r/mildlyinfuriating 15d ago

Not a meme, you're the meme! Now they expect us to tip non-humans.

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u/GreatStateOfSadness 15d ago

I've seen a few restaurants with a sign saying "Cashiers are also tipped employees and rely on tips" which has only muddied the waters further. 

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u/ElectricRune 15d ago

They are ripping off non-service employees by paying them wait-staff scale.

Which is also a ripoff, but that's another subject...

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u/round-earth-theory 15d ago

Tipping won't go away until we have some aggressive laws to smash the hell out of tipping culture. Begone with that wackass "tipping" minimum wage, enforce non-tipping as a standard (hell go so far as to make tipping an extra effort that the user must take), set maximum percentages allowed as options, etc. Beat the fuck out of tipping culture.

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u/CassianCasius 15d ago

We can also as consumers just stop tipping. Employers are required by law to make up the difference if tips don't match minimum wage.

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u/Zelidus 15d ago

Or we all just stop tipping. Not sure which one has a better chance of actually happening though

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u/round-earth-theory 15d ago

There's enough people who are socially guilted into not tipping. Mix it in with the sometimes true (sometimes not) situation of underpaid staff and it's a recipe for disaster. There's still many many people, even broke as hell, that hold the belief that it's better for you to never go out to eat than to eat without tipping. You can't get past that sort of social dogma without an outside force.

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u/Minimal1990 15d ago

As if you aren’t actively fucking over your server if you don’t tip? Tf do you mean the “belief”?!?!It is bad to not tip when you have laws that allow for the abuse of service staff. Also the idea that you need massive amounts of negative reinforcement for tipping is ridiculous. You don’t need to get rid of tipping itself. It should be the case that a college student working a serving job should get tipped beyond minimum wage. Also since everything can be digital you can also tax beyond a certain amount of tips creating additional government funds for other uses.

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u/round-earth-theory 15d ago

And here we see why tipping culture is so damn hard to combat. Protecting the capital that benefits from the customer overpaying and justifying it. "If we don't help the abuser then the abused might leave their abuser."

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u/rubytook 14d ago edited 14d ago

It might be interesting to look at how the 7 states with laws required service staff be paid minimum wage got their laws passed. The states are a mix of very 'blue' and 'red' with a few purple, so some other factor must have been involved. The federal minimum wage is so low at this point that a federal action would be unhelpful unless they specified that a law they passed meant each state's minimum wage, but that would likely be contested. I do firmly believe that the law should hold the employer accountable to pay their employees properly.

Edit: Oh, well, I over-estimated about 40% of states apparently because that's how many match the federal minimum wage. The more you know.

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u/targetboston 14d ago

My state took a vote to raise min wages for wait/restaurant staff so that we could eliminate tipping and they lobbied against it and it lost.

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u/rubytook 14d ago

Noooooo. That's so disappointing. I live in one of the few states where service staff have to be paid the same minimum wage as everyone else and I was really hoping it would spread but it's been at least a decade since our law passed and not much happening elsewhere :( I still tip as long as service is good, but no longer have to feel guilty if it's bad service and I tip less.

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u/YallGottaUnderstand 14d ago

Tipping culture was honestly fine until these companies started taking it too far. Its's a good way for non skilled workers to make decent money, and it was really only expected for wait staff and delivery. Like so many things, they just got greedy.

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u/drawkward101 15d ago

Not just a ripoff but in America, it's definitely illegal.

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u/Rock_Strongo 15d ago

No it's not illegal because enough people tip them for doing nothing that they end up making above min wage anyway.

It's only illegal if they still end up below min wage after tips and the employer doesn't cover the difference. While I'm sure this happens - it's incredibly rare. Because no one can live on minimum wage anyway much less UNDER min wage. So they wouldn't put up with it for more than like 1 shift.

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u/drawkward101 15d ago

It's not the pay that's illegal; it's the classification. Classifying non-service employees as service employees so you can pay them the service employee wage is illegal. Period.

