thank you mr. pink

[lauralh]

Holy shit, in WA servers get state minimum wage with tips ON TOP, rather than $2+tips >=min wage like in, um, ever other state in the freakin' country. I am so never tipping more than 10% in Seattle again. Unless I've seen the server naked, I mean.

edit: For those of you who have never served outside of WA state, fed. min. wage is around $2.50 for waitstaff. If you make it up with tips, that is. Otherwise the establishment has to make it up.

edit2: NY is $3.85

Comments

[skipbreakfast.livejournal.com]

Fuck that. Let's become waitpeople.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

I KNOW HUH

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

HOLY SHIT. (http://www.seiu503.org/action/labor_news_05/labornewsmar22.cfm?bSuppressLayout=1&)

[llarian.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm...

I've never tipped based on any sort of perceived amount the server was making. Some get more than minimum wage plus tips here, as with many places. I don't understand why the base pay is a factor in the amount you tip?

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

see changes

[llarian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know that. I dunno, I guess I just look at it the I'm not responsible for paying somebody's salary if they don't do good, and I'll happily pay way above and beyond the standard 15% or whatever gratutity if they're a rockstar.

I don't give a shit how much waitstaff makes (and yes, I've done it for a living), I give a shit about good service. =) Quid pro quo. =)

i've waited tables back home

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

I can't in good conscience tip under 15% in other states, no matter how bad the service is, but I have almost never encountered service worth 20% ANYWHERE.

Re: i've waited tables back home

[llarian.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. I certainly can tip under 15% in any state (or even not leave one) if I think my service is particularly bad and it appears to be the server's fault. I've done that several times and have no issues with it whatsoever.

Flip-side is that I'll tip up to 25% for exceptional service, which I've felt I've gotten in a few places. That's rare too though. More often I'll ask to talk to manager and tell them how much I liked that particular server.

Re: i've waited tables back home

[chris.livejournal.com]

i tip 20% if the service was good, and usually 15% unless they killed my dog or something.

Servers in washington may make more, but that doesn't mean they dont deserve less tips. they still work as hard for them, and cost of living in seattle is a hell of a lot higher than other places in the country with lower wages.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

The cost of dining out here is more too, so the tips are going to be higher anyway. I was using the $2.50/hr to inform my standard of 15-20% tipping, and since this was incorrect, I'm going to change it.

[hotcrab.livejournal.com]

i knew this was the case. however, even not knowing, you have gained a reputation as the world's second worst tipper (after fritz)

i'd hate to see what you are tipping now

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

dude I always tipped 15-20% wtf are you smoking

[velvet.livejournal.com]

dude he's right dude

[llarian.livejournal.com]

dude?

[victory-goddess.livejournal.com]

I don't know which states you're refering to, but in CA it's min wage + tips, and depending who you work for, some places make sure you get taxed on tips using 7% of your food sales.

[skiplogic.livejournal.com]

same thing in oregon. i'm thinkin' herbaliser comes from the exception not the rule.

For me, tipping is a message to the service employee, and if I dont feel like I can afford a 15-20% tip on top of my food in case I get really good service at a restaurant, then I can't afford to go there.

Seriously if you're uncomfortable with how much it costs to eat out, dont. It's really expensive and not necessary.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

ok, "every state except west coast states"

I'm not uncomfortable with the cost of eating out, I was just using an incorrect metric.

[chris.livejournal.com]

what exactly is the metric then? I just assumed it was 15-20 everywhere.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

It's not hard and fast, but when someone is making:
(min wage/2)+abs(min wage-tips)
I'm going to tip more than when someone is making
min wage+ tips

I mean the minimum wage in WA and OR (http://www.seiu503.org/action/labor_news_05/labornewsmar22.cfm?bSuppressLayout=1&)is way higher than most states'.

[xaotica.livejournal.com]

for real.

i fucking hate it when i go out to eat, and the people i'm with tip really shitty amounts, forcing me to pay extra to make it a decent tip.

is there ANYONE who is under the impression that minimum wage is actually enough to live on?

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

ok, "every state except west coast states"

[daeverra.livejournal.com]

I hated working tables in VA. It was seriously $2/hr plus tips... and you share tips with kitchen staff.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

same in Louisiana

[skipbreakfast.livejournal.com]

I was paid $2.13/hr to bus tables in NJ. The waitstaff rarely paid me tips, and all of those tips were reported. Additionally, I was charge a flat fee for eating meals from the kitchen (which I never got) for every shift I worked.

[interdictor.livejournal.com]

They should have availed themselves of the public education system.

[pamc.livejournal.com]

Who says they didn't?

[sarahbliss.livejournal.com]

I wrote a response to this.

It became 8 paragraphs long.

I went ahead and made it a private entry in my LJ.

I mean, there's explaining it, and then there's fuckin' picking you up and taking you there.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

taking you where?

[sarahbliss.livejournal.com]

It's an expression I use when people toss brevity out the window and start to get carried away when making a case for their viewpoint. After they've already wrote it down, drew a map, and painted a picture- "Dude, I get it, you don't have to take me there".

