Robert ReichThank the workers who serve you. Appreciate the workers who care for you. Respect the workers who pick up your trash. Salute the workers who get you your mail. Honor the workers who teach your children.
Pay all workers a living wage.
Jeff GriggAnd tip well when you go out to eat!
Afinial@JeffGrigg @rbreich shouldn’t have to. Pay staff a living wage, tip should be a bonus, not a means to survive!
And that's one of the big differences between "should be" and "is."
The legally mandated "minimum wage" is not sufficient to survive on, in most places. But where there is tipping, employers are allowed to *pay less than minimum wage,* as long as tips "typically" make up for it (for most workers).
So if you don't tip, the server may starve, and/or be unable to pay rent, and be out on the streets homeless.
Unfair, yes.
But those are the actual laws.
@JeffGrigg @rbreich the min wage in Australia is $23.30 per hour. This is considerably above the US min wage. If someone is a casual worker they get more. We still tip (a lot less than the US) but those tips will be divided between all the workers in the restaurant from the server to the dish hand. Our restaurants still manage to survive, possibly not with as much profit to the owners. The cost of our meal is a little more expensive but probably comparable to the US.