Restaurant owners scrap tips because of high hourly wages, but employees won’t accept it
There’s a good chance you’ve watched an episode of South Park at some point; by now, we’re already past season 27, and the first episode aired in 1997. I was still in primary school back then and thought it was absolutely brilliant, although (as I now realize in hindsight) I didn’t understand nearly all the jokes. My favorite episode is still the one about Scientology: Trapped in the Closet, or episode 12 of the ninth season.
But the men behind South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, aren’t sitting still either. Together, they own the restaurant Casa Bonita, but things aren’t going entirely smoothly there.
It’s never good enough
Casa Bonita is a Mexican restaurant in Lakewood, Colorado—in the United States, in other words. As you’ve probably heard, hospitality workers there live off tips because hourly wages are so incredibly low. But that tipping system is also rather unusual: if they don’t collect enough tips to share with the kitchen staff, they may even have to pay the difference themselves.
Crazy, Stone and Parker also thought, so they decided to pay their staff $30 an hour and scrap tipping altogether. A perfect solution, right? Apparently not; the staff are anything but happy. Colorado’s minimum wage is just under $14, but according to some employees, they earn well over $16 an hour in tips—especially on busy evenings. No longer receiving tips would therefore mean a loss for them on those busy nights. Strikingly, no one seems to mention the quiet evenings.
In this case, the reason for abolishing tips wasn’t solely to make things better for the staff, but also to improve the experience for guests: in the United States, people are currently complaining a lot about the bizarre moments when tips are requested and the amounts being asked for. At a self-checkout counter, for example; why would you have to tip there?! This drew a great deal of criticism, and guests felt somewhat obligated to give something. That was something Stone and Parker wanted to eliminate as well: good wages, no tips, no hassle for anyone. But things turned out rather differently… The owners themselves are still satisfied, however, and have said they intend to stick with $30 an hour without tips.
PS. Be sure to check out the Casa Bonita website or social media, because it really is something like Disneyland among Mexican restaurants. Deliciously over the top, and I seriously want to go there now.
Also read:
- 6 tips for the most delicious Aperol Spritz
- Don’t freeze this
- Barista gets a €90,000 tip after refusing to serve customer without a face mask\
Image: Stacy Nick / KUNC
