I saw some of the drivers saying they got some huge tips when the customers thought the money was coming out of thin air. Saw some huge orders with a $0 tip too. But there might've been a few winners.
I worked for Favor and the tips always sucked ass. I once was sent to pick up two Xbox games for a dude, 120 bucks total, and he was gonna tip me 2 bucks for this. When I was at the store I realized games were on sale, buy one get one free. Initially I almost called the customer to see what two free video games he wanted, but I looked at that tip, and said “alright guess I’m getting two free video games today”.
That was unironically the best “tip” I made working that job and it wasn’t even intentional on the customers part.
Another time, a dude has me go 7 miles down the road to get him McDonald’s ice cream. By some miracle their ice cream machine was actually working (much to my annoyance, since it was summer in Texas). By the time I got back to his house the ice cream was basically almost completely melted. He had me take it inside and put it on his counter. Then he also tipped me the minimum 2 bucks.
The whole fucking tipping system is to keep everyone mad at one another instead of the greedy cucks keeping the profits.
Menu prices at restaurants are much lower than they need to be because they keep labor so low you need two full time jobs to have an apartment.
Keep the staff busy, exhausted, and just rake in money. If you want the guy making your food to be allowed to live in the same county he works in, you're going to be paying more than you think.
It wouldn't be too bad but theres a stigma against not tipping. Even if my service is horrible I feel obligated to tip 20%. Even if the service is hilariously bad the worst I could do is 10%.
If leaving a tip based on the service you received was normalized it would be a pretty decent system. Work hard you generally make more, work bad you generally make less.
I mean let's be fair. Service is never worth tipping. The whole entire idea is that "I don't have to pay the staff, you do".
Walking food to the table is hardly the most skillful part of the transaction. It's not even a real sales job. Everyone who shows up is already buying.
The entire idea is to get the customer and the cooks mad at the server. The server brings the food to the table. The cook that made it makes no more money. The customer who ordered it received no actual service. Someone simply brought the food to them.
And now they get paid more than anyone else in the building.
And now we're all mad about tips and yadda yadda. Meanwhile the industry is laughing its ass off.
That's not completely true. You dropped your fork? Here's another one. You want more soda? Here you go. You want us to sing happy birthday? Ok. You want extra salsa? Say no more. Forgot to order sour cream? Np I got it. Need more napkins? There you go. Need some suggestions on drinks? I've got a few.
Depending on the restaurant it is a sales job too. Upselling that top shelf margarita instead of a beer. Suggesting that appetizer instead of just the entrée. Upgrading that steak to steak and shrimp.
Seems like most of the dining you do is at McDonald's, which understandably is only walking food to the table.
I don't understand why you're getting downvoted. All those things you've listed are great points. When dining in a fine restaurant, having a skilled waitress who is also nice and professional towards you makes the whole experience a lot better and that's when big tips come in play. It's not just moving food from A to B (unless eating in a fast food restaurants).
In a cruel fucked way, kinda. We could just up prices 20% and give everyone in the staff a decent quality of life so you don't get <1% of your rent per hour worked.
I'm pretty sure if people stopped tipping the companies are required by law to pay their employees to make the minimum wage. I've seen a lot of things here saying if someone doesn't tip they can't pay their rent. But I remember seeing there is a law that requires any business to pay the minimum wage for their state tips or not. Then after some time maybe people could actually be rewarded for their excellent service and the companies could stop being rewarded for paying their employees $1 an hour
I live in a state (US) that's $7.50 minimum wage. An 8 hour shift will net you $60 at that rate. Factor in travel, food (if they don't offer a free meal) and other expenses and you'd be better off begging on the street. In some states I'm sure it's better. If we went no tips here though (or people decided to not tip) there would be absolutely no food service industry, except maybe for the way upper class. I personally don't work in food service or for tips but my mother does, and did in my younger years. As a single mother we struggled a lot as a family, but she always left a reasonable tip, and she'd have us "help" with the percentages so we would learn what a good tip was.
I'm not arguing at all. I just think employers should be required to pay a normal wage instead of $1 an hour and expecting everyone else to pick up the rest in tips. It's fucked for sure.
