.
Every major change has a temporary fallout. If I had to lose my $2.17/hr job to eradicate tipping, I'd be more than willing to do it.
I’m saying, there is a way to phase out gradually, minimizing the impact to workers, rather than shoving them out of the plane without a parachute.
Yes, strange isn't it. And for other products it's expected to haggle....
I like to look them right in the eye and smile as I hit "no tip". Kind of makes a point.
I don't care how much profit a business makes, if I don't have a stake in it. Not my business, not my problem. If they can't make it, they SHOULD go out of business.
Here's the thing...suppose for the sake of argument, a table ticket is $100. Further suppose that the "expected tip" is $20. A customer who is going to go for that can just as well go for $120 table ticket with NO TIP. Same money either way. Business can give the $20 to the staff. Doesn't reduce profits at all. Just advertise the actual damned price and stop all the games. No tips. No fees. No service charges. The price on the menu is what you pay.
Note, I realize that now the business has to pay the employer share of FICA taxes. That's fine. Adjust the price of the offerings to account for that. Customer will still pay and it still won't cost the business anything. What WILL change is we can ensure everyone pays their taxes, and a this horse crap surrounding tipping comes to a much needed end.
Or, the good tippers can keep "subsidizing" the poor tippers. Fine with me!
Exactly my point, but I also think it should be illegal to ask for tips in full service situations. If they aren't going to be up front about the actual cost of what I'm getting, then that's on them. And if they can't afford to pay their people living wage, then they shouldn't be in business. Cruises are fun, but no one is going to die without them.
Tipping is just a clever way for business owners to avoid paying their employees a fair and honest wage. Corporations using this is just plain shameful.
I might understand if you are a mom-and-pop shop but still, the problem again is putting pressure on customers to make things right. Overseas, we barely see this, usually only in hospitality places.
I might understand if you are a mom-and-pop shop but still, the problem again is putting pressure on customers to make things right. Overseas, we barely see this, usually only in hospitality places.
I'm already tipping the government when I purchase things, why should we also tip the employee? Can you imagine buying a tricked out MacBook Pro for $3000 and having to give the employee 3% tip, for doing his job that Apple pays him to do? They should outlaw tipping.
Made a comment here and provide great support for others. I would like the mods to institute a tipping button for me please /s
Buah ha ha ha, if only I could get a tricked out MBP for $3000! I just priced the 14" version tricked out, and it was $6299 without any additional software. But I get your point none the less. 😁
Apple needs to close down the Union store. It's just getting absurd now.
Not at all. But if the employer can plant a seed with the union (e.g. - "maybe we could add tips into the deal..."), then they can get the union to acquiesce on some other material demand, resulting in the corporation coming out ahead. It's the same tactic corporations use with service workers..."Here's how much you can expect to make: salary + tips = something barely livable!". They condition the workers to view tips as an expected part of their total compensation.
FYI UnionPeeps: Automated Kiosks don't have such demands.
Go into a McDonalds or Taco Bell these days. They have a LOT less employees hanging around than they did a few years ago.
They both have kiosks now too.
Apple Stores seem to have a lot of employees....most of whom seem to spend a lot of time talking to people. I can see that changing.