Tipping seems to be an increasingly controversial topic. Simultaneously, more and more places are asking for tips, while the general population is much more attuned to labor struggles and the fight for a living wage. There must then, of course, be a class-conscious perspective on how to handle tips in the labor struggle. To begin, let us understand the history and current conditions of tipping in the United States:
Despite initially being illegal, tipping became prominent after the end of slavery as a way for employers to withhold wages from specifically Black workers. In 1938, Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which wrote tipping into law by establishing a separate minimum wage for tipped and non-tipped workers. The federal minimum wage has risen very little over the years, and doubly so for tipped workers, whose federal minimum wage has been $2.13 since 1996. Despite there being laws put in place in 1966 to require employers to raise wages up to the minimum wage if tips don’t cover the difference, wage theft continues to be a rampant issue. The issue of tipped wages overly impacts women and racial minorities. In particular, women make up 68% of employees who rely on tips, despite being 48% of the workforce. Further, many who work tipped positions face sexual harassment on a regular basis, and are more likely to live in poverty than workers who are in non-tipped positions.
It is pretty easy at this point to say that tips are an outdated and intentionally oppressive way of paying workers; still, it’s not easy to imagine that tipping is going anywhere soon. More so, even among the workers who have an unfavorable view of the tipping system in general, suggesting to those staff that they no longer receive tips at all would certainly not go over well.
In a standard sit-down service restaurant, wait staff usually receive the tipped minimum wage in their state, or close to it, and rely fully on tips; then there are staff like bussers who are paid more than wait staff but still less than minimum wage that are given cuts from the servers’ tips. Kitchen staff usually are paid slightly above the non-tipped minimum wage. With these pay discrepancies comes a strange dynamic, as both Front of House (FOH) and Back of House (BOH) tend to resent the other sector for the pay they take home. BOH might get higher wages, but FOH will often take home much higher checks after tips from a good night.
Both departments view themselves as having to deal with more difficult work for less pay than the other. Working in the kitchen is undoubtedly more taxing physically, but facing customers is taxing mentally on a good day and can be practically abusive on a bad one. Tips actually make this problem worse, as customers are able to hold the potential tip over servers’ heads in exchange for getting special treatment, or as free range to verbally or sexually harass the servers. At the same time, tips can be a way that customers show genuine appreciation for the workers, especially as FOH workers will inevitably connect with and make friends with their favorite regulars. Plus, FOH workers are unlikely to want to part with tips based on mere principle of not wanting to take home less money.
But the truth is, working where tips are essential versus non-essential makes a huge difference in the working environment. When every customer interaction and every order is wrapped up around the obligation of a tip, resentment easily builds when customers refuse tips whether for good reason or not. All customer interactions are wrapped up in the obligation, so the level of stress at every point in the service is increased exponentially. The gain of the potential money comes with a loss of frustration between customers and employees, between coworkers, and the likelihood of wage-theft is exacerbated under positions with obligatory tips. When we are organizing for demands, we should be fighting for higher base pays, as well as the right to accept tips that are split between workers equally. This change will build camaraderie between workers, allow for customers to support us in our work, and ease our economic burdens as we fight for a more sustainable restaurant industry structure.
One of the primary reasons given for the reliance on tips is because of the generally low profit margins for restaurants. On one hand, this is a lazy excuse for companies that work to scrape out new profits in every way imaginable. On the other hand, this is indicative of the systemic problems of capitalism, where the constant need for expanding output and growing profit that the business is under will always negatively impact the workers. It is truly only through a planned economy that the restaurant industry will be able to function, and do so ethically. This is why it is important to center the struggle for political power in our labor organizing. While state unions are subject to the sub-par standards that are put forward in the new deal and subsequent labor laws, we need to be building an independent structure that raises our struggles to a greater level and prepares workers to fight for a socialist revolution. Only through such an independent structure will we be able to target the inequalities throughout the working-class and change the fundamental problems that the restaurant industry has.