49th Parallel Rumor

[MurrayM]

If I was in the service industry, me-thinks I'd rather be paid a higher wage and not have to suck up to, or shrug off patron indecencies in a quest for tips.

Either way the patron pays; either through higher product/service prices and maybe even a steady, reliable living wage for workers, or tips.

 

[firehoser75]

"in return I tip those who take care of me.

I am also not afraid to not tip if the service was sub standard."
I do not like the "tip added in the bill automatically" concept. I find, that when the staff feel they have to work for the tip (meaning give good service), the service is almost always better than the "tip automatically added" places. Just what I have experienced over the years.
If service is sub par, and I have seen this several times (for example where a waitress spent almost all of her time chatting to a man sitting alone at the bar), I leave a very small tip instead of none, just so the staff know that I "did not forget" and so they know I was not impressed.
However, I also agree with Murray, that a decent wage should be the "foundation".

 

[SteveK]

If I was in the service industry, me-thinks I'd rather be paid a higher wage and not have to suck up to, or shrug off patron indecencies in a quest for tips.

Either way the patron pays; either through higher product/service prices and maybe even a steady, reliable living wage for workers, or tips.

Suck up? It is the Service industry we are talking about!
What does service mean to you? No need to suck up, just make my day more enjoyable. Higher wages than the job requires will not necessarily provide better service, then what.

 

[MurrayM]

Suck up? It is the Service industry we are talking about!
What does service mean to you? No need to suck up, just make my day more enjoyable. Higher wages than the job requires will not necessarily provide better service, then what.

Concepts too vague, explanations too short, misinterpretations and tangential romps ensue.

Never mind...

 

[OldDan1943]

I tip in cash.

 

[firehoser75]

I tip in cash.

+1

 

[SteveK]

I agree with the decent wage base. In our world wait staff are paid a minimum wage and told that they can make it up with tips. Early years in work force many have related that the wage was minimum but said most of the time tips were more than the wage for the day.
Next time you dine out imagine the staff making $15 hourly preparing and serving you and 3-5 other tables for 2 hours and then you tip 20% on the bill. $100 bill gets $20 tip from you plus 3-5 tables for an extra $30-50 an hour. Of course they split that with rest of staff. But all staff are benefiting from the wait staff efforts.
Is it hard to imagine making double the base pay when giving memorable service.
Including tips, what is a decent pay?

 

[tiltrider1]

Let’s face it. Good service people want to work for tips they know how to make more money that way and they don’t want to share their wages with lazy servers. On the other hand lazy servers want a higher wage instead of tips, this means more money with less effort.

Most the people I know wouldn’t take a job that didn’t have performance benefits. Then, what do I know, I haven’t worked for wages since 1989.

 

[Nomad Willy]

I thought ...

No wages. Customers paying waiters directly. Thinking bout that for a moment reveals most waiters would be well under minimum wages unless they took off their clothes.

Or (as it is) pay for your food and tip moderately. That way hustlers will make good money and lazy waiters will get what they deserve. But hustlers are not plentiful except in high end places.

So I think the way things are does a fair job of “good for everybody”.

 

[OldDan1943]

Many places require all the tip be divided equally, at the end of the day.
Tips are shared with busboys, dish washers and cooks.

 

[koliver]

We started here discussing whether or not the border is likely to open so that cross-border boating can begin.

I think we have thrashed that one to death, and it seems we are now discussing tipping. How tipping will influence border opening is beyond comprehension.

I think we are done here, unless someone has more to say about the border and boating.

 

[firehoser75]

Keith,
You don't see how these topics mesh completely?????
Well said.

 

[DDW]

Is it Ok to tip border guards and custom agents? Might get you through the line quicker. Objectively, this makes just as much sense as tipping waiters.

 

[OldDan1943]

Ya'll lemme know how this discussion comes out.
For now, I shall retire from the field of play.

 

[BruceK]

I don't know how the Canadians are perceived in Europe. I do know that the British are perceived as picky and cheap.... I've always made it a point to let the locals know that I'm American, I see an immediate change in service once they realize that I'm not British.

Similar experience in France for Australians. Hand the small hotel your Aussie passport, everything changes for the better. Probably more so post Brexit.

 

[Northern Spy]

Is it Ok to tip border guards and custom agents? Might get you through the line quicker. Objectively, this makes just as much sense as tipping waiters.

Worked for me in the Philippines (twice) and Nepal.

