Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Do you think most goods/services are overpriced or that you are underpaid? Or both?


What goods and services do you think are overpriced?  Why?  Too much demand?  Greed?

I think that many concert tickets are overpriced.  Too expensive.

I think that tickets to many sporting events are overpriced.  But someone has to pay those huge salaries of the star players, right? 

Plus if demand fell a lot, prices should too.  Too much demand.

Snack chips seem to be overpriced.

Most cars.

Snacks in vending machines.  I almost bought something today and walked away instead.  Not really worth it.

My thoughts are not that things are overpriced it's just that cost are increasing faster than wages so we are inevitably getting poorer. If production costs were lower (energy and transport costs for example) we would be able to start to recover but the world is so volatile right now I fear things will get worse before they get better.

My clients might respond that my CPA, Financial Advising, and Tax Preparation services are too expensive.

This time of year as we are just ONE MONTH away from the USA Federal Income TAX Deadline I am working 12+ hour days, 7 day's a week so I turn a deaf ear to the notion that my services are too expensive.

Danielle [Northern Star Girl]

Some clothing is overpriced.

Quote from: Northern Star Girl on March 16, 2026, 06:49:01 PMMy clients might respond that my CPA, Financial Advising, and Tax Preparation services are too expensive.

This time of year as we are just ONE MONTH away from the USA Federal Income TAX Deadline I am working 12+ hour days, 7 day's a week so I turn a deaf ear to the notion that my services are too expensive.

Danielle [Northern Star Girl]

You have to put a value on your time Danielle. As someone who was self employed for about 11 years I can say that people always looked at my hourly rate and thought that was what I earned. They though i must have been raking it in. They didn't realise that after costs I came out with only a fraction of that.

I have owned several small businesses over the years.

Small business owners don't earn an hourly rate. Sometimes, we don't earn a salary. Even my commissions rarely exceeded my expenses.

What I find offensive is that the cost of living increased by 3%, and yet my cost-of-living adjustments were 2.5%. Meanwhile, billionaires say all is good because they don't buy anything. They pay people to buy things for them.

Quote from: Lori Dee on March 16, 2026, 08:27:48 PMI have owned several small businesses over the years.

Small business owners don't earn an hourly rate. Sometimes, we don't earn a salary. Even my commissions rarely exceeded my expenses.

What I find offensive is that the cost of living increased by 3%, and yet my cost-of-living adjustments were 2.5%. Meanwhile, billionaires say all is good because they don't buy anything. They pay people to buy things for them.

"How much is a banana? $20?"

I had a higher up exec suggest we "cash flow" quarterly bonuses to pay for kids' college tuition. Not realizing, apparently, his bonus was equal or greater to just about everyone else in the room's salary. A different exec one time was complaining in a call about how much trouble he was having finding someone to repair the spa/hot tub at his beach house. Which, I get it, that'd be annoying, but...we just had layoffs 6 months ago so forgive us if we don't care about your vacation home's spa not having jets for a while. The wealthy are generally out of touch with how much normal people make and how normal people live, in my experience.

Quote from: katiebee on March 17, 2026, 02:17:28 AM"How much is a banana? $20?"

I had a higher up exec suggest we "cash flow" quarterly bonuses to pay for kids' college tuition. Not realizing, apparently, his bonus was equal or greater to just about everyone else in the room's salary. A different exec one time was complaining in a call about how much trouble he was having finding someone to repair the spa/hot tub at his beach house. Which, I get it, that'd be annoying, but...we just had layoffs 6 months ago so forgive us if we don't care about your vacation home's spa not having jets for a while. The wealthy are generally out of touch with how much normal people make and how normal people live, in my experience.

It's probably not their fault they're ignorant. Most of them don't live in the real world. They have this cosseted self indulgent bubble that they live in and only socialise in circles amung their own. They don't even know they are being arseholes half the time. It would do them good to spend a day with some of their employees to see a glimpse of reality. The gap between them and the rest of us plebs is getting wider and wider and growing exponentially now it seems.

Both. The corporations are squeezing as much as they can from the consumers. Earning numbers are at an all time record high yet wages have had very little increase and in fact I am sure that some wages have seen a claw back to make even more profits. Take Mc Donalds I can go to a sit down restaurant for close to the same price.

Some restaurants are adding multiple service fees on top of price taxes and tips. Also the tipping culture in North America is getting way out of control which is just a way for companies to push the cost of wages onto consumers. There is a movement in North America pushing a 40 % minimum tip and the amount of people your expected to tip is getting out of hand. Workers deserve a living wage and one that isn't subsidized by pushing extra costs onto the consumers. One thing I am so jealous of some Europeans for is the fact that when they see a price, that's what they pay. There is no added taxes or tips and the workers are well compensated for their jobs.

Beyond the pushing costs onto consumers above and beyond the sticker price, we are getting less for what we pay for.

I am all for an open market but right now we are facing a collusion to squeeze the consumer for all they can all wile charging us extra fees to pay for the privilege of being gouged. In Canada we used to have public corporations to help keep costs reasonable without mandating controls. Unfortunately certain governments felt that they should sell off these corporations to add funds to their coffers and now these former public corporations are probably the most expensive service and goods providers we have.

40% mandatory tip is insane! The state should intervene...but it won't.

