More restaurants adopting no-tipping policy

[Nine]

Are we headed for the end of restaurant tipping? Yet another eatery is opening up to great fanfare, mostly because it has decided to do away with tips.

The Brand 158 restaurant in Glendale, Calif., has adopted the no-tipping policy because owner Gabriel Frem said he wanted to discourage competition between his employees. And he isn't including a service charge or upping his prices to make up for it, either.

Frem's theory is that tips disrupt the working environment and leave workers unsure of their take-home pay from week to week. "We think that if we stabilize the lives of our employees, they can then focus on the customer," he told The Los Angeles Times.

No-tip restaurants are by no means common, but the idea is starting to take hold across the country. In New York, a Japanese-style pub called Restaurant Riki has banned the practice because it's more in line with Japanese customs. It's raised prices to compensate.

I hope this trend catches on.

ETA link: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-restaurants-adopting-no-tipping-policy/

[Skittles]

1. is he paying his employees more? do you have a link?

[Nine]

3. Sorry, added link.

The restaurants that do this do seem to be paying more. They would have to by law, wouldn't they?

[former9thward]

16. If they are paying minimum wage they may be making less now.

Tips are almost always more than minimum wage.

[petronius]

23. Not necessarily for the restaurant in CA - this state doesn't allow tip credit, so he'd

already have to be paying at least minimum wage. So the law in CA wouldn't require him to pay more to compensate for the removal of tips (but I can't imagine how he could hope to keep a productive staff and not pay more)...

[Xithras]

21. California doesn't have a "tipped wage". Minimum is $8 an hour for everyone.

And it's going up to $9 an hour in a couple of months.

But most restaurants that ban tips do pay well above minimum wage. I've only been in one restaurant here in California that does this. As it was explained to me, they banned tipping, raised prices by 15%, and rolled the new revenue into pay raises.

Supposedly the change made everyone happier. There's less competition between waitstaff for "good" tables, customers get better service because there is no longer a push to close out tickets and turn the table over, and waitstaff don't get screwed when a slow-eating party sits down and monopolizes a table for long periods. It also means that waitstaff take the same money home even if they get scheduled on a slow night.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Will that trend come with an increase in base pay?

Waitresses Stuck at $2.13 Hourly Minimum for 22 Years

Gina Deluca says she was shocked when she moved to New Mexico from California and discovered that her hourly wage as a waitress fell to a federal minimum of $2.13. Her old state required at least $6.75 for all workers at the time.

Deluca says she became more dependent on tips, which varied with bill size, the seasons and customers’ moods, and her total income fell. While federal law requires employers to cover the gap if tips don’t take workers at least to the regular full minimum, now $7.25, Deluca says hers didn’t.

“The difference in San Francisco was that I felt valued,” said Deluca, 42, who served at both diners and high-end restaurants before quitting two years ago to pursue a degree in social work. Today her blog, “Wiser Waitress,” focuses on issues involving restaurant workers, including the federal minimum wage for workers who receive tips.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-25/waitresses-stuck-at-2-13-hourly-minimum-for-22-years.html

Tell you what, you want no tips, I want all minimum wage to go up to $15.00 an hour, including restaurants. Restaurants should be included, but the industry will fight it, and they will even use industry "research" that is far from... to make their point.

[Chan790]

20. Has to.

No-tip restaurants are required to pay full minimum wage, not server minimum. Given, serving in a nice restaurant and still taking home only $7.25 sucks...but servers in that position tend to vote with their feet. The restaurant can't replace them with equally competent staff and the restaurant falters.

If you're good enough as a server to work someplace like Restaurant Riki or (presumably) Brand 158 (never been, making an assumption it's haute cuisine), you're good enough to leave and get hired someplace like Morton's where the servers make a base-pay above server minimum and the tips take the average server over $40K/year. (My brother was one...left for an even higher paying gig as a server.)

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. I am just thinking of the industry in general

here is that the industry peddles as actual valid research.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2014/01/16/pro-business-employment-policies.html

Trust me, the study does not hold much water.

