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.
Lol, this guy is worried about workers not paying their taxes.
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.
Let me make this real simple for you. When a worker does not report their tips properly they cheat themselves out of the full benefits of their social security. They also cheat themselves out of the percentage match that their employer should be paying into social security. Everyone who gets paid under the table is cheating themselves out of the full compensation they should be receiving for their labor. The rich don’t need to cheat us if we cheat oversleves. This is why we need financial literacy in schools.
Holy bootlicker batman, that’s why we’re saying tips need to go, employers need to just pay them a decent hourly wage.
And again, if the corporations lobbied for the tax burden to be moved from themselves to the poor, who stole from who first?
If you read my original comment I specifically stated that tipping culture needs to end. You are having an argument with yourself at this point.
See: https://kbin.social/m/antiwork@lemmy.fmhy.ml/t/211224/-/comment/883504
My guy they’re not a bootlicker you’re just completely missing their point. They aren’t defending corporations. Just pointing out one way in which the tradition of tip workers not reporting fully is actually beneficial for corporations.
But it’s true that point isn’t really relevant in the larger picture.
I disagree, he hasn’t shown that the amount of unreported tips each year is substantial enough to even affect social security. Especially in a world where more and more transactions are completely cashless. You know what makes a bigger difference? Undocumented migrants that work under the table.
According to https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/08/20/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/
“7.6 million immigrant workers are unauthorized immigrants,”
And https://immigrantdataca.org/indicators/median-hourly-wage
“in 2019, the median hourly wage […] $13 for undocumented immigrants”
So $13 x 40 hours x 52 weeks x 7.6M workers = $205B of untaxed income
According to https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/how-much-do-waiters-really-earn-in-tips/385515/
“Nationally this adds up to as much as $11 billion in unreported (and untaxed) income.”
Let’s also talk about wage theft because https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/owed-employers-face-little-accountability-for-wage-theft/
“According to one estimate from the nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute, reported and unreported wage theft could amount to as much as $50 billion per year owed to workers.”
So tell me again how workers are the ones causing the problems.
We need to revise the federal minimum wage, because it is obviously VERY VERY far behind a living wage as it was intended to be, and remove any caveats regarding tip based positions allowing a lower hourly wage. I’ve seen estimates that out the minimum anywhere between $23-$33 an hour if it kept up with inflation and/or productivity so anything less is just plain criminal.
NPR had the audacity to use a picture of a worker protesting for a living wage in this article. They completely miss the point of the protests and overall labor movement if they think it’s a customers responsibility to pay workers right.
Look, I know it’s idealist, but corporate profits are at an all time high. C-level execs make hundreds to thousands times what their lowest level employee does. It’s disgusting. The greed and their assumption that we will just let them continually be more greedy is disgusting. Maybe they don’t need all that. They can actually pay their employees better. They choose not to because we have barely any social nets in this country, what does exist can be really hard to get, and people have to eat and have a home. They prey on desperate people, hide behind the idea that minimum wage is "supposed to be for teenagers, and refuse to entertain the notion that they are the problem.
