In American culture when people go out to eat it is a common practice that once they have finished, they pay their bill as well as leave a tip for the service their waiter or waitress has given them. But what if this is no longer the case?
Restaurant owner Danny Meyer, who owns 12 restaurants in New York City employing 1800 is trying to how restaurant staff are paid. This change would entail the elimination of tipping. He was stated in the article saying, "There will be one total, as if you were buying a sweater at Brooks Brothers." By doing so, he will increase the prices of the food on the menu to reflect the hourly wages of the staff. By this increase in price he will be able to increase the pay of the cooks from $11.75 to $15.25 which he said is a necessity to attract culinary talent due to the high cost of living. To reiterate this point he said, "The gap between what the kitchen and dining room workers make has grown by leaps and bounds,” Mr. Meyer said. During his 30 years in the business, he said, “kitchen income has gone up no more than 25 percent. Meanwhile, dining room pay has gone up 200 percent." While wait staff may not have as high of income as they have enjoyed in the past this will create a more equal income distribution among the restaurant workers.
However as Meyer states, "Tipping is a way of life in this country,” he said. “It may not be the perfect system, but it’s our system. It’s an American system." This will not be an easy adjustment for the workers or for the customers as it is ingrained in our culture and will be one that will take some time to adjust to. Will customers be willing to pay higher prices for their food and embrace the new no tipping policy? Will wait staff and other restaurant workers leave the company due to the potential decrease in pay? Is this system one that will fix the issues surrounding the business, or do you see potential flaws in this plan?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/dining/danny-meyer-restaurants-no-tips.html?ref=business&_r=1
9 comments:
I think overall this new system could improve the restaurant business in several ways. By decreasing the income differential between cooks and wait staff, it allows for all employees to more easily provide for themselves as well as their families despite the high costs of living. It also gives these restaurants a competitive advantage for wait staff and other employees as there is not the worry that if the restaurant is slow on a given night that they will not take much money home.
On the consumer side I think it will alleviate the stress of knowing what to tip the wait staff. However, I do think the consumer will suffer the most through this new system with the increase in prices. Initially, I think this system will take time to get used to, but I think once it does and a new restaurant culture is put in place, it will be more beneficial to all parties involved.
I definitely think this could be a very good thing for lower-end restaurants. There, they don't have to rely on tips as a livelihood. However, at more expensive restaurants, I think servers would lose more money. At higher end restaurants, people are more likely to buy more expensive food and tip higher. I actually remember reading about that issue over the summer, but I can't remember where.
I feel like it would be a very hard transition for Americans if all food establishments adopt this system. I remember being in Europe and it being hard for me not to tip, because it's so engrained in our mindset. I think a lot of people would be put off by the higher cost of food upfront. This plan cannot be implemented all at once, because it is such a major transition. I do, however, think it's a great idea. It gives a better, more fair wage for servers and cooks to survive on.
Meyer has a point about making payment more simple for customers while creating benefits that the cooks (who are really important to a restaurant) can reap more of. I think he should change this idea to a "no tip necessary" policy so that a server can still be compensated for going beyond the status quo.
All in all, I think the idea of eliminating tipping at restaurants is a great idea that should be implemented as soon as possible. It would not only eliminate stress for the consumer of figuring out how much to tip the waiter or waitress, but it would also allow for those who rely on tips to no longer. It would also allow for the wage gap between servers and cooks to close and overall allow for businesses to be more competitive with one another. If we just look to our European counterparts like France and Germany, tipping is nonexistent because it is already accounted for in the prices of food and is so engrained in the culture, no one opposes the idea.
While I do think that many would be opposed to this drastic change in the United states, I agree with Emily that if we are to implement this new policy, it would have to be in incremental changes. That way, the policy could slowly change over time and allow consumers to get more and more used to the idea. Once this policy is fully implemented, I think that even though the price of food would in fact increase, many consumers would be willing to deal with this change. Not only does it allow for the labor market to be more equal and for those who live on a day-by-day basis to have more stability in their life, but it allows for stress to be alleviated for the consumer at the same time.
I feel like the way that we tip is a little bit of a laissez-faire system where the restaurant owners leave the tipping to the customers and if they were to take over and ban tipping, they would be in control of how expensive the meal is.
Personally I detest tipping because it's a hassle to figure out how much you owe, and I always factor in how good the service is because if their service is not adequate then I do not tip as much and that is all on them. But if we do get rid of tipping will the waiter or waitress think it is necessary to be a good waiter. They must put in the work to get their pay. As for the price of food, I think that it would eventually be embraced by all because it would become the norm.
I personally feel it will take some time for the customers to get used to this no tipping policy, since it is a part of the American culture, perhaps resulting in some sort of confusion initially. I do think it is good move from the restaurant's point of view to reduce the income inequality within the workers. In order to decrease any sort of voluntary turnovers from the workers, the company should probably offer some non-monetary incentives to keep them in the company.
I personally think this is a great idea and I would like to see this implemented in the restaurant industry. By increasing food prices and eliminating tipping, I feel as if it will create a "wash" because the money you would use to tip would be spent on higher meal prices.
That being said, it could create an incentive for wait staff/cooks to not work as hard and efficiently because they know at the end of the day they will be getting paid regardless.
Ultimately I do like this concept and it would be interesting to see how it would work and its overall effectiveness/attractiveness among restaurant workers.
Tipping has been so ingrained into the American restaurant dining lifestyle, that trying to rid it would be confusing and unfavorable to the majority of the public. In places in Europe, not tipping is much more common and feels uncomfortable for American tourists. Also, I think that people like to feel in control of how much they tip their waiters based on their performance. Getting rid of a tip may give less incentive to waiters to give their best service. People may get upset if they think they have bad service and still have to pay high prices when the whole dining experience was below par.
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