And here is from the horse's mouth

http://www.epionline.org/study_list/

By the way, did I mention they are a poorly disguised restaurant industry front?

[KurtNYC]

4. Isn't tipping free speech?

It says "I appreciate the service and I know your employer pays you crap."

A sub-set of restaurant owners has been after the tips for decades. Just chaps their hide to see employees walk out the door with cash from what they consider to be THEIR customers. If the customer doesn't have to tip and knows it then their budget for food and drink can go up by 15%.

Why would you want restaurant employees to make even less than they do now?

[Nine]

5. I want them to get a real salary, paid by their employers.

I don't want their livelihood dependent on whether their customers are in a good mood.

A new brewpub scheduled to open this fall in Washington, D.C. will also do away with tipping. The founder of the restaurant, Public Option, plans to pay workers at least $15 an hour. Any money left on the tables will go to charity.

[Bonx]

7. As a former server, I would cast my lot with customers/tips over a crappy fixed wage -nt

[Desert805]

14. Me too.

[2naSalit]

31. Me three.

I won't eat/drink at a place that doesn't allow tips, I don't care what the wage is, I still tip and I tip well or I don't go out to eat or whatever. Having had to live on tips in the past, I wouldn't agree to work at such a place.

[trixicopper]

32. Oh goody!

So I would have to take a cut of at least $25 dollars an hour to work there? No thanks. I'll take tips any day. 35 years in the business.

[seveneyes]

33. Expecting those making $10/hour to tip those making $33/hour may be asking a lot

But hey, my vote is to eliminate expected tips and pay a living wage for servers.

[Kurska]

18. A restaurant owner can exclude you for any reason that isn't race or religion.

In some places also they can't ban you for sexual orientation.

If a restaurant owner required everyone to speak backwards to order and banned those who didn't, that would be their right.

Freedom of speech only applies to the government.

[monmouth3]

6. He's going to need employees who go along with this. Doubt there are many unless he's paying

them a good salary..

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. I believe that in many places in Europe - they calculate a 15% service charge into the prices of all

items and have an established and regulated method of dividing it up. There is some benefit to the idea of paying service workers more when it is busy and when the customers are more pleased. It creates a natural incentive for the staff to want the restaurant to be busy and want to see satisfied customers. It can if handled correctly be understood as a form of profit sharing.

[seveneyes]

34. Tightwad businesses adding 15% to the bill

Maybe they should just pay their workers a living wage and price their wares accordingly. Not much better then Walmart using taxpayers to subsidize their workers.

[Nine]

9. I'm surprised so many here don't see this as a pro-labor move.

Why should restaurants get away with paying employees two bucks an hour?

[Bonx]

11. RE: "Why should restaurants get away with paying employees two bucks an hour?"

Because as a server - in 1988 - I was taking home about $20/hr waiting tables in a mediocre steakhouse.
The paychecks for the $2.15/hr were something I'd save four or five of before cashing - so small.

[seveneyes]

36. I hope the cooks and others were making $20/hr also

Fair is fair.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Perhaps this is the reason

It all goes to show that tipping as a practice is inherently flawed. But many restaurants running on razor-thin margins depend on customer tips to make up for the incredibly low compensation they give workers.

Until restaurant owners pay a living wage -- a policy many say they can't afford -- tipping will be there to pick up the slack. But diners are increasingly getting opportunities to voice their opinions about tipping.

From your own link.

Yes, the only way to make this happen is not by the will of the few owners that will do that, but as a policy matter, preferably at a federal level. Did I mention this ain't gonna happen any time soon with the current Federal dysfunction at the legislative level? Or for that matter the most pro corporate USSC in 70 years.

[voteearlyvoteoften]

10. My daughter is a server

She makes bank! Mostly 15-20 or more per hour. She is good . When she finishes college to be an elementary teacher she will make @ the same. When you are a server you generally make more when you work harder. So with a set wage why would anyone ever want to work on Sat might?

