Restaurant-hospitality business is brutal even in a good environment! Post Covid BS and inflationary cost increases and raised minimum wage are devastating the industry even more! As a retired Day Job guy I was looking forward to being back as a full time musician but during the pandemic there were No Places to Play! So we changed it up. We cut deals with the remaining places that stayed open and we were basically working for tips! Busking, the British call it. Since we've got skills and people were so starved for entertainment we did better than all right. Sure, we had to go without a drummer and pay close attention to our audiences, but it was a blast! Good money and all my musician buddies waiting for "It" to be over couldn't understand how we were working so much and making such good money! Timing? Innovation? Luck?
Thank goodness for musicians like you. Covid policies really came close to destroying the entire live music industry. One which I don't think I could live without.
• America's tipping culture is crazy. There are non-human involved transactions that now even ask for tips.
• As tipped wages go up the expected tip % or service charge should go down. Lower tipped wage minimums were to acknowledge the value of tips. The only way total compensation doesn't stay the same is if wages go higher and tips stay the same.
• Some of the tipping culture is effectively price discrimination. It lets some people pay more or less than others. If you'r a young family of 4 maybe 10% is all you can do. If you're an empty nester maybe you'll give 25%.
• If some wait staff are worth $100k then restaurants should be able to figure that out and pay individuals differentially.
• I hardly ever tip more than the mandatory levels at higher-end restaurants. They're already selling and supposed to be providing superior service. I think they should just raise the headline prices and say no tipping, though.
• Private chefs already exist and have online bookings. They're not cheap, but they're not necessarily outrageous.
• Human labor is expensive. I'd rather pay up front rather than on the back side through increased social spending. If the Clark St. landlords deserve to get paid the restaurant workers can too.
• Might all these issues cause the number of restaurants to fall? Possibly.
Tipping was a great system before the oh so benevolent do-gooders started screwing it up. Every kid growing up should work in at least one restaurant; you learn about people in so many directions - the kitchen, the team, the busboys, the front of the house, customers of all shapes and sizes. I've worked in some low-end places (e.g., fast food, steak chains) and one rather nice establishment for some time (very posh for the area but not like NYC).
I loved waiting tables on the high end. Honestly I think our hourly wage was less than $5. But you could walk away from a good table with big bills in your hand even at lunch; dinner was off the charts.
We waiters were a team but also competed - I can tell you who the high earners were and who rarely got good tips, and why. (Busboys were tipped out at the end of the night, so everyone knew how everyone did - and busboys competed to work with the best waiters, and vice-versa.) One gal hated the work, constantly griping off the floor, and her fake cheeriness at the tables fooled few. Our top guy was so smooth - suave, dapper, low-key friendly but unobtrusive - it wasn't even funny; he was a wonder to watch. I was kind of in the middle but my superpower was reading the table for their needs & preferences. It was fun for me, always watching the floor to see who wanted me to stay away; linger to chat; dropped his fork; needs a refill. I wasn't as good as the tip-top guys on being all things to all people, and I had a soft spot for bad tippers (families, pairs of old ladies). But I did very well, very quickly. Cash in hand at the end of the day: sweet.
This was long ago, with a sad but nowadays predictable ending: All of the good waiters quit when the front of the house decided we should start pooling tips. That that would be more equitable, because some people tip well and some tip poorly, so, y'know, even it out. They also wanted tips on the credit cards so they could better control this new equity.
It wasn't a mass walk-out but over the next month or so, everyone earning above average tips simply, literally, left. A good waiter works hard to make a bad table better; a bad waiter means a good table leaves disappointed, with a low tip to prove it. So: brilliant move, managers, and surely customers were thrilled to be left with luck of the draw across equally crummy waiters who thought they'd get something for nothing, making all tables worse. Not a metaphor, just one small illustration.
We always tip good waiters (and bartenders) well and in cash.
The moral of the story, really, is that risk-takers and entrepreneurs develop products and services for which there would be a need. And that need often is the result of some well-meaning, but deleterious government policy. Thank goodness we still allow entrepreneurship in this country.
