[Sca-cooks] food manners/tipping OOP/OT

[grizly]

-----Original Message-----
> > > >

Presumably you wouldn't go out with me anyway ;-)

Of course, you are entitled to your opinion.  However, My Personal Opinion
is that a restaurants *should* pay their waitstaff a living wage and a
gratuity *should* be just that... a gratuity.  Thanks for a job performed
well.  Otherwise it should not be considered a gratuity or "tip" but should
instead be mandatory and added to the bill as a "service charge" (as they do
in many European countries.)  Which is one of the reasons I'm happy to be
living in California, one of the states which does require that "tip
earners" be paid minimum wage rather than having their wages adjusted to
*assume* that the tip earner's tips are part of that minimum instead of the
supplement that it *should* be. < < < < < <


I offer that there is a much more complicated picture here than just "paying
a living wage" to servers.  I suspect that the servers at the higher end
establishments, or in more affluent areas, or who have established a strong
work ethic and relationship with their clientelle will disagree with
changing the status quo.  I good restaurant in the current system will
garner a server darned good cash.

Additionally, there is the higher economics of this whole "living weage
argument" in that it is a moving target that will never be satisfied.  You
force me to pay my servers higher wages, so my overhead increases, and I
have to charge more for my goods/services to meet the same revenues.  Now we
all have to pay more for goods and services, and the minimum "living wage"
goes up, and we statrt again at the beginning.  I hate being the one to drag
up the suggestion, but given that everyone knows how it works, servers are
able to make an informed choice about taking the job, diners can make an
informed choice about going out to eat or not, and employers can make
informed choices about wages to entice the level of personnel they want and
can afford.

It's not a perfect system by any means, but it scares the bejeezus out of me
to have federally or state mandated minimum wage increases simply because
someone draws a breath and is on payroll.  All those politicians realize
that union contracts are also connected to minimum wage levels through
multipliers and add-ons.  You just THINK food costs a lot today . . . wait
until the teamsters' union wages get jacked up when the next minimum wage
hike comes along.

niccolo
(no more politics today . . . gotta go paint some walls).