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Proposed Tip-Pooling Law is So Bad for Workers the Government Hid Data on It

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:16PM   
from the no-tipping-allowed dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow9228

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

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Original Submission

• Re:Non-tippersRe:Non-tippers (Score: 4, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Tuesday February 06 2018, @04:21PM (1 child)

  by Grishnakh (2831) on Tuesday February 06 2018, @04:21PM (#633918)

  Now explain to me how your money going into the employer's hands, getting a big chunk skimmed off of it, and then going to the staff is better than it going directly from you to the staff.

  I'm not sure on the particulars of this new regulation, but the employer skimming tips isn't OK in any way. I don't know how anyone could defend that unless they were some sociopathic restaurant owner.

  However, there is a valid argument for tip-sharing in restaurants: the front-of-house employees get much better pay, generally, than the back-of-house employees. The servers get less than minimum wage, but they can get WAY over it at a good restaurant with tips. However, you're not just paying for good service from the waiter, your experience is greatly affected by the food from the kitchen, and maybe also how clean the table is (which is done by the busser, not the waiter), and even the person who delivers your food (who is someone other than the waiter in many places). So when you get shitty food, many people leave a poor tip, but it's not the waiter's fault, it's the cook's, but the waiter suffers for it. And when the food is fantastic, the waiter gets a big tip, but the cook gets nothing extra, just the minimum wage or slightly more that he normally gets. Tip-pooling is supposed to help with this by sharing the tips with the other workers in the chain (but not the owner!!).

  Really, the whole system is broken. We need to just copy Europe (as with many things) and eliminate tipping, and have employees paid proper wages. Then, if a place is great, you go back, leave a good review, etc., and if a place is lousy, you complain, leave a bad review, don't go back, etc.

  Also, this tip-pooling isn't new I think: notice that at most (non-Starbucks) coffee shops, and many counter-order restaurants, you don't give a tip to your server or barista, but instead they have a jar on the counter you can put tips into, which presumably are then shared by all the workers.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
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  Interesting=2, Total=2
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
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  Total Score:		4

• Re:Non-tippers(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday February 12 2018, @11:48AM

  by TheRaven (270) on Monday February 12 2018, @11:48AM (#636646) Journal

  Note that in some states in the US (New York comes to mind, but there are quite a lot of others) it is illegal to share tips with back-of-house staff. This has led to a shortage of qualified chefs in New York, because it requires (comparatively expensive) training to become a chef, but not to become a waiter, and the pay is better as a waiter. Why spend time and money to take a qualification if it will only ever give you a lower-paying job?

  --
  sudo mod me up

  Parent