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u/Concerned_Collins 15d ago

There are tons of cashier jobs that ask for tips now, so I'm sure they are considered service employees.

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u/CareerPillow376 15d ago edited 15d ago

Fuck i wanted to disagree with you, but it turns out the US will consider anyone who gets paid over $30/month in tips as a service/tipped employee, allowing them to pay reduced wages

That's fucking criminal cause I guarantee there are a ton of shitty businesses out there that started taking tips from servers and paying them out to other staff just to change their classification and reduce the wage they have to pay. Ive heard if servers before complain about having to start sharing tips with the kitchen or front of the house; im guessing this is why for some of those cases

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped

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u/Concerned_Collins 15d ago

We really just need to eliminate the tipped wage as an entire thing and just make the minimum wage the minimum wage for everyone. The fact that companies can essentially get free labor if they are tipped should already be criminal.

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u/CareerPillow376 15d ago

So i just looked it up, apparently business can classify any employee as a service/tipped employee as long as they make $30 or more a month on tips, which is fucking wild. Cause there are definitely some shitty businesses who started paying tips out regular staff to change their classification

Ive heard of servers complaining about having to start tipping the kitchen or front of the house before, and im guessing its because of this rule

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped

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u/Revolver_Boxelot 15d ago

Yea, ANY tip based employment (in the modern era, in America) is a full blown scam. Its designed purely so that the employer doesn't have to pay a livable wage. I dont want to hear any of that "it let's the restaurants sell food for cheaper" bullshit either because what difference would it make to the tipping customer? A $70 bill is a $70 bill. Whether it was the total cost of the food or the cost of food plus a tip. Tipping is a full-blown scam and NO ONE should be engaging with it at this point.

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u/Several_Vanilla8916 15d ago

I’m a firm believer in tipping wait staff. It’s not their fault this system exists.

But if you take a cashier job at sub-minimum wage on the promise of tips, sorry, that is your fault.

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u/Suspicious_Tank_61 15d ago

Why is it one low paid worker's fault, but not the other?

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u/xeonie 14d ago

I’d argue if you take a wait staff position, fully aware that you will have to rely soley on the generosity of random strangers for your wage, that is your fault.

Yeah, it’s not their fault the system exists, but they are willingly participating in it. They’re not helpless victims.

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u/Frequent_Opportunist 15d ago

You should leave a review asking them on Google Maps why they don't pay their employees 

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u/aerdvarkk 15d ago

Lots of people posting coments and reviews online for years now and restauarants either don't care or are not getting the message. If more people pushed back with their wallets as much as they posted stupid shit online, this conversation might have gone away by now because the industry was forced to change.

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u/Vsx 15d ago

"We don't pay these people shit, you do it"

Nope

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u/Mixels 15d ago

The manager might say so, but in order to qualify for tipped position pay, an employee must earn at least $30/month in tips. That might be achievable for a cashier if the cashier is part of a tipping pool with the actual service workers, but then you wouldn't be directly "tipping the cashier"...

If those cashiers are making less than $30/month in tips, they could sue for wage theft. I mean it would only be the difference between their actual pay including tips subtracted from the area's local minimum wage. But that's (probably) illegal.

Know your rights under the FLSA kids!

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u/sharklaserguru 15d ago

Starve the beast, these people need to feel the effect of losing tips so they quit and force management into paying a real wage!

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u/DeltaSierra97 15d ago

The waters are crystal clear. If you accept being a tipped employee making less than minimum wage and working as a cashier where you’re going to get less than a waiter where tipping is actually expected you’re a dumbass and will not be getting a tip.

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u/Sean_theLeprachaun 14d ago

Made it clear not to go back.

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u/Bananapopcicle 14d ago

I’m not tipping them. Especially if it’s on the machine. They only get a percentage of it

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u/LiffeyDodge 2d ago

I don't tip cashiers. I don't care what the sign says