What is the value of an hour's worth of one's labor? What makes an hour of labor more or less valuable? Is it the task? Is it the perception that the task is simple, or less valuable in the eyes of another? Why is the value of a waiter or waitress set so low on a national level? The tipped wage these servers make is only $2.13 an hour; a wage that, at the federal level, has not changed since 1991. That is 24 years since the tipped minimum wage has been increased.
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Price of an Artisan Grilled Chicken Ciabatta sandwich in Wisconsin
Not all states have left tipped workers in the dust.
Twenty-eight states have increased the tipped wage higher than $2.13 an hour, from Wisconsin's $2.33 per hour (just twenty cents above the minimum) to $9.47 an hour in Washington. None of the states that has raised the tipped minimum wage has seen mass restaurant and bar closings. Applebee's is still in business in Washington, and still charges similar prices in both states. An Artisan Grilled Chicken Ciabatta at Applebee's costs $9.99 in Wisconsin, and is actually less expensive in Washington at $9.79. You are still expected to tip in Washington, but if you don't, that lack of a tip is not going to have as much of an impact on your server as it does in Wisconsin.
I do understand that that many servers do quite well with tips, but they are the exception, not the rule. The question has to be asked: Wouldn't we all be better off if tipping was not what servers depend on to earn a living? In Europe tipping is the exception, not the norm. The excuse that tipping leads to better service is a myth. You may be penalizing the waitstaff for something out of their control like a problem in the kitchen. Tom Keane in a column in the Boston Globe said it best:
In truth, waiters will treat you well for the same reason that every other non-tipped worker treats you well: That’s their job and they take pride in their work. If not, just leave a comment on Yelp.
Price of an Artisan Grilled Chicken Ciabatta sandwich in Bellevue, Washington
In his column, Keane goes on to state that tipping should be abolished and that restaurants should just add a service charge to the bill. I would go one step further and say that they should just raise the price of food. When I go to the grocery store, I don't tip the cashier, and the store does not tack on a service charge. Paying their employees is just the cost of doing business and is built into the price of the products I am purchasing.
If I have a bad experience at that grocery store, I will likely just not be a repeat customer. Why is it that we feel we must penalize a server if we have a bad experience at a restaurant? We don't do that with any other business. Using the grocery store analogy again, if the bagger puts a frozen turkey on top of my eggs, I'm going to complain to the manager, not withhold payment, especially considering that by the time I notice this, I've already paid and am at home.
The value of the person serving your food is most certainly worth more than $2.13 an hour and they should not have to rely on someone leaving a tip to support themselves. Most people I have known in my life who have worked as waitstaff have all worked their tails off while on the job. All of them have stories of being stiffed on a tip.
Let's end this madness. Raise the minimum wage and get rid of the tipped minimum.