Working in the restaurant industry is no easy task. It’s something I’ve become familiar with over the past nine months or so as a host at a local restaurant. While it’s not the most exciting job I’ve ever had, I get paid minimum wage and am able to save money while being a full-time graduate student. But despite the income I get from my paycheck and occasional tips from preparing takeout, my job has opened my eyes to the inequities severs and subminimum wage workers are subject to and deserve more.
Serving is no longer as lucrative as it used to be. “So many servers/bartenders in the restaurant industry do this part-time and are looking for cash rather than a salary with full benefits,” said Marc Hurwitz, who writes the food blog Boston’s Hidden Restaurants, in an email interview.
There once was a large appeal because servers could have flexible schedules while making up to $50 an hour if their establishment was busy and each table tipped adequately. But there’s a rising crisis in restaurants involving the reliance on tips to fill that subminimum wage gap.
Massachusetts has raised the subminimum wage several times over the past 20 years, but not by much. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2003, the Massachusetts subminimum wage was $2.63 per hour. Twenty years later, the department reported just a $4.12 increase, with the Massachusetts subminimum wage being $6.75 as of the beginning of this year. These subminimum wages are set with the preconceived notion that they will be offset by tips.
In recent years, though, the restaurant industry has experienced changes that call that into question. For one, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected proper staffing in restaurants. According to the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC), unemployment reached 42% when the pandemic was at its worst, which has, in turn, required the industry to try and crawl its way back to normal, hurting the quality service restaurants can provide and, therefore, their servers’ tips. Additionally, companies such as Square, Toast, and Ziosk have created pre-selected tipping options that create a form of “guilt tipping” by which customers feel obligated to tip certain amounts and resent the awkward position it can put them in. This is something I’ve experienced when going out to eat myself; it makes neither the server nor customer experience enjoyable and can result in lower tips — or none at all.
Due to the numerous changes in the industry over the past several years, what was once a great way to make money quickly is becoming a waste of time. “We are now almost three years removed from the pandemic, and from a customer’s standpoint it seems to be an unacceptable excuse anymore for short-staffed restaurants,” said Blythe Biernacki of Northbridge, Massachusetts, who has been a server for more than 20 years.
“Most customers go out to eat to enjoy a good quality, relaxing experience, and if they go into a restaurant where staff are running around frantic because they’re understaffed and can’t possibly do the job of two or three other people that are no longer there, that is going to be a negative experience for the guest,” she said. “Sure, if it happens one time the customer may say, ‘Oh they just had a rough day,’ but if they go back and every time they go back, it’s the same frantic experience, that customer is not going to come back anymore and then you’re going to lose loyal customers which means you’re losing money.”
This is a set of interconnected issues, creating a very large problem with difficult solutions in the restaurant industry. Restaurants work understaffed, and so they underperform, servers aren’t tipped, and tech is being used to help solve the problem but sometimes making it worse. It’s a vicious cycle that needs to be broken in an industry facing challenges from all sides.
I believe a radical but effective solution would be for restaurants to tip their servers when they’re losing out on money from their tables because of poor restaurant management. This is something I’ve seen the restaurant I work at do on rare occasions and especially bad nights, but it should be implemented more. Whether it’s because the kitchen is understaffed and therefore customers are angry about the wait or management didn’t properly staff the front-of-house for a busy night, that shouldn’t affect the income of servers who rely on those tips.
While the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Program requires employers to make up the difference in a server’s pay if they don’t make at least $15 per hour including their subminimum wage and tips, people didn’t become servers to be paid minimum wage. They became servers to make that ideal $50 an hour I discussed earlier. This doesn’t help them as much as it should, but restaurants making up for that 20% on a bill a server was stiffed on could.
While this is one solution that restaurant management could implement, there are other potential solutions that could be implemented from every perspective involved in this issue. “I believe that the cost for service should be included in food and drink price and that gratuity is not part of what a worker must rely upon for principal compensation to make a living wage — along with benefits like health care insurance, and benefits such as vacation and sick time,” said Jack Canzoneri, a union-side labor lawyer in Massachusetts. “The cost of the meal should include all of that, even if that means the meals cost more. The tip in that context would be more of a bonus and quite literally a gratuity as thanks for something extraordinary — not the customer helping to provide basic compensation that is the core of what the worker must rely upon to make a living wage.”
Including a server’s wage in the cost of a meal is an idea I can get behind, as I think it guarantees a better recovery of the restaurant industry and has the potential to heal some of the issues it currently faces such as understaffing. A guarantee of being paid adequately could draw more workers back and help the quality of service restaurants can provide. The only problem is that tipping has always been viewed as optional, and getting all customers to see the benefit of the price of their meal rising and how that money is being reallocated may create obstacles.
I think a potentially helpful and less dramatic first step could involve gently educating customers on tipping etiquette, something I’ve seen but haven’t necessarily heard of the way Blythe Biernacki explained it. “At the bottom of the check they have printed on the bottom what the tip is for 18%, 20% and 30%, for each bill. This feature on the check is something new that they didn’t have 20 years ago when I started serving,” Blythe said. “I feel like when I worked at an establishment that was more accessible to a younger crowd that may not have dined out on their own without parents, or have had much guidance in going out to eat that a feature like that on a check would be helpful for them.”
Sure, serving seems like a surefire way to make decent money, but that’s banking on the idea that people are kind and that they know that tipping at least 20% is the expectation in restaurants for servers to make a decent salary. {not sure what this adds} Servers can face rude, unreasonable and downright demeaning customers, but are expected to remain poised and kind no matter how they’re treated — and sometimes they still don’t receive the compensation they deserve.
While I agree that all solutions that have been offered could provide positive, realistic solutions, I do think there’s another thing to keep in mind as well, which is there being a lack of knowledge among restaurant-goers and the ethics of being a good customer. It’s not talked about enough, and I think implementing more of what Blythe explains – a receipt displaying tip options but not forcing the hand of the customer – could begin to create a much-needed difference in a rather difficult and demanding industry that eases towards a greater solution rather than changing the whole industry in one day.
Julia's Blog 