[MrLindy]

Originally Posted by stratmax

Have you noticed the food prices in restaurants have gone up dramatically. I'm not sure everybody knows this but last fall, 2024. Florida enacted a law mandating restaurants pay a base wage of $9.98 to their wait staff and a guarantee of $13/hour when combined with the tips.The law gave restaurants time to change their menu prices so they could pay the base wage.
So, why are we continuing to pay 20% tip when there is already a built in tip in the menu prices?
NOTE: the base wage is also going to go up to $10.98 this fall

Maybe so. However, prices at comparable restaurants OFF THE VILLAGES seem to be considerably less than Villages, especially FMK restaurants! We should vote with our $$$ and become patrons of businesses that don't seem to be trying to take advantage of us!

[retiredguy123]

A lot of posters are saying that they do tip generously. But I find it difficult to believe that many people are actually happy with the current tipping tradition. If restaurants eliminated tipping altogether, I think most people would applaud that decision. But this will never happen because the restaurants are the ones who benefit most from tipping, not the customers or the servers.

[Regorp]

Originally Posted by stratmax

Have you noticed the food prices in restaurants have gone up dramatically. I'm not sure everybody knows this but last fall, 2024. Florida enacted a law mandating restaurants pay a base wage of $9.98 to their wait staff and a guarantee of $13/hour when combined with the tips.The law gave restaurants time to change their menu prices so they could pay the base wage.
So, why are we continuing to pay 20% tip when there is already a built in tip in the menu prices?
NOTE: the base wage is also going to go up to $10.98 this fall

Wait staff rely on tips as income and soon they will be tax free. Be generous to these hard working and underpaid service workers.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by Cuervo

Let's do a little math $13 X 8Hrs. = $104.
Assuming the person works 5 days a week that comes out to $520.
Let's all assume since in today's world $520 a week is not a living wage, the person deiced not to take a vacation.
So, a person working for $13 an hour working 52 weeks a year will earn $27,040.
That is not a living wage that is why I always leave a tip.

Tipped employees in the Villages area don't work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. They usually work 4-6 hours a day, 3-4 days a week. They're not trying to make a living wage off that one job. They might have a few jobs, or a second job, or maybe their waiter job IS their second job. Or they might be supplementing their spouse's income, or they have social security checks, and want to keep working but need to work only part time because if they earn too much at their job, their social security checks get cut off. Some of them are students who -cannot- work a full time job because it would interfere with their studies.

Meanwhile, Florida minimum wage is $14/hour, not $13/hour.

Meanwhile, my household annual income is under $60k for two people, including a pension and two social security checks, and we do just fine here.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by Nordhagen

T- to
I-insure
P-prompt
S-service

That is a myth. Rated:

F-Fake
A-And
L-Largely
S-Semantically
E-Erroneous

The Origins of Tipping | Snopes.com

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

A lot of posters are saying that they do tip generously. But I find it difficult to believe that many people are actually happy with the current tipping tradition. If restaurants eliminated tipping altogether, I think most people would applaud that decision. But this will never happen because the restaurants are the ones who benefit most from tipping, not the customers or the servers.

I am not happy with the tradition and I would like to see it go away but I don't expect that to happen. No one would be happy with it, not the customers, not the owners, and certainly not the servers.

Just thinking about the customers, many will balk at the higher prices even if they are just 20% higher. A $16 burger and a $8 beer seems about right but at just 20% more, a $19 burger and $10 beer seems expensive. The total amount paid, $31 (the former with tipping and the latter without), will be the same but many customers won't recognize that.

The customers will see the higher prices and will spend more time at Publix, the owners will see a drop in business (at least initially, people will get bored with Pub subs), and the servers, at least the better ones, will see a drop in compensation.

Getting away from tipping is the way to go, I just don't see it happening any time soon.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by MandoMan

IF a waitress averaged $13 an hour for forty hours a week, that would be about $25,000 (before taxes) a year, which is less than I earn in Social Security payments, and my Social Security is much less than half of my yearly income. I earned $25,000 a year my first year as a tenure-track professor with a Ph.D., back in 1986. My family and I were renting an old apartment for $460 a month. Try to find an apartment for that price today!

Waitresses may not be well-educated, but they can work full-time and still be at the poverty level. It’s hard to be hopeful about life with an income like that.