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

at least say "right on" or "you suck"

[skipbreakfast.livejournal.com]

you on, right suck!

[nonstatic.livejournal.com]

well i'm definitely not doin 20% again unless that shit is outstanding. fuck, i had no idea.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

heh (http://www.livejournal.com/users/herbaliser/1048639.html?thread=4928063#t4928063)

[jjsaysblah.livejournal.com]

washington state minimum wage is $7.35 an hour.

let's skip the national $2 an hour, the cost of living in seattle is much closer to new yorks than the rest of the country as an average.

so subtract 3.85 from 7.35 and you have a difference of 3.50 an hour, or an additional $140 a week. or an additional $560 a month. not quite a king's ransom, and that's assuming you even GET to work 40 hours a week... restaurant employers are notorious for the 35 or less a week schedule.

most restaurant workers in seattle make about 15/hr on average, wages and tips before taxes... a bit more than 30k a year.

no benefits, health insurance, 401k, pto, AND you get to give up your nights/weekends/holidays to work in a high stress/low prestige job?

yeah, they're overpaid all right.

sure there's the superstar bartender/waiter/cocktailer making 60-100k (equivilent a year and only working 35 hours a week here in seattle. but i'm here to tell you, and i know, that there's maybe a couple dozen of these in the entire city (excluding restaurant managers) and that's it. the other thousands are struggling, working TWO restaurant jobs just to stay afloat.

gods below, i wish everyone had to live a year or two on what they could do as a waiter or bartender.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

I don't know how you get "servers are overpaid" from "I've been overtipping."

I also don't know what you were trying to prove about NYC vs. Seattle waitstaff. They still do a lot better here with the base pay, the cost of living in NYC is still close to double Seattle.

yoiks - didn't mean to be as snarky as i sound.

[jjsaysblah.livejournal.com]

i don't see how you can miss "i've been overtipping" being snarked at with "servers are overpaid"... the last was sarcasm, and you are pretty good at picking up on it usually.

as to NYC Vs. Seattle waitstaff, i think you missed the point. i read YOUR point as "OMG, minimum wage for waiters across the country is $2, i'm overtipping". i was pointing out how little money the difference really adds up to as to the hourly wage. and that since NYC is much closer to Seattle as to cost of living, i used the difference in minimum wage with them instead of the rest of the country.

and the cost of living in NYC is higher, oh yes. but wages are as well, including waiters/bartenders. and by wages i mean tips... which is the point of this, that tips are a part of wages in restaurants presently.

that restaurants should or should not do away with tips, and simply pay a real living wage is another topic entirely.

[nonstatic.livejournal.com]

i'd be flyin high if i made 30k a year. if servers want to make more money, they shouldn't be servers.

[jjsaysblah.livejournal.com]

unless you are a student, i submit you should be doing something else. less than 30k a year and you're flying high? you realize the median american income is 43 a year, right?

just TRY and buy a house in seattle if you are making 43k or less a year, much less 30k.

delete this and the one preceding if you want to, something screwed up

[jjsaysblah.livejournal.com]

well, this is just swell.

the above comment was to someone called non-static, who it appears deleted the comment after i responded. or lj ate it, lj has been wonky lately.

anyhoo... this is what he wrote, and the above comment was my response.

"i'd be flyin high if i made 30k a year. if servers want to make more money, they shouldn't be servers."

[nonstatic.livejournal.com]

hehe thanks, i think i'm doing just fine. the median american income doesn't mean shit to me when the bulk of americans are deep into credit card/loan debt and consuming more than everyone else on the planet buying shit they don't need.

[jjsaysblah.livejournal.com]

ahhhh... now i see where you're coming from.

nevermind.

[sarahbliss.livejournal.com]

Even if they only earned the two bucks an hour, anybody doing really shoddy work and getting paid for it is overpaid in my book.

Though that wage difference would explain why waitstaff here act the most as if customers matter the least, compared to waitstaff in the other 33 states where I've dined out. And yet, the bartenders seem to be the same everywhere.

I mean, I never had a waitperson horror story until coming here, now I almost expect them. And I've always been anal-retentive, so I know it isn't me.

[tyrven.livejournal.com]

People can be so self-righteous about tipping.

I lost a friend a few years ago for leaving a five percent tip at a restaraunt because the service was horrible (mixed up the orders, never refilled the water, took twenty minutes to process the check, etc). My perspective: tips are intended to provide accountability; to tip well for poor service is to reinforce that behavior. I also told the waitress why I "only" left 5%; my friend, embarassed, left an additional 10% on the table.

The irony of this is that on average I tip 5% more than this friend and often higher for exceptional service. I pay FAR more in tipping than she does.

Her perspective: by "punishing" them I am not giving them an incentive to work harder, but only fostering bitterness.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

it all depends if you want pee in your soup

[tyrven.livejournal.com]

Which all depends on the type of soup and whether or not it will benefit from the extra nutrients and flavor that urine provides.