Why some US restaurants are banning tips
A growing number of US restaurants are ditching tipping in favor of higher menu prices and stable wages. From San Francisco's La Cigale to Nightshade Noodle Bar in Massachusetts, owners cite fairness for kitchen staff and an end to bias. But the model faces hurdles: customers balk at higher prices, and some restaurants have reverted. Cornell professor William Michael Lynn explains the economics behind 'tip fatigue' and why tipping may persist.
Tipping lets guests, consciously or not, pay people differently based on gender, race, or sexuality and I was not willing to let that decide my team's income.
- getfacl
The biggest barrier to ending tipping in the USA is that restaurants are almost always over staffed there.
The owner wants the maximum ratio of servers to customers possible. In the typical USA system, being paid primarily in tips means the server is highly incentivized to upsell the customer as much as possible and do everything they can to increase the total bill, and therefor increase their tip. Essentially a commissioned sales person but the customer pays the commission.
This is the least efficient way to run a restaurant with regard to staffing.
European restaurants typically use a team service model, which greatly reduces the number of staff needed. Every front of house worker can take orders, make and serve drinks, run food to tables, etc. Instead of checking on the customer every few minutes they rely on the customer to ask if you need something. There is no pressure to run up the bill or clear out quickly in this model.
- palata
> the problem of going tip-free is that customers struggle to get their heads around the maths.
Maybe they should show the price "without tip" next to the full price, so people can compare.
Paying employees with tips is an insane concept, fundamentally abusive. If it wasn't, then the owner would also get paid from tips. "The meals are all free, and we count on you to pay them through tips". Obviously no owner would take that risk, because it is insane. They make their employees take that risk because they can abuse them, that's all.
- walrus01
We need to at least normalize not tipping for counter service. Given the current wage structures and labor laws in the US and Canada, if I sit down at a table and I receive table service, I'm going to tip 15% unless the service was abhorrent.
I am not going to tip if I order and take my food from a counter and serve myself (and then almost certainly clear my own table as well), or I buy any other form of product standing up. Basically, if I'm standing for the entire customer service transaction, it's not tippable.
- Rygian
As a foreigner in the US, I've made the faux-pas of assuming waiters and waitresses were being paid a full salary by their employer.
I even suspect that I received sub-par service from some of them, who may have identified me as a "no-tip risk" from the first moment.
- GuB-42
I think tipping is getting out of hand. Normally, tips pay for service staff, which would be about 15% of the revenue of a restaurant in a no-tip country.
So, with tips of 15% or less, everyone get their fair share: service staff get a low base wage complemented by tips, kitchen staff get paid normally, owners get reasonable profits.
But when tips get to 20% or more, the system breaks, service staff get more than their fair share and that's when weird things start to happen. Owners pocketing the tips, pooling the tips between kitchen and service staff, hiring more waiters for no good reason, etc... and then it comes to the logical conclusion, which is banning tips altogether.
- phreeza
Next also include sales tax in label prices.
- eagerpace
The bigger story for me is tipping fatigue. Almost every service worker requests a tip now. It seems to be from the rise in digital payments where everyone just turns on that feature. As a consumer, I have no idea if the worker’s compensation model is tied to tips or not and it feels like the ones who aren’t have hijacked my generosity.
- KellyCriterion
Very often regarding those articles, you read in the comments different varieties of "good service":
- may I ask: What does this actually mean?
I have never been to a "high class" or "fine dining" location, so maybe my expectations are in general not high.
My expectations are just simple:
Give me the menu quickly, let me order quickly, let me eat and let me pay quickly.
Thats it. What do I miss?
EDIT: Im located in EU.
- ciconia
FWIW France has it right: there's no tipping, service is always included.
- FartyMcFarter
Good. Tipping creates so much mental overhead and unnecessary bad feelings on everyone's part.