I sympathize with the barista here, but mindset that customers need to cover 10 to 20% of his income is symptom of decades of brainwashing of employees and customers alike. In this case NPR is part of this brainwashing. I will not tip someone for doing their job. I will only tip when I feel it is needed based on the service provided.
I’m really disappointed in this article. Tipping culture needs to go away. It is disingenuous on all fronts. The customer gets lied to about the price of something. The company gets to subsidise their workforce to the detriment of the employees. And some employees will not file their earning correctly and commit tax fraud. If companies paid a living wage with benefits the employees would be much better off and the public wouldn’t be left holding the bag. NPR should have done an article about the real costs of tipping culture on the public. Tipped employees get shit for minimum wage, no health benefits, and will not be able to contribute/pull from the full benefits of social security later in life. And the public will be continually stuck trying to fix this stupid problem all because of greedy ass companies skimming as much money as they can from us.
Yes actually I am. When the worker cheats on their tip taxes then the company also doesn’t pay their percentage of social security taxes for the worker. The company frickin loves this btw because they pay less and the liability for accurate reporting lies on the worker. So the worker gets double cheated and will eventually receive less of their benefits than they should.
In 1960 businesses paid 52% per corporate income tax over $25,000. In 2020 they paid 22% for all income. https://taxfoundation.org/historical-corporate-tax-rates-brackets/
Corporate income taxes made up 23.2% of the U.S. governments income in 1960 while individual income taxes made up 44.0%. But in 2018 corporate income taxes only made up 11.3% of the U.S. government’s income where Individuals paid 49.8%.
But please, tell me again how endless programs borrowing against social security and rich people refusing to pay their share are okay but a waitress not reporting the $50 she made in cash tips is the real problem.
I read this article too and I don’t see where npr is saying this is ok. They are giving these workers a platform to express their side of it but what the workers are really saying is that they are being exploited financially. This main guy being interviewed says he loves doing this but the laws are allowing the business to subsidise his wages based on customer kindness. That is clearly not ok, the tipped minimum wage is clearly not ok.
“If there is some means of tipping that’s available to you, that should signal to you that workers there aren’t being paid enough,” says Schenker.
Literally all of the money in the business comes from customers. You pay with a tip or you pay in the price of the product.
It always astounds me that you guys want to put a capitalist middle man between you and the wages of the people that serve you.
It astounds you that we’d like for people’s income to be based on a predictable source rather than the customer’s whims? This works fine in other nations; no reason it can’t work in the US.
NPR like most American manipulation media is controlled by the rich. So this article is once again showing their true colors.
How about employers pay a decent wage - one where tipping isn’t necessary, we move to universal healthcare and we stop tipping altogether?