[Bonx]

12. I don't think many people know how much $$ you can make as a server

Definitely not an easy job - people with short fuses or inability to endure 'the weeds' don't last.
But if you can stick around, the $$ are good.

[HangOnKids]

15. Makes bank is 15-20 bucks an hour?

Good luck to her finding a teaching job and one that pays even that.

[voteearlyvoteoften]

24. If you are 19 in FL that's good.

But at the Disney resorts they easily double that.

[HangOnKids]

27. Show me how she will make that as a teacher

Even though those Disney figures seem inflated. No elementary teacher I know makes more than $40.000 a year.

[Nine]

17. Is "working hard" the only thing that determines tips?

Without researching it, I wouldn't be surprised if there were tip disparities attributable to such things as race, gender, age, perceived sexual orientation, fitness, attractiveness, even perceived socioeconomic class... all the things liberals shouldn't like to see affecting wages. And these disparities aside, I find it hard to believe that there aren't servers who would be better off with a steady wage - maybe servers at low-end establishments, as in Nickeled and Dimed.

The only justification any of you seem to have regarding preferring the tipping system is that you think you can make more money. Why? Customers that are willing to tip should be willing to pay that same amount toward a higher-priced meal. Restaurants that are willing to let servers take home a percentage of their profit in the form of tips should be willing to apply that same amount toward paying higher salaries. In theory, there's no reason wages should fall because of this. It just makes things better regulated.

[Bonx]

29. re "Without researching it, I wouldn't be surprised if there were tip disparities attributable to"

From my experience, female servers brought home the biggest $$.
Our biggest earner when I was serving was a 20something yr old AA female.
She would take the most brutal - and most lucrative - shifts (Thu, Fri, Sat - often lunch & dinner) & she ALWAYS was great with her table interaction. Even if she came in to the kitchen blowing steam, it was over quick & never made it on to the dining room floor.
I wish I'd had her patience & interpersonal skills.

[JI7]

40. it's more personality, communication, being able to deal with assholes etc

and of course they have to do well in the job itself.

but i know many who work these jobs and have seen many. one can be physically attractive but if they can't connect with the customers in a certain way they wont get the big tips.

the best ones at the job i have seen tend to be women who are in their 40s and older. part of it is probably experience.

[steve2470]

19. He better pay a really good salary or this is a no go

As others have said, one can do well on tips in the right restaurant with hard work.

[Nine]

22. At least one of the restaurants plans to pay a minimum of $15 an hour. (nt)

[Iggo]

26. No tipping, my ass.

I don't work for him.

[Nine]

28. article: What Happens When You Abolish Tipping

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2013/08/tipless_restaurants_the_linkery_s_owner_explains_why_abolishing_tipping.html

[frylock]

30. sadly, The Linkery has shut down

[MicaelS]

35. As long as they increase the wage to a living wage ...

I am fully in favor of this.

[Nine]

37. In MN (for example), servers average $9.36 an hour WITH TIPS

You should also know that MN is one of those states that does NOT allow restaurants to pay tip-earning employees less than minimum wage.

http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2010/07/emmers-minimum-wage-fallout-who-makes-100000-waiter-or-bartender

Wage stats from Minnesota's Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) indicate that those $100,000 servers are the rarest of people.

The median wage for the 45,000 waiters and waitresses in the state is $9.36 an hour, including tips, meaning that if a server is working full time, he or she could make a little more than $19,000 a year.

These numbers are better than the national average...

DU seems to be full of exceptional servers who are raking it in. Someone upthread claims to average over $40 an hour. Good for you. But you should know that's not the experience of most servers.

[NuttyFluffers]

38. fantastic! better, more reliable wages, end the tip-min. wage loophole, ...

end intra-office competition which lowers morale, focus on good service for the right motivations, relieve unease and subservience dynamic, etc.

only good things come from abolishing tipping! let us catch up to the civilized world already. pay good wages, respect service labor!

[Vattel]

39. This sounds really bad.

I highly suspect that if this becomes a serious trend servers will make less money.