I usually dine alone, yet I take up a table that could provide a tip from four people. Accordingly, since moving to The Villages, I’ve made $10 my BASE tip. If 20% of the check is greater than $10, I pay the greater amount. Otherwise, I tip $10, even if the meal is $13, and even if I’m at a self-service buffet where the waitress is simply refilling my water glass. If I’m having a dinner with other people and we have separate checks, I also tip $10. I’m not sharing this to brag but to show a way for those who have plenty to reward hard-working people who are living on the edge. It’s not a way to earn one’s way into heaven. I’ve been blessed, and I want to bless others. I want to say thank you.

Wait staff isn't working full time. They are shift-workers. They're not TRYING to earn a living wage, at that job.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Question - If the minimum wage in Florida is $13 per hour, why should servers at a sit down restaurant get a 20 percent tip, when fast food restaurant servers usually get no tip?

First of all, it's $14/hour, not $13.

Second, fast food workers don't serve customers at their table. They don't return to the table to see how the customer is enjoying their meal. They don't refill your water glass, they don't bring you a ketchup bottle for your fries. They don't order the bus boy to take your salad plate off the table so that you can serve the entree. They don't tell the chef that you loved/hated the frisee salad with sea foam and avacado gelee drizzle. Fast food workers press buttons on the register as you go to THEM to place your order, they take your money, they might answer a question about what comes with the thing you're ordering, they try to upsell a "meal" if you're only ordering a sandwich, and they put your completed order in a bag or on a tray and set it down on the other end of the counter, where YOU pick it up, bring it to your table, and deal with all the trash yourself.

In some restaurants, they don't even do that much - you order on a kiosk and they just bring your the order in a bag (such as with Sonic).

Fast food workers do a lot more than that behind the scenes (cleaning the dining room, refilling the ice bin, filling up the napkin dispenser, wiping down the counter, etc) but the customer-specific stuff is very limited, they don't "serve" you at all.

In addition, fast-food workers are all regular minimum wage (or better) workers. They are not tipped employees. Their boss is REQUIRED to pay them the full minimum wage, or better. Their boss is allowed to allow tips at the restaurant, but the pay rate must be exclusive of tips.

Employers of tipped employees may pay a lower minimum, as long as the end result meets or exceeds the state regular minimum inclusive of tips.

[ChicagoNative]

Tipping is absolutely out of control. There’s no way I’m going to tip for pick-up, or self-service, or cafeteria type restaurants, and the little Apple Cash register screen or tip jar isn’t going to guilt me. And the push for the 30%+ tips that we started seeing during COVID need to go away.

For a sit down place, yes. We start at 20% and adjust according to service. It’s rare that I leave no tip, but I=e gone as low as 5% for crap service.

That said, a good server is worth their weight in gold. Dealing with the dining public is almost a contact sport, and I wouldn’t want to deal with the rude, arrogant, demanding, nasty people out there.

[Cuervo]

My original post was to say if a person sole employment is a server at a restaurant working at $13 an hour full time 52 weeks a year their total annual income would be $27,040. So, you might believe tipping should be abolished, but at that income they will most likely be able to apply for government food subsidies, which means you will be paying the tip anyway.

[Rainger99]

I was in Europe last year and almost no Europeans tip. Or if they do, it is usually a euro or two.

That is because the tip is included in the price of the meal. The same with sales tax. If you go to a restaurant in Europe the price on the menu is the price of your meal. No 23% surcharge (15% tip plus 8% sales tax).

If Europe can do it, why can’t the USA?

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Wait staff isn't working full time. They are shift-workers. They're not TRYING to earn a living wage, at that job.

That's a pretty big generalization about a whole lot of servers.

[Rainger99]

Many posters suggest that being a waitress is about the worst job in the world.

Are there minimum wage jobs that are worse than being a waitress in an air conditioned restaurant?

[Fastskiguy]

So if I got to my favorite restaurant, they add on a 22.5% tip on top of tax. If I order a glass of water and burger then the server gets screwed. If I order a cocktail, the seafood tower, a bottle of wine, and a steak, then I get screwed. I know it takes a little more time for the server to service a table with drinks and appetizers but still, it's not even close.

How can we do this so it's fair?

Joe

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

First of all, it's $14/hour, not $13.

According to FSU HR and the US Department of Labor, Florida minimum wage is $13 right now and will become $14 in a few months on Sept 30.