FWIW, I live and work in NYC (and even support another person, for the moment) for a good chunk less than $26 and hour but it’s really difficult and unfun. If I made what I make but lived in, say, North Carolina (where our satellite office is) I’d be livin’ large.
Why am I supposed to hate on Glass Lewis and Co when it’s the asshole truck owner that fired him? There is no indication that Glass Lewis & Co demanded he be fired. It makes sense if they called the owner to say hey, please don’t bad mouth us on Twitter. I didn’t even know you are supposed to tip at food trucks (thought tipping was for wait service or deliveries?) so it seems like a harmless error.
3 Likes
But on the downside, you’d be living in NC.
Doubling the salary wouldn’t double the cost of lunch.
If I’m paying $10 for my sandwich, which takes, what, 2 people 5 mins to make? At $13/hr labour costs will be $2.16. Double their salary, and the sandwich goes up by less than $2.50.
2 Likes
Not tipping on a big order is maybe not super nice, but it’s not mandatory, many people probably don’t realize food truck staff rely on tips (I sure wouldn’t have thought of it), and frankly, it’s outside of the truck’s staff control.
However, the truck’s owner is in control of his or her employees and their professional or lack thereof behavior, and tip-shaming a paying customer is MOST CERTAINLY unprofessional behavior. Probably call for immediate dismissal, it goes beyond a write-up.
I am the first person to call into serious question class stratification in today’s society, and the problems it leads to. But this trend I see of trying to fit every little occurrence into this “us vs. them” narrative of class warfare is overdone. It’s like we’re equating a company that didn’t give a tip on a big order at a food truck, to billionaires screwing over the masses. They’re not comparable, and shouldn’t be lumped into the same narrative, because lumping them together blurs the issue of who the parties are that really need to be scrutinized. It’s not these jerks who didn’t tip on a big food truck order.
For the record, I tend to be a heavy tipper.
11 Likes
If you’re paying fifteen bucks for lunch you should have the decency to tip. If you cannot afford to tip, don’t eat out. You should at least round up or toss in a dollar.
$13 an hour in New York (assuming you’re paying the guy all day) works out to about a thousand dollars every other week. Before taxes. Looks like someone’s having a lot of soup for dinner.
Exactly right.
Having tips factored in to drop the miniumum wage is repulsive. Tips, okay, cos it’s a tough, shitty job making folks’ dinner, and serving it to them, so you deserve some kind of goddamn bonus. But that should be extra, not so as not to starve, dammit.
4 Likes
You say that you “understood why he had to be fired”, but I don’t. Actually reading the article, it appears that the owner of the food truck encouraged employees to use social media, so much so that he actually rewarded them as teams for doing so.
2 Likes
It should be remembered that restaurants and take-out are a convenience. One should expect to pay a tip (unless the service is absolutely friggin’ horrible), or the tipping system should be done away with altogether and a living wage be instituted. The average adult is capable of making their own damn sandwich, so stop acting like you deserve a sandwich be made and served to you.
2 Likes
Circular reasoning. People are tipped because they don’t make a decent hourly wage. People don’t make a decent hourly wage because they get tips. Rinse, Repeat, and the only one who benefits is the employers.
2 Likes
I think they call this “concern trolling”.
3 Likes
The employer rewarded crews who’s customers gave good reviews on social media. The dude was fired because he embarrassed his employer and raised the ire of the companies customers on social media.
I organize large (5,000-10,000 attendee) events for a group of about 30 food trucks.
More than half are owner-operated. More than half are wildly successful, and have used the trucks as stepping stones to owning restaurants.
More than half do not have tip jars.
Just an FYI - not debating your point. Yes, it is good to tip for good service.
3 Likes
Ha! You actually think removing tipping from the equation will change an employer’s behavior? That’s delusional.
1 Like
That doesn’t really follow. As I read it, some people who work at Company X happen to buy sandwiches and someone makes it look as if Company X is somehow involved in being cheap.
1 Like
Even more so for large groups. It takes time with large orders, so while he is spending time on your group, customers who DO tip are getting served elsewhere, so he’s missing those tips. Also, it takes more work to make sure that with a large group that everyone gets served about the same time so they can all sit and eat together as a group.
1 Like
No tip jar, for starters.
4 Likes
I don’t tip for counter service unless I just wanna dump my change. To me there’s a big difference between someone waiting on my table and putting the food on the counter and calling my name. Food truck or counter, that’s the job.
The last barista that gave me my change said “No tip?” wasn’t to happy when I said “You’re not that cute.”
2 Likes
That depends on whether you think people who work full-time should have to depend on taxpayer-funded welfare programs. Paying less than a living wage is a very handy way for businesses to externalize costs to the rest of society.
12 Likes
