I say this as someone who deeply enjoys the occasional drink: there is no known minimum safe dose of alcohol. Every drink shortens your potential lifespan.

I’d second this question - I use a lot of bancamp and so far it seems pretty ai-free

It’s industry standard as far as i’m aware.

Why is it an either/or? Do both.

Changing your economic habits can and does work. It’s just difficult, so people would rather not do it.

But yes, also vote, campaign, protest, etc.

On paper, yes. That’s how it works. Although let’s not pretend that minimum wage is actually a livable wage.

In practice, most employers have a policy that reads something like “we assume you’ve made enough in tips to hit minimum wage, if you don’t, please inform your manager.” Not only does this put the onus of enforcing the rule on employees, it also makes it easier for the restaraunt to say “you’re the only one having this problem, so you must be bad at your job” (when the reality is that no one else reports it for fear of disciplinary action).

Well start with “places that pay a fair wage.” At least there, you can feel better about not tipping, or tipping solely based on service quality. Obviously any restaraunt will still let you tip if you want to, why would they stop you?

Yes, it’ll be hard to stick to only those places. It will limit where you can go and you’ll have to do research before going someplace new. But doesn’t any meaningful action require effort?

I’d much prefer a stable, livable wage over recieving tips.

The problem is that no one is making a livable wage. At least as a server, there’s (on average) a pretty direct correlation between skill & effort and your income, so a decent server is probably making enough to live on. If you’re working retail, you’re barely making enough to survive on even as a low level manager.

Exactly! Don’t like paying tips? Stop eating at those establishments.

Absolutely!

But the people who say “just don’t tip” aren’t fixing anything.

If anything you should boycott the restaraunt.

unskilled labor

I hate that term. All labor is valuable.

It’s the reason some people make a whole career out of being a server

Ah, yes, painting working class people - usually women - as being greedy because they want to “have a career” (a.k.a. earn a livable wage).

Servers don’t make too much, billionaires do. All jobs should pay enough that you could continue to do them your whole life.

I can’t speak for those emoloyees, but since it seems like the pay structure seems designed to make tipping optional, I assume they’re anti-mandatory-tipping there

Yep. Continuing to patronize that establishment, whether or not you tip, perpetuates tipping culture.

Not true. There’s a restaraunt in my town (and not even a very large town!) that pays all staff the same (relatively decent) wage and splits any tips they do happen to get equally among all staff. Obviously people will still tip, because that’s the culture here, but if you didn’t tip it’s not like the staff won’t be paid at all.

Places like that are rare but they’re out there, and the principled thing to do would be to spend your money with establishments that are doing their best to be part of the solution.

It makes lots of sense when you realize that it makes more money for the owning class, so they like it a lot.

Also it got started right after slavery ended, so you can imagine who was getting told “sorry you didn’t make any money today, better luck tomorrow.”

Unless you have a degree or work a skilled trade, it’s pretty hard to find a job that out-earns serving. Most places, good servers and bartenders are actually making enough to live on (after tips), which you’d only get in retail if you’re management. (Sometimes not even then!)

There are plenty of ways to get faster table turn that don’t involve rushing your customers, like making sure the food is prepared quickly and accurately, or taking payment earlier so that customers can leave whenever they would like.

Obviously, yes, more tips makes more money than less-but-slightly higher tips, but a good server will manage to achieve both high quality and efficient service.

But yeah, everyone needs to make a livable wage, and tipping culture only helps the owning class.

As a server: I literally do care though. I love my regulars and it makes my day when they come in.

I’d still care just as much if I got paid a living wage, but like, don’t say we don’t care when many of us absolutely do.

Boycotting the restaraunt is the actual solution.

Not tipping just makes you an asshole.

Or, don’t eat places that don’t pay their workers