Wages are guaranteed money. This is good for employees, if no one comes in you still get paid. Sure you might get less tips but at least you know you'll get a steady paycheck.
Before people come in talking about how employers have to make up the difference if tips don't get them to minimum wage....
That's based on the entire pay period, not per shift. So if you make decent tips the rest of the period, you're still being paid below minimum wage at like $3/hr for the slow time.
Exactly right. Server paychecks are barely worth the paper they’re printed on. I served ~25 years ago, when minimum wage was $5.15 per hour in NY. I’ll never forget the weekly paychecks for less than $10 kicking around my place from tip allowance and card advances.
Out of curiosity, to add to my anecdotal evidence archive from server friends, did you declare all of your tips on your taxes? Or did a lot of those cash tips end up being effectively tax free?
Yep. Fewer tips while retaining a living wage should be the goal. Tips remove the burden of the livable wage from the business and place it on the consumer, where it will never be guaranteed. Lots of businesses likely have completely untenable business models if they had to pay fair wages without tips.
Let's stop having the average person subsidize companies.