Amid increasing tensions between Uber drivers and its “Always be hustlin'” corporate bro-verlords, the currently CEO-less company has decided to institute a big change that could result in drivers taking home more money: For the first time, drivers nationwide will be allowed to accept tips from passengers via the Uber app. [More]
tipping
One State & One City Voted To Eventually Do Away With Sub-Minimum Wages For Tipped Workers
By 11.9.16
If you’ve never worked in the foodservice or hospitality industry, you may not know that employees who rely on tips often earn base pay that is significantly less than minimum wage (the federal minimum is currently $2.13/hour). Tips can certainly add up to much more than the minimum wage, but they can also be cyclical and unpredictable, which is problematic for people living paycheck to paycheck. Yesterday, voters in one state and one city decided it was time to phase in wage increases that will eventually get tipped workers earning base pay that is at least the minimum. [More]
Drunk Customer Returns To Restaurant The Next Day To Take Back $1,000 Tip
By 6.15.16
Usually when someone leaves an exorbitant tip at a restaurant, folks ask things like, “What made them so generous? What’s the heartwarming story behind it?” But one restaurant owner was a bit more practical after a drunk customer left $1,000 on the table for servers, asking instead, “Did he even mean to do that, or will he just want his money back?” It turns out she was right to ask those questions, because he didn’t, and he did. [More]
Joe’s Crab Shack Backs Away From No-Tipping Policy
By 5.13.16
Six months after Joe’s Crab Shack became the first national full-service chain to test a no-tipping policy, the company is ditching the idea. [More]
Joe’s Crab Shack Tests No-Tipping Policy, Raises Server Wages To $14/Hour
By 11.10.15
Joe’s Crab Shack will become the first national full-service chain to test a no-tipping policy, following in the footsteps of several prominent New York-based restaurants that ditched gratuity last month. [More]
Parent Company Of 13 Prominent NYC Restaurants Decides To Eliminate Tipping
By 10.14.15
Union Square Hospitality Group isn’t a household name nationwide, but it’s the parent company of 13 prominent restaurants in New York City. It was also previously the parent company of burger chain Shake Shack, which has since left the nest as a separate company. Today, USHG announced that they’re going to eliminate tipping in all of their restaurants, instead raising prices to give all employees a raise. [More]
Workers Say UK Restaurant Chain Keeps Their Tips, Makes Them Lie To Customers About It
By 8.21.15
When you’re eating at a restaurant and they impose a “service charge,” where do you assume that money goes? While laws regarding the pay of tipped workers are different in the United Kingdom than here, they do have the custom of tipping. Except at the chain restaurant Côte, which reportedly imposes an optional service charge which isn’t distributed directly to waitstaff. [More]
Would You Tip Your Lawyer Or Your Dentist?
By 5.6.15
In discussions of the custom of tipping, you never hear typical consumers wish that they were expected or asked to tip their service providers in more industries. Yet Square, a service that lets small businesses accept credit card and direct mobile payments on phones and tablets, gives any business the opportunity to prompt customers for a tip. [More]
Why Can’t You Tip Your Uber Driver From Within The App?
By 2.16.15 — Updated: 3.22.17
Uber’s goal is to make the process of hailing a cab seamless and easy, without requiring users to carry cash or even have any idea what street address they’re at. The company’s success shows how much people like this integrated pricing model, but as the company lowers fares, drivers earn less money. Yet asking for tips, even with a sign in the backseat, can get a driver in trouble. [More]
Waitress Caught Editing Customers’ Tips To Add $10 Or $20 For Herself
By 2.13.15
One good reason to pay your restaurant bill in cash: Tipped employees get that money right away without having to worry about being docked fees for card-processing. Another good reason: A scammy server can’t artificially inflate your credit card tip with some crafty work of the pen. [More]
Cracker Barrel Waitress Scores Ultimate Tip: A Car
By 12.5.14
After seeing the woeful state of their waitress’s car parked outside the Branson, MO, Cracker Barrel where she worked, a couple from Arkansas decided to leave her a pretty nice tip — in the form of a car. [More]
Forget Mints On The Pillow: Marriott Leaves Envelopes So You Can Tip The Maid
By 9.15.14
If you’re staying at a Marriott-branded hotel this week you may notice a new addition to your guest room: An envelope encouraging you to tip the housekeeper. The gesture is part of a new initiative at the hotels to recognize the work that housekeepers often do behind the scenes. [More]
Restaurant Owner Won’t Apologize For Shaming LeSean McCoy Over $.20 Tip
By 9.9.14
Not to overwhelm the pages of Consumerist with stories about NFL running backs, but when the league’s best set of legs shows himself out to be one of the country’s worst tippers, we can’t not cover the story. [More]
Restaurant Realizes Maybe It Shouldn’t Force Servers To Pay Credit Card Fees Out Of Tips
By 8.21.14
Earlier this month we told you about the Minnesota restaurant owners who decided the best way to offset increases to the state’s minimum wage was to deduct credit card transaction fees from servers’ tips. While it’s legal for businesses to do this, a poll of Consumerist readers found that 91% of you think it’s not a wise idea. Looks like the restaurant owners have finally gotten that message. [More]
Waffle House Sort Of Sorry For Refunding Waitress’s $1,000 Tip
By 6.11.14
Yesterday we told you about the Waffle House waitress in North Carolina whose $1,000 tip was automatically refunded to the customer who’d left it because of a policy at the restaurant chain. After being shamed in the media for keeping one of its employees from keeping money that would have greatly improved her life, Waffle House is now saying that maybe it should reconsider things. [More]
Waffle House Policy Keeps Waitress From Keeping $1,000 Tip
By 6.10.14
If you’re looking to leave a very special tip for your Waffle House server, do it with cash. That’s the lesson learned from the story of one WH waitress in North Carolina who couldn’t keep the 4-digit tip left by a generous customer. [More]
People In Alaska Are The Best Tippers, People In Delaware The Worst
By 3.27.14
Sure, Internet comment threads seem to be evenly split between generous tippers and people who resent the practice, but what about the population at large? Credit card payment service Square analyzed their transaction data and found some interesting patterns in tipping by state. We don’t want to draw any wider conclusions, but we’re also giving Delaware a sidelong glance. [More]
Restaurant Industry Says Servers Don’t Need A Pay Raise
By 3.26.14
Earlier today, a White House report called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage for tipped employees for the first time since 1991. A trade group representing the restaurant industry fired back at the report, claiming that servers are already paid well enough. [More]
