Originally Posted by
Swissaire
I think you have misunderstood. Electing to withhold a tip to an hourly employee versus an employee working on tips alone.
Nobody in the restaurant industry works on tips alone -- even where the wages are sub-minimum, the employer is required to make up the difference to the federal (or higher state) minimum if the tips don't make it to minimum. There are quite a few states (including California, with 1/9th of the population) where tipped employees earn state minimum
before tips.
My first point being that service employees should be paid a legal hourly wage, including benefits.
In many states, they are. Of course, the legal minimum is not a living wage in many places, and even where it is a minimal living wage, it often won't be enough to attract decent workers.
Including health insurance coverage, unless that is covered by the country they reside in.
Health insurance isn't federally mandatory for any employer in the US for another ~7 months, and an awful lot of restaurants have few enough employees that it won't be mandatory even next year. (There are some local health insurance requirements; you'll see a mandatory percentile fee posted on the menu at an awful lot of restaurants in San Francisco -- this isn't a city tax, but rather
a protest against the city health insurance mandate that caught on with restaurant owners since it passes the blame more than just raising prices would.)
More importantly, is to address a complaint about service, or dining quality to the right person, my second point. If you withhold the tip to the waiter as you pay your bill, what have you accomplished ?
This is an excellent point.
The question thus arises: " Why didn't they say anything ? " Ergo, speak to the manager, and try and get the issue resolved at the time. It may not be the fault of the waiter.
...and if it IS the fault of the waiter, the manager is likely the right person to make sure that it doesn't happen again in the future.