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Tipping (thelemmy.club)
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[-] RustyNova@lemmy.world 299 points 4 weeks ago

Yes, but waiter are underpaid and should have a salary too.

... Apparently. This is too american for me to understand

[-] bss03@infosec.pub 114 points 4 weeks ago

As wish many things American, it goes back to slavery. Tipped workers were a way for employers to avoid paying (mostly black) workers, effectively providing slavery-lite even after slavery had ended (Happy Juneteenth).

In any case, current U.S. labor law has specific carve-outs for certain tipped jobs that allow the minimal wage to be not the already unlivable $7.25/hr but the unsustainable $2.15/hr. Technically, employers are required to bring a tipped workers pay up to $7.25/hr if they do not report enough tips, but in practice employers encourage reporting incorrect tips and find reasons (if needed) to dismiss employees that do not report enough tips.

Fisherman, Sailor, Teamster, and Chef are not tipped positions. Waitstaff is a tipped position.

[-] bampop@lemmy.world 48 points 4 weeks ago

Tipped workers were a way for employers to avoid paying (mostly black) workers, effectively providing slavery-lite even after slavery had ended

It's not just about being cheap though. It reinforces the idea that the worker is of a lower social status than the customer. The customer may, at their own discretion, choose whether or not to pay the worker a fair wage for the work they have done. That's a very clear power imbalance.

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[-] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 11 points 4 weeks ago

True but some states don't have this distinction and it means servers actually make pretty decent money.

[-] bss03@infosec.pub 28 points 4 weeks ago

Yes and "tipping" has gone insane. Not just amounts (tho even when I was a child, my parents consider 10% the bare minimum) but also you get prompted to leave a tip for transactions that don't involve a tipped position.

My experience is from one of the shittier states for workers (Arkansas), right-to-work effectively eliminates all union activity, the state would remove the minimum wage if it could, and there's even people that want to make it easier for 14-18 year olds to work.

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[-] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 65 points 4 weeks ago

Waiter is the only one who gets their wage subsidized by their bosses customers.

[-] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 4 weeks ago

Everyone gets their wage subsidized by the customers of the business (both B2B and B2C) they work for.

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[-] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 11 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

No, you hit the nail on the head. A lot of Americans are fooled by this sort of anti-worker division propaganda. This is a conservative / right wing comic.

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[-] Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 156 points 3 weeks ago

Everyone in this panel is underpaid. No change happens blaming one worker against the other. We're all under the boot

[-] rodneylives@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yes, but in the US servers get paid much less than minimum wage with the presumption that tips will make up the difference.

Businesses are supposed to make up any difference between what servers fail to earn as tips up to minimum wage, but:

  • It gives businesses an opportunity to fail to do this,
  • It means that minimum wage is what some servers effectively get, and
  • It effectively means the amount of tips servers get per hour is lessened by the difference between their hourly pay and the minimum wage rate; it's a way for businesses to reach into server tips and get some of it for themselves.
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[-] nanometer1625 99 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I dislike this cartoon because of the way that the server is pointing angrily at the tip box. In reality, the servers are also victims of tipping culture. They deserve consistent and fair wages.

[-] guitarfosec@infosec.pub 29 points 3 weeks ago

It also depicts servers as doing some decadent super easy job when those people work their asses off. I dislike tipping culture, but I factor it into the cost of a night out and make sure someone gets paid fairly from my side if they’re doing a great job and making sure I have everything I need while I sit and enjoy my meal and conversation.

The whole system needs an overhaul, but until that happens, I’m on the side of the working people that make my night out easy and pleasant.

I used to be a line cook. I’ll take staying in the kitchen being grumpy over having to serve and fake smile at asshole customers all day

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[-] krisevol@lemmus.org 23 points 3 weeks ago

That will only happen when we stop tipping

[-] Glytch@lemmy.world 26 points 3 weeks ago

No. It will happen when you stop going to restaurants that underpay their workers. Patronizing those establishments and not tipping is just punishing the worker while rewarding the business. Business owners will not change unless you hit them in the wallet.

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[-] MrJameGumb@lemmy.world 84 points 4 weeks ago

It's because everyone except the wait staff gets paid a living wage. The waiter probably gets paid $2.75/hour because the shady restaurant owner wants YOU to pay the rest of their employees wage for them.

The problem is not overly entitled wait staff, it's tipping culture in general. Any other job would pay at least normal minimum hourly wages.