Restaurant-hospitality business is brutal even in a good environment! Post Covid BS and inflationary cost increases and raised minimum wage are devastating the industry even more! As a retired Day Job guy I was looking forward to being back as a full time musician but during the pandemic there were No Places to Play! So we changed it up. We cut deals with the remaining places that stayed open and we were basically working for tips! Busking, the British call it. Since we've got skills and people were so starved for entertainment we did better than all right. Sure, we had to go without a drummer and pay close attention to our audiences, but it was a blast! Good money and all my musician buddies waiting for "It" to be over couldn't understand how we were working so much and making such good money! Timing? Innovation? Luck?
Great observations as always Mr Carter!
Thank goodness for musicians like you. Covid policies really came close to destroying the entire live music industry. One which I don't think I could live without.
Amen to that brother!
Thoughts:
• America's tipping culture is crazy. There are non-human involved transactions that now even ask for tips.
• As tipped wages go up the expected tip % or service charge should go down. Lower tipped wage minimums were to acknowledge the value of tips. The only way total compensation doesn't stay the same is if wages go higher and tips stay the same.
• Some of the tipping culture is effectively price discrimination. It lets some people pay more or less than others. If you'r a young family of 4 maybe 10% is all you can do. If you're an empty nester maybe you'll give 25%.
• If some wait staff are worth $100k then restaurants should be able to figure that out and pay individuals differentially.
• I hardly ever tip more than the mandatory levels at higher-end restaurants. They're already selling and supposed to be providing superior service. I think they should just raise the headline prices and say no tipping, though.
• Private chefs already exist and have online bookings. They're not cheap, but they're not necessarily outrageous.
• Human labor is expensive. I'd rather pay up front rather than on the back side through increased social spending. If the Clark St. landlords deserve to get paid the restaurant workers can too.
• Might all these issues cause the number of restaurants to fall? Possibly.
Tipping was a great system before the oh so benevolent do-gooders started screwing it up. Every kid growing up should work in at least one restaurant; you learn about people in so many directions - the kitchen, the team, the busboys, the front of the house, customers of all shapes and sizes. I've worked in some low-end places (e.g., fast food, steak chains) and one rather nice establishment for some time (very posh for the area but not like NYC).
I loved waiting tables on the high end. Honestly I think our hourly wage was less than $5. But you could walk away from a good table with big bills in your hand even at lunch; dinner was off the charts.
We waiters were a team but also competed - I can tell you who the high earners were and who rarely got good tips, and why. (Busboys were tipped out at the end of the night, so everyone knew how everyone did - and busboys competed to work with the best waiters, and vice-versa.) One gal hated the work, constantly griping off the floor, and her fake cheeriness at the tables fooled few. Our top guy was so smooth - suave, dapper, low-key friendly but unobtrusive - it wasn't even funny; he was a wonder to watch. I was kind of in the middle but my superpower was reading the table for their needs & preferences. It was fun for me, always watching the floor to see who wanted me to stay away; linger to chat; dropped his fork; needs a refill. I wasn't as good as the tip-top guys on being all things to all people, and I had a soft spot for bad tippers (families, pairs of old ladies). But I did very well, very quickly. Cash in hand at the end of the day: sweet.
This was long ago, with a sad but nowadays predictable ending: All of the good waiters quit when the front of the house decided we should start pooling tips. That that would be more equitable, because some people tip well and some tip poorly, so, y'know, even it out. They also wanted tips on the credit cards so they could better control this new equity.
It wasn't a mass walk-out but over the next month or so, everyone earning above average tips simply, literally, left. A good waiter works hard to make a bad table better; a bad waiter means a good table leaves disappointed, with a low tip to prove it. So: brilliant move, managers, and surely customers were thrilled to be left with luck of the draw across equally crummy waiters who thought they'd get something for nothing, making all tables worse. Not a metaphor, just one small illustration.
We always tip good waiters (and bartenders) well and in cash.
The moral of the story, really, is that risk-takers and entrepreneurs develop products and services for which there would be a need. And that need often is the result of some well-meaning, but deleterious government policy. Thank goodness we still allow entrepreneurship in this country.