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Back in December, we reported on the Trump administration's proposed changes to tip-pooling regulations that would allow employers to pocket servers' tips as long as the employees continue to make minimum wage. That's right: Employers could take servers' tips and just dole out the minimum wage. But wait, it gets worse!
Turns out, the Department Of Labor knew how crappy this would make life for restaurant employees. This Bloomberg Law article, citing sources within the agency, reveals that the Department Of Labor knowingly buried its own data that showed restaurant workers would lose billions of dollars in gratuities under the new proposal.
Source: https://thetakeout.com/proposed-tip-pooling-law-is-so-bad-for-workers-the-gove-1822664111
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday February 06 2018, @05:12PM
I agree completely. I have no problem with people who are genuinely moved to tip because someone went "above and beyond."
But the expected tip creates an even worse issue: the implicit threat. If you don't tip 15% or whatever, it's effectively perceived as a punishment. But if you truly receive service that's poor enough that you want to punish your server, isn't that a time to complain to the management? Often people punish their servers this way for stuff that's beyond the control of the server too. It becomes the default feedback mechanism to the restaurant for some people.
I have no problem with the policy in many countries where tips aren't expected beyond maybe a little "keep the change" (literally, just change), but are welcome for particularly good service. I have a greater issue with the idea that a customer effectively takes away an expected part of the salary if they don't tip at the expected level. That should be a decision left to a manager if the employee is performing poorly enough to get a reduction in pay. (And, frankly, it's better for the business overall for management to be aware of significant or recurrent problems in their service, rather than just hoping the tip system will sort it out.)