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Friday Poll: End of Tipping at Restaurants?


Yesterday I posted a story about a restaurateur who was ending tipping at his establishments, because he thought this more equitable to all his employees:

Under the current gratuity system, not everyone at a restaurant is getting a fair shake. Waiters at full-service New York restaurants can expect a full 20 percent tip on most checks, for a yearly income of $40,000 or more on average — some of the city’s top servers easily clear $100,000 annually. But the problem isn’t what waiters make, it’s what cooks make. A mid-level line cook, even in a high-end kitchen, doesn’t have generous patrons padding her paycheck, and as such is, on average, unlikely to make much more than $35,000 a year.

The fact that the people cooking your food often earn less than the people who serve it is a troublesome issue not just for the cooks themselves, but also for their employers — especially in a high cost-of-living city. “We’ve never faced a shortage of talented cooks like we have this year,” Meyer told me. “We’re in a day and age where there are more talented cooks than there ever have been, but fewer of them who want to live in New York to start a fine dining career.”

Whatever your own reasons for voting, would you vote to keep or end tipping at restaurants?

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The Phantom Stranger
9 years ago

Call me Old School: I like to be able to reward good performance with a very generous tip; and to leave a small tip for underperformance.

Karl
9 years ago

Easier not worrying about tipping.
Pay and go!

Tony
9 years ago

tipping gives more options to express an opinion on the meal plus service