Posts tagged tipping
Seattle’s new minimum wage rule undermining delivery drivers
April 25, 2024 // It’s not just restaurant owners who are being squeezed. So are drivers. Drive Forward Seattle, an app-based driver advocacy group, recently surveyed its members on the impact of the rule. A DoorDash driver identified as Marvin said, “I went from making $300 a day during the weekends to making $80 a day and that’s on a good day. It takes over 2hr to even get one order.” A driver named Sally told the advocacy group, “90 percent of the customers don’t tip since the app changed. So, they have to go back onto the app after the delivery, if they even remember to do so, in order to tip. That’s a big thumbs down.” The pushback has been so strong that the Seattle City Council has mulled repealing the rule altogether. Unions, who have struggled to organize the delivery drivers, have pushed back against the potential repeal, arguing that the wage system is working as intended.
CALIFORNIA: Dave’s Hot Chicken tests kiosks, bigger drinks in face of $20 CA wage
April 3, 2024 // “We didn’t see the ability to pull labor out of the restaurant, but we did see some positive impact on sales,” Bitticks said. Dave’s labor deployment at the cash register — the position most likely to be replaced by kiosks — is already fairly small. The brand still needs workers present to assist customers with kiosks, in the same way grocery stores deploy workers to oversee the self-checkout process, he said. Tickets placed at kiosks are about 7% to 8% higher than orders placed with an employee, Bitticks said. This increase is driven by greater orders of the brands’ entrees, and possibly by guests trying new items they notice on their own, rather than trying items based on conscious upselling. Dave’s managers report customers across age demographics are using the kiosks, Bitticks said, rather than just younger diners.
Amazon, Starbucks worker unions are in limbo, even as UAW and others triumph
December 29, 2023 // More than two years have passed since the first Starbucks stores voted to unionize in Buffalo, N.Y. Close to 380 Starbucks stores have since followed. But not one has a contract. Starbucks and Workers United, the union representing the vast majority of unionized Starbucks stores, have each accused the other of not bargaining in good faith.
Will Starbucks’ union-busting stifle a union rebirth in the US?
August 28, 2023 // Many baristas say one Starbucks strategy in particular has discouraged workers from unionizing. In May 2022, Schultz announced that Starbucks would give certain raises and benefits to workers at its more than 9,000 non-union stores, but not offer those raises and benefits to its unionized workers. Starbucks insists it would be illegal to impose any raises or benefits on its unionized stores without first negotiating about them, but the NLRB’s general counsel asserts that this policy constitutes unlawful discrimination against Starbucks’ unionized workers. Under this policy, Starbucks has given its non-union workers, but not its unionized ones, a more relaxed dress code, increased training, faster sick leave accrual and, most important, credit card tipping. (Workers at the first few Starbucks stores to unionize had asked early on for credit card tipping.)
The business of tipping: experts, unions and tip workers weigh in on gratuity in 2023
August 23, 2023 // “Eight years ago when I was hired, the tipping was okay,” he said. “But now it’s going down. [Back then] our major income was calling taxis , so people gave you two, three dollars here and there. Now, a lot of people use rideshare apps like Uber or Lyft. So they don’t need our help. The other thing is, with the digital age, a lot of people want to give you something, but they don’t even have cash. Because of these reasons, we are affected.” Tips cover most of his and his coworkers’ expenses, said Tadege. With a lack of tips, most work multiple jobs to fill the gap in their income.
Unionized Apple store workers want you to start tipping them
May 5, 2023 // Workers at Apple's first unionized store in suburban Baltimore are pushing for a tipping system. The proposal calls for customers to tip in increments of 3%, 5%, or a custom amount. It's part of a series of new proposals from the union ahead of contract negotiations.
Union-backed Activists Push $15 In New Report, But Restaurant Workers Still Don’t Agree
April 11, 2022 // The report itself calls for a “universal $15 minimum wage.” But actual tipped restaurant employees disagree with this policy – and actively oppose movements to eliminate local, state, and federal tip credits. Why?