Why Are We Still Tipping?

Charge more. Pay fairly. Get rid of the tip line.

This week I had dinner outdoors at a restaurant with my in-laws for the first time in a year. Sadly though, and great company aside, the dining experience was exactly what I remember from pre-COVID days. The food was fine, but the menu was identical to the last time I ate there a bit over a year ago, days before all of Michigan closed down for the first time.

The service was curt. The wine list highly edited. I had to ask for new silverware after mine disappeared when the first course was cleared. When ordering a second bottle of wine for the table I felt like I was now bothering the server because she wasn't sure if they had that wine in stock and exasperatedly "had to go check" if they had the bottle I picked. Then, of course, after the server realized we wouldn't be ordering anything else, the customary black check presenter appeared while we were still enjoying dessert, accompanied by words I haven't heard in ages, "here is this, when you are ready. No rush!" Below the total, the math was already done for a 15%, 18%, or 20% tip.

Afterward, my wife and I started our stroll home and stopped for a nightcap at a cocktail bar with patio seating. We both ordered a Manhattan and waited while watching the servers hang out and chat with the host. The drinks came on the rocks, which was disappointing though I guess I didn't explicitly specify for them to be served in cocktail glasses, which I am positive is the default for the Queen of Cocktails. It wasn't until I got the bill did I realize we were served their bottled Manhattan, the ones they sell to-go just poured over a fancy clear ice cube in mismatched rocks glasses. $30 total. Sad.

I keep hearing everyone say they, “can't wait for things to go back to normal," and that drives me absolutely batty. The bar and restaurant business was in dire straits long before COVID came on the scene. The normality of the past sucked. Why would we want to go back to the exact same thing?

Over the past year, I have cooked every day, and my skills in the kitchen have improved drastically. I also make drinks for our daily cocktail hour, and the ease at which I can prep for dinner and whip up a Negroni make it hard to pay someone to do that for me, especially if the service is subpar and gruff.

But the big question I have is why are we still tipping? Every restaurant in town accepted loans from the government to stay open, yet their employees are working for peanuts and hoping the strangers that sit at their tables will leave them a little extra scribbled on the line followed by a sloppy signature. Why did we go back to that normal?

Subpar service makes sense, though, in a tipped situation. Why would a server care about the wine list or inquire about how I want my cocktail when their employer doesn't pay them a living wage? Not to mention said employer is probably at home safe and sound while their employees are masked up and risking their safety for strangers and hoping for us to pay their rent. They are worried about their own bills and how to feed their kids or pay their monthly cellphone bill, not to mention gas, car payment, student loans, etc., not my Manhattan. 

The system is so broken, and we are sprinting back to it because why? It's familiar? It's easy? Is it better not to ask questions and keep expectations low? 

Charge more, pay fairly, and get rid of the tip line.

Before I am labeled as anti-hospitality industry, I should clarify that I am very much so not. I adore the hospitality industry. I love dining and drinking out, and the people that make that possible are often working their fingers to the bone. The issue is I don't employ them; the restaurant owner does. How can a restaurant employee rely more on ME to come in and leave 20% of the bill than the person who hired them for the job?

Being an average consumer, I don't know what I am in the mood for until it happens! "What do you want for dinner tonight?” “Should we go out?” “Where do you want to go?” “Indian sounds good, oh but there is that new tapas place.” “Should we get a beer before hand?” “I am in the mood for cocktails, actually."”

What if it's raining? That changes everything. Or if it's too hot or cold? Any server or bartender going into work and clocking in is thinking the same thing, "I hope I make some money tonight." The fact that weather can affect how much money a server makes on a given day is crazy. What is the point of being employed if that's the case? Where is the security of having a job?

Say you are a server, and your shift is to work the patio, but it's pouring rain so hard nobody wants to sit outside, and you get cut—sent home early (after rolling silverware, of course.) Who's fault is it that you didn't get to work? You have a job! You are a server at a restaurant, but you don't get paid by your employer due to rain? What other jobs do people clock in at hoping to make money even though they are employed? Lifeguards don't wish for lap swimmers to cramp up and go under so that they can get paid for jumping in the pool. They get paid to be there in case something happens. Perhaps servers and bartenders should be paid to be there, you know, in case someone walks through the door. The popularity of a restaurant shouldn't be on the shoulders of the employees. That's on the owner. Rainy day, that's on the owner. Lousy location, owner. Bad food, owner.

So in this current system, if nobody comes into a bar or restaurant, those employees are there making under minimum wage, and it's OUR fault. Servers and bartenders don't get paid unless the house makes money. The funny thing is, it isn't even the house's money that ends up paying the servers and bartenders. It's YOUR money in (if lucky) 20% increments. Most of the time, a server's paycheck from a restaurant is a big old goose egg, nil, zero, because it all goes to cover the taxes from the earned tips we, the customers, leave at the end of a meal.

The funny thing is if nobody tipped, the restaurant wouldn't be allowed to use the federal tip credit and would have to pay its tipped employees whatever the minimum wage is in that state. The other caveat to that scenario is that most places aren't budgeted to afford to pay minimum wage, and a few months of that would force the restaurant to most likely close.

I urge you to look up your state to see what bars and restaurants are allowed to pay tipped employees.

Here in Michigan it’s $3.67/hour.

Quick math:
40 hour week = $156.80
52 week year = $7633.60

Federally it’s $2.13/hr and 15 states and Puerto Rico use that rate.

All bars and restaurants need one thing to function, and it is more important than food, drink, electricity, staff, a dishwasher, or a good location. They need someone to serve. They need customers. They need your money. Without you, they can't function. I have said it before, and I will repeat it— we must vote with our wallets. The restaurant owners are not the victims here.

Restaurants that hawk bad service while choosing not to pay their staff a living wage aren't worth keeping open. They never were. I would venture to say that a good restaurant that doesn't pay its staff a living wage isn't worth keeping open. Now more than ever, you, the customer, have power over the places that will come out of this or not. Why would you support places that don't pay their staff fairly and take shortcuts at your expense? If an employee is paid the bare minimum tipped wage, what else do you think is done at the bare minimum in that restaurant?

At this point, I am used to cooking at home, making cocktails, and pairing wine for dinner. I don't mind that routine, and I can assure you I prefer it to supporting restaurant owners who don't care about their staff enough to pay them honestly. If that isn't happening, everything else about that bar or restaurant suffers. If we continue to keep places like that afloat, we allow the entire American bar and restaurant sector to remain unchecked.

We all know the old saying, "if you can't afford to tip, then you can't afford to eat out," when it should be, "if you can't afford to pay your employees, then you can't afford to own a restaurant."

I don't care what the special of the day is or how hip the new spot down the street seems; I only want to know if the staff is paid a living wage. If the answer is no, then I will be cooking at home and not supporting that establishment.

That is my new normal.

Further Reading:
Abolish Restaurants
Department of Labor Tipped Minimum Wage
Should Restaurant Owners that Wait Tables Accept Tips?