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Thac0 t1_j64gbiq wrote

Reply to comment by nelson64 in Everyone is asking for a tip these days by leavingthecold

The debate on wages effecting prices has been happening for a long time. The federal minimum wage hasn’t increased from $7.25/hr I’m decades. There are lots of studies and data. I’ve selected A study from Perdue showed that raising prices from minimum wage to $15 would only increase prices 4.3% that means your example of paying $13 for a meal instead of $10 would in reality cost the customer $0.43 not $3 and to raise wages to $22/hr it would increase prices 25% that would be $2.50 vs your example of $3. The fact is asking customers for a %15 tip for limited service instead of owners charging something like 4.3% for a real wage is providing cover for bad business owners to pay poorly and to ask customers to cover the cost of their wages while they stuff their pockets. It’s unconscionable to defend the rampant tipping that goes on. I’m sick of hidden costs and surprise tips for tbh fa that aren’t too based work

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nelson64 t1_j64h893 wrote

I’m not talking about huge establishments. I know on a grand scale, on average, it wouldn’t affect prices that much. I’m saying at individual small businesses.

The business I worked for barely made a profit and many years actually operated at a loss.

Restaurant wages is just a lot different than regular wages. Raising minimum wage from the $3.89 minimum that is set for restaurants up to $22 would cause that huge spike in prices at restaurants. Of course a ton of restaurants that are actually paying their tipped employees $3.89 can probably afford to absorb some of that cost and be less greedy before raising prices, it’s still a big jump.

So I’m not necessarily talking minimum wage vs livable wage. Minimum wage should definitely be raised to livable wages.

I’m just saying raising $15/hr (base pay where I’ve worked) to oftentimes $27/hr (on average with tips) is next to impossible at a small restaurant business without raising prices a lot more than 4%. A small restaurant like that could maybe absorb the cost it would take to raise wages from $15 to say $16 or $17 without raising prices. But a $12 wage increase would require prices to go up those 20% being lost by tips.

Of course they wouldn’t HAVE to raise wages all the way up to $27/hr in this alternate reality, but then the workers get the short end of the stick without tips.

This is often why a lot of tipped workers are actually against getting rid tipping. Cus in the end they would make less.

Edit: also in my mind I was actually thinking closer to $2.50 but just rounded up for simplicity’s sake. So apologies there!

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Previous_Floor t1_j64unqj wrote

Full time (40 hours a week) at $15 an hour is $30k a year.

$16 an hour is $32k.

$17 an hour is $34k.

NONE of these are livable wages in 2023.

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nelson64 t1_j6520y7 wrote

I totally agree! Which again is why raising a $15 wage to $27 (which is still barely livable) would definitely affect prices in a different way for food service.

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Thac0 t1_j64hn3j wrote

Nobody it talking about $3 an hour server tips. The OP and me explicitly talked about paying tips for take out and other not traditional tip based roles that are showing up literally everywhere even at one personas mechanic.

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nelson64 t1_j64iyys wrote

I mean if it’s JUST retail and there’s no food involved whatsoever, then yeah I wouldn’t tip. Those positions aren’t tipped positions. Legally idek who the “tips” would technically go to? Probably straight back to the business as profit? Idk.

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