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 54 points 4 weeks ago

Correct, except for saying everyone else is getting a living wage. I bet most of them are not. Still higher than the server.

[-] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 29 points 4 weeks ago

Every step of that chain is nickel and dimed. Only the public facing employees get to ask for tips.

[-] velma@sh.itjust.works 21 points 4 weeks ago

You ask wait staff if they prefer a stable wage or receiving tips. The overwhelming majority of them will want to keep tips.

It would be better if we eliminated tips overall and paid fair wages. But the people who directly benefit will still fight you on it.

[-] EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 4 weeks ago

Having worked in food service, and having many friends who do, I don't know a single person who would rather keep tips. The majority have openly talked shit about tipping. Everyone I know hates tipping except the management that benefits from it.

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[-] bss03@infosec.pub 11 points 4 weeks ago

While the waitstaff has particular challenges in U.S. labor law (lower effective federal minimum wage), it is not safe to assume any of the other workers in the chain are still paid a living wage either.

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[-] craftrabbit@lemmy.zip 50 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah but the waiters don't have a living wage in the us without tips while the fishermen get paid –

Sorry I just got word that the fishermen are actually just permanently trapped on the ships and do forced labour out somewhere in the Pacific

[-] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 21 points 4 weeks ago

there is slavery in the food industry.

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[-] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 45 points 4 weeks ago

See this way capitalists get to underpay workers

[-] frisbird@lemmy.ml 24 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Nah, all of the people in that strip are underpaid. Tipping waitstaff is a mechanism to tie their ability to feed their families directly to sycophantic ass kissing behavior. It's essentially a way for the rich to know they can get dancing monkey entertainment anywhere they go.

[-] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 11 points 4 weeks ago

I mean it literally started so owners wouldn't have to pay POC waiters, the rest was just added bonus

But yes everyone on a wage is underpaid

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[-] lordziv@lemmy.nz 40 points 3 weeks ago

Every time Americans call them servers I think of a computer lol

[-] Tattorack@lemmy.world 20 points 3 weeks ago

A "yes, but" like this, but instead all the countries where servers get a (relatively) decent wage vs America where tipping is mandatory.

[-] NotEasyBeingGreen@slrpnk.net 12 points 3 weeks ago

American tipping culture is so arbitrary though. You tip your taxi driver but not your bus driver. You tip at a coffee shop but not at a fast food shop. Your hairdresser gets a tip but not the people looking after your children.

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Everyone in this are a worker, the guy we don’t see in this comic (edge fund, financiers and owner) are the real problem and this comic artist seems hell bent to hide this

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[-] zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 4 weeks ago

Yes, but the author of this comic turns out to be a real moron. Third comic in the row that is just stupid.

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[-] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 16 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Everyone else in that supply chain gets a living wage, except maybe the chef who shares tips with the waiter. It fucking pisses me off when people bitch about the fact that they're asked to tip an underpaid employee instead of getting angry about the fact that the employee doesn't make as much money as anyone else in the first place.

Where the fuck is the restaurant owner who isn't paying their worker a fair wage? Where the fuck are the politicians who put a loophole in labor law the allow this situation to happen?

The waiter is even being villainized in the last frame, jesus h christ. Fuck this comic and fuck you OP for posting it uncritically. I fucking hate this anti-worker propaganda so fucking much.

[-] Soggy@lemmy.world 22 points 4 weeks ago

Nobody gets a fair wage but at least food service workers in my area get paid the same as everyone else (Seattle $21/h minimum). Tipping is rooted in racist class division and we really should be pushing to end wage exemptions rather than perpetuate a ridiculous sales-commission structure.

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[-] MML@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 weeks ago

IDK how common it is but in the sushi restaurant I worked at the server and the chef split the tip but you also had more than one chef, not that it changes the point of the comic much.

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[-] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 weeks ago

Lemmy discovers Commodity Fetishism

[-] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago

Am I exempt from tipping and the no tipping shame if I walk over to the chef to order and pick up the food myself? Because if the customers are the ones who must pay the servers a living wage via tipping, which is optional, that must mean the service itself is optional and I can do it myself.
Tipping presents a philosophical problem for me, and I just can not do it. Luckily, I live in a nation where its not done and service is not optional and I can not go to the chef to order my own food so the restaurant provides the service of a server (and pays them a wage).

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this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
746 points (85.4% liked)

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