30 years ago, I always kept emergency cash in my passport with a paperclip. Sometimes it just went missing at the border. Shrug.

 

[grahamdouglass]

Getting back to opening the border, it really has to do with covid numbers and vacination rates in Canada. I might be wrong, but opening the border before September doesn't seem too likely. Presently you can't even travel outside your own health authority. So if I went boating I would not be able to dock in Vancouver Island.

Canadians don't have a resistance to vaccines along political lines like they do in the Unitied States. If your able to get a vaccine you will get a vaccine.

Anti vaccine rallies are not very poplular here in BC. Except for a few Christian anti vaxxers in the bible belt in the Fraser Valley and some young party goers on the beaches. Most people are mask compliant and want to get a vaccine.

 

[JWellington]

Ole Dan, and started with the deadwood...rude, lazy ones.

 

[JWellington]

As is usual in such conversations we have seen such terms as..."fair wages, moderate tipping, decent salary, living wages", etc. And as usual, these terms are too subjective to have any meaning other than personal opinion. Image a government making a law that....'waiters must be tipped moderately'.

 

[localboy]

Check your chart-plotters...this thread has veered way off course.

 

[Peter B]

Check your chart-plotters...this thread has veered way off course.

Ok, seeing as how the thread has wandered, I feel like making my feelings re tipping clear.

To me, a tip is a bribe, so a bribe is a tip. Why should you have to bribe someone to do their job properly anyway..?

In the case of where the tips are pooled, and paid out to all staff, that is an even more blatant admission that the owner is palming off a fair proportion of his/her business costs to the patrons, but this is not reflected in the up-front cost of the product. Good for the owner - bad for the customer. I hate that.

Here in Aus and also in NZ, there is virtually no tipping, but staff are paid a decent wage, and their service is almost always excellent. It never ceases to amaze me how well they do their jobs. Ok, rant over...

 

[SteveK]

A bribe is giving in advance, a tip is given after. So if you tip the border guards do so after they give you the all clear to proceed.

 

[AlaskaProf]

A bribe is giving in advance, a tip is given after. So if you tip the border guards do so after they give you the all clear to proceed.

Ah! At last! We returned the original topic: crossing the border.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Peter,
A bribe ... that’s interesting.
The part I hate about tipping is that sometimes to most of the time the waitress gets tipped for flirting w the person she thinks will pay. Has nothing to do w service other than to waste time that COULD be used to extend service.
It makes a huge part of the experience that of “sucking up”. The phony smiles and the pretentious play acting is an insult to me IMO but to others it’s exactly what they want.
When I was a hardware store clerk I didn’t “playact” and suck up to women would call the store owner and complain about that “rude” man. Often I’d remember the person and recall that I gave her excellent service or/and liked them. ???

AP,
I thought we’d changed subject by the blessing of more than one “site team” member.

 

[Northern Spy]

Back to the topic.

https://www.politico.com/newsletter...ssentially-is-going-on-with-the-border-795548

Is there really still no plan? Yes, there really is still no plan on how to move beyond the border restrictions. This is not to say that there is no dialogue, or collaboration. The U.S. and Canada are communicating. They’re just not coming to the table — virtual or otherwise — to move things forward.

 

[Bill V]

When waitress pay was mandated to be $15 an hour here locally I quit tipping 20% for good service and now tip a max of 10% for great service, good service is the expectation for $15 an hour.

 

[SteveK]

The US of Eh will be opening land borders June 22nd or soon after. No mention of water. Canada being pressured to do the same. Trudy says not until 75% have had first shot.

 

[rslifkin]

When waitress pay was mandated to be $15 an hour here locally I quit tipping 20% for good service and now tip a max of 10% for great service, good service is the expectation for $15 an hour.

Ideally they should be paid well enough for doing the job, the tip should be an extra for receiving better than expected service or anything else that prompts you to think they're worth a bonus. The current system of relying on tips to survive and having a base pay of hardly anything is stupid.

 

[RonR]

Alaskan cruises to set sail from Seattle after Congress passes bill for ships to bypass Canada


Alaskan cruises to set sail from Seattle after Congress passes bill for ships to bypass Canada.

Im not a fan of this.

 

[SteveK]

RonR, don't stress on it, Alaska Governor on tele last night reaching out to Canada to open before this one season bypass time ends.

BC expects to be fully back to normal in September with all 2nd vax done. I see borders, cruise liners all back to norm early 2022 as long as covid 2.0 does not show up.