Shouldn't we all work for tips? If paying servers a decent wage would ruin the restaurant business by forcing Denny's to charge- $20?- for it's GrandSlam Fresh and Fruity Tootie breakfast, wouldn't it improve other businesses by leveling the playing field? Wouldn't it improve service everywhere from Walmart to your kids school if employees had a financial incentive to perform better? It would certainly cut payroll!
Though it varies by pennies from state to state, waiters and waitresses today make the same hourly rate that they made 20 years ago when Ferrerman was still pouring drinks. You'd probably be thrilled to be making the same money you made 20 years ago or, if you're just starting out in the workforce, twenty years from now. Right? Hey, if it kept prices down for everybody else, it'd be damn patriotic.
Now, I know what you're thinking. The servers make tips. Prices going up and "up" means they get 15-25% of inflation that keeps them in pace with inflation. Lucky bastards!
Well, not everyone tips. Not everyone tips well. And there is a huge difference between a waitress at Denny's and a waiter at Le Gran Emporium. The only similarity is that they serve for the same hourly rate.
So, why not put the whole country on a server's wages and working for tips?
Teapublican dicks are getting hard at the thought. The $2.13 an hour is right about where they'd like to have wages anyway. The Chinese do very well paying 99 cents an hour to the 99%...but, we're not communists. We can easily double that and, with the carrot on a stick that tips can be, that's quite a selling point for the spirit of American hard work.
Sans tips, I've heard it promoted this way, often in conversations about how unions were holding workers back. Why should you make the same wage as the guy next to you? Why should you be limited? Your boss wants to pay you more but his hands are tied by that union contract....
OK. So you get rid of that union and the $38.50 an hour you were getting is now $2.13 an hour- the same as the guy next to you. But, you now have options. Be a better worker and earn more in tips or, move on down the road until you find someone willing to pay you more- and make tips! Before, all you had was making the same as the guy next to you and the humiliation of waiting on the union to get around to getting you a raise. Yeah, you and the guy next to you...
On a smaller scale it is being sold like this. On a larger scale, republican politicians are actually talking about eliminating the minimum wage while democrats are talking about raising it. While that may seem to be politics as usual because republicans have long bitched about any proposed rise in the minimum, I think they are far more serious these days. It's not like they have to ask, ya know. Twenty years ago when Herman Cain (yep, that Herman Cain) set the server wage at $2+change, no one asked the waitresses if that was OK with them. They're not really asking anybody now. It's just the way we do things here. We get people talking about stuff to see how they feel about something so it's not a big surprise later on when we do what we were going to do anyway. It's called democracy. It's what happens when our representatives work for tips. They do pretty good, I hear.
2 comments:
byline: Deer Whisperer/Luke
"...[democracy is] what happens when our representatives work for tips. They do pretty good, I hear."
Yeah, they work for tips from the lobbyists!!!
You MUST be a regular watcher of Bill Moyers.
This past weekend -- "The Other NRA" [my title, the program has a different one]
http://billmoyers.com/segment/preview-all-work-and-no-pay/
Quoting the webpage introduction:
****** That’s because back in 1991, the National Restaurant Association passed around enough campaign contributions to persuade Congress to set the federal minimum wage for waiters, busboys and bartenders at only $2.13 an hour. And it has never gone up.
“In any other context, what is it called when an employer practically doesn’t pay their workers, full-time workers? It’s called slavery,” Saru Jayaraman tells Moyers. “… And so how is it that a major industry has basically convinced America, convinced Congress, that they practically shouldn’t have to pay their workers at all? It’s purely money and power. And their control over our legislators.” ******
Program video available [I watched it on the color TV]
I love Bill Moyers! Ever notice that all the smart, thoughtful people are on our side?
In many cases they essentially don't get paid by the house at all. I had friends who worked at Mortons (a high-dollar steakhouse) They got actual checks for $0.00. What a waste of paper! But, you could cash them anywhere with ID...
I tended bar and most places back then paid $5 an hour which was decent 20 years ago. And of course, the real attraction was tips. I lived and played off of those and banked the checks. At one job the accountant was very angry with me because I was sitting on 6 months of checks. Those were the days! I hear they are paying bartenders the bare minimum in a lot of houses. Not a good idea. You don't fuck with the guy who handles your money!
So, to think that 20 years later- with inflation- people are still making what I made...what a country...
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