Quote:
Originally Posted by Xoulrath
Chris, if you think someone goes to work to make $2.13 an hour to serve others, then you are out of your mind. They go for the incentive of the tip. Hopefully this leads them to serve their customers well, though obviously that isn't always the case.
Same deal for any type of delivery driver. If you really believe they go to work to be a servant to others for $7 dollars an hour, you are out of your mind. The gas cost alone for a typical hour of delivery when I was doing it years ago was almost $3/hr. The gas cost now? More than likely at least double, as that $3 figure goes all the way back to 1.50/gallon gas.
So basically you are saying to me that these people (myself included years ago) go to work to make NO money? You are an economist (or have a Masters in Economy iIrc). What incentive is there for anyone in these fields to go to work? There is none, unless there is a TIP.
I'm not saying I agree with the premise. I would prefer to be charged a bit more for the meal and have the waitstaff paid hourly like most other workers. It just isn't the case. Like I said, if the service sucks, I let the person know and I usually don't tip at all. As far as the 30%, well that just balances out their earnings for the evening against those that tip poorly or not at all.
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Long Response, feel free to ignore:
I doubt you were only delivering one pizza per hour, on average. Everyone works for something, so if you are working for nothing, you are either an idiot or you are about to quit/start looking for another job. I put $70 of gas in my tank every week just to get to my office and back, which means I am putting a noticeable amount of an entire day's pay just to earn that paycheck.
I think people will go to a restaurant and serve others for any amount of money that is: A) more than they would get for not working, and B) more than they would get working at any other job they could get.
For instance, Summer 2009, when the job market was the pits, I worked at wal-mart as a
sales associate, and I had a BA at the time. The shocking thing is I had 2 co-workers, one with an MBA and one a CPA, working
Part-Time. They were the lucky ones. You don't know the number of people that I would see waiting in line at HR at that store to fill out an application in a $600+ suit. I was lucky because I had applied for a job at that store almost 9 months before I got it.
Thankfully I didn't have to support anyone but myself, but man I felt bad for some people there and Wal-Mart doesn't allow you to accept tips. (I worked in the Garden Center, which requires a ton of interaction with customers in order to make sales, moreso than any other department I would say, so tips were commonly offered for helping to lug that 300lb BBQ pit out to the minivan.) Believe it or not, Wal-Mart pays pretty well, and promotions are common for those who deserve them(I was offered a management position which I turned down, and another promotion was given to a hard working co-worker and friend.)
I understand what you are saying, and with gas as high as it is, it really is like the wage paid to unskilled service providers is there to cover your costs to get to/from work. As far as non-club restaurants go, It seems to me almost as if the restaurant is providing a venue for servers to earn something of a "commission". They are covering the transaction costs for your labor, ie gas, for you to serve their food. Any profits you make from your labor are based on performance, theoretically. It's kinda like a strip bar, where strippers pay the owner of the venue so they earn tips from their performance.
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tl;dr: tips are a cultural thing just as much as they are an economic phenomenon. I'll just say that I don't think tips are given for the same reason across all professions. Why do you tip curbside baggage handlers at the airport? Is it the same reason you tip a waiter/waitress?