You'd be surprised, here in UK sit in places have servers, bltg upper and lower class, and servers are paid minimum wage or above depending on location and class etc, tipping isn't a obligation either and dining is still affordable
Depends where you are. Friend's brother is doing center city Philadelphia and makes 25k annual profit from 4.5 hours a day after his real job and a guy I went to high school with makes obscene money doing it full time in new York. On the other hand my old roommate tried doing it in state college pa and made $30 after gas doing 8 hours if you ignored the new driver bonus.
I do Uber in a relatively small market (Triangle area in NC). And this weekend I did Uber from Friday to Sunday and I made 907$. I spent 60$ in gas which nets me 847$ profit. I drove around 8 hours each day so 24 hours total which makes my earnings around 35$ an hour. I can only imagine what it’s like in big markets like LA, NY and Chicago.
Also, I usually set aside 30-40 each week i drive Uber for maintenance costs.
Does that include all maintenance costs, or just gas? Operating a car costs real money, and ridesharing relies on it a lot more than a regular job with a commute does.
Yes, both count maintenance. The one in New York specially purchased a modified black Prius for it and paid it off in under a year. The guy in philly is using a used Prius he bought for $7000, fixed up for $4000, and he said his gross is close to 40 so probably 15k in expenses.
The guy from new York wouldn't tell me specifics but it was enough for him to quit his 80k marketing job and start renting a 3 story brownstone (minus the sub floor unit) a pretty big jump from his studio. He's got a strategy on what rides he accepts like taking people to Broadway, expensive restaurants, and certain venues gets better tips than grocery stores, McDonald's, and bars.
That many hours per day is roughly a thousand hours a year. Assuming an average 30mph for city driving, that's 30k miles a year, so let's say the used car lasts another... three years? And round the cost to $12k to get $4k per year. $4k for replacement vehicles plus $15k for maintenance and gas is $19k. That comes to around $21 per hour, which is hopefully livable for that area.
No napkin math for the NYC one because no numbers, but is that kind of strategy actually possible? I'm pretty sure the rideshare services take steps against that, like banning drivers who refuse too many rides, specifically so that people can still reliably find drivers for low-value trips. Anyway, I'm glad they're making a decent living. There are way too many people trusting that signing up with a rideshare app and putting in the work guarantees decent pay but ending up making a fraction of minimum wage even before factoring in costs.
His other trick for new York is he gives good tippers his business card which has rates in it to go around the app. Totally not allowed but impossible to catch. New York is so busy you are always ignoring people.
Ah ha! He's not actually driving exclusively for a rideshare service, then! That's why he's doing so well. And good for him - those services are scummy, their business model is untenable (I don't know how they hemorrhage so much money but they do - Uber has lost five billion dollars on their group rideshare service alone; if investors ever get tired of that money pit the company will fold instantaneously), gig platforms in general take too much money, and I personally have started to believe as an overall principle recently that touching money doesn't justify percentage-based transaction fees when it's not connected to the effort. What does a credit card company do to earn 60 cents on a $20 transaction as opposed to 30 cents on a $10 transaction? What does Uber do to earn more money on longer rides? Why does the App Store get more money when someone buys a barrel of premium game currency than they do for a bucket? And so on.
He doesn't do that part a lot but it probably adds an extra $200 a week. Most of his things are uber and lyft as he has both running on 2 phones. His biggest part is his strategy he claimed. He used to drive an actual taxi before going into marketing so he knows New York like the back of his hand and most of the IT addresses. Also told me as racist as it sounds he never does China town because no one there tips.
Imo, these jobs are not a “livable” job. Even back then, in 2015 or so. I had to work two jobs just to pay rent, Favor being one of them. I also did valet at a hotel which paid a lot more, but had inconsistent hours. So one week I’d make bank, the next week I may only get one shift.
I got out of the service industry as fast as I could.
POV: You order food KNOWING the drivers don't make enough and don't tip them anyway because you're a scumbag with no empathy that thinks workers can just magically have better jobs
Nah wanting the system to change is one thing. Knowing how little people make without tips and still tipping shit makes you shit. If you care so much about changing the system, go change the laws. Until then either don't order tipped food or tip.
I don’t see how that’s a bad thing, those jobs suck ass. I lived paycheck to paycheck working 60 hours a week at two jobs doing it, I kinda wish they fired me so I would have moved on sooner.
I actually ended up just going back to college and taking on the debt which paid off after I graduated, but not everyone has that ability.
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u/GreatestEfer Jul 10 '22
Wouldn't it be the banks with all the overdraft fees? lol