In the uk we generally only tip when we've had good service, not to top up wages, as it should be. I have noticed some restaurants add a 10 % tip and you have to request the waiter/waitress remove it if you don't want to pay it. That's underhand if you ask me and I won't ever go back if one tries it on me. It puts the staff member and you in a potentially very awkward situation.

I'm generous with tips when I get good service though.

Quote from: Northern Star Girl on March 16, 2026, 06:49:01 PMMy clients might respond that my CPA, Financial Advising, and Tax Preparation services are too expensive.

This time of year as we are just ONE MONTH away from the USA Federal Income TAX Deadline I am working 12+ hour days, 7 day's a week so I turn a deaf ear to the notion that my services are too expensive.

Danielle [Northern Star Girl]

I pray that you maintain your energy during this peak time.  You will charge a fair fee.

Chrissy

To be fair it is a small voice that demands 40% plus but it is there and is likely growing. Though when I was growing up 15 % was a standard tip and considered decent but now it feels like it's subpar. Now the standard is 20% minimum 25% preferred with 15% being barely acceptable.

Now please don't misunderstand me I think that people in the service industry deserve to be fairly paid. My issue is having the company charging me as if they were paying their workers a fair wage but then expecting the consumer to actually subsidize the workers wages on top of paying the agreed price. The fact that North American governments and I mean all of them (well Canada and the U.S.) accept that servers deserve to be paid less because they can expect tips. This to me is unacceptable and makes me want to use many many bad words.
A minimum wage is a minimum wage period it shouldn't change because you deal with the public.

Now let's talk about where tips at restaurants go. At a good restaurant the tips actually go to the server but many restaurants a percentage of the tips go to the cooks in the back or to non front facing staff. These "shared tips" are based on sales not how much the server gets as a tip, so if someone doesn't tip it comes out of the servers pocket. Other times tips go into a pool to be split evenly so a server that has 25 tables gets the same amount of tip payout as a server who had 15 tables of equal size. All of this is assuming that the restaurant doesn't seize the tips which happens more than we think.

So not only am I getting tired of subsidizing wages that should be the responsibility of the company but it is a completely unfair and unregulated way of making sure people can actually get paid fairly.

At least they do not make a tip mandatory or add it to the bill automatically.

Note if they do, the tip is not tip income that is excludable from Federal income tax.


However, restaurants like to have you use a device that SUGGESTS tips, 30%, 25%, 20% and patron custom tip amounts.

Tips should be viewed as a performance related bonus only. It is obscene that they are below a minimum wage without tips.

The only way out of this scenario is to enforce a national living wage. That will mean costs of eating out go up but that is the price of fairness.

How did the US get here? Do you guys never go on strike or something? You have virtually no workers rights or freedoms compared to us in Europe. The corporations are taking the piss out of you.

Quote from: Stottie Girl on March 17, 2026, 04:10:53 PMTips should be viewed as a performance related bonus only. It is obscene that they are below a minimum wage without tips.

The only way out of this scenario is to enforce a national living wage. That will mean costs of eating out go up but that is the price of fairness.

How did the US get here? Do you guys never go on strike or something? You have virtually no workers rights or freedoms compared to us in Europe. The corporations are taking the piss out of you.

So should an employer pay a so called "living" wage?  First of all, what is that wage?
So if the employer pays a "living" wage, that should mean tipping is given because you want to tip for other reasons than to make sure the employee would be fairly compensated.

It is a very complicated situation with no easy answers.  There comes a price point where the demand elasticity becomes negative.  Paying a higher wage or higher taxes or higher expenses can result in a higher price for the goods and services. If a 2% price hike causes a 4% demand decrease (-2 elasticity) is the margin high enough with the lower amount of business for the business to remain a viable concern?  Should the business stay open making while making less, no, or losing money?  For how long?  Why?  Should it close? 

Tips should be, in my opinion, for services provided above standards of expectation, and not expected or demanded.  It is a gift.  You should not "have to" tip to subsidize low wages. 

Regardless, after a tipping culture has been entrenched, it is hard to go away.

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on March 17, 2026, 04:50:29 PMSo should an employer pay a so called "living" wage?  First of all, what is that wage?
So if the employer pays a "living" wage, that should mean tipping is given because you want to tip for other reasons than to make sure the employee would be fairly compensated.

It is a very complicated situation with no easy answers.  There comes a price point where the demand elasticity becomes negative.  Paying a higher wage or higher taxes or higher expenses can result in a higher price for the goods and services. If a 2% price hike causes a 4% demand decrease (-2 elasticity) is the margin high enough with the lower amount of business for the business to remain a viable concern?  Should the business stay open making while making less, no, or losing money?  For how long?  Why?  Should it close? 

Tips should be, in my opinion, for services provided above standards of expectation, and not expected or demanded.  It is a gift.  You should not "have to" tip to subsidize low wages. 

Regardless, after a tipping culture has been entrenched, it is hard to go away.

Yes, pretty much what I am saying. It should be mandatory to pay staff a proper wage no matter what industry they are in. In the UK we have the minimum wage which sets a legal statuatory wage that employers must not go below. It is called the minimum wage for under 20's and the living wage for 21+. The living wage is a bit higher.

On top of that employees must be given 21-28 days annual leave, entitlement to sickness pay, maternity/paternity leave and pay plus the employer has to offer some form of pension. On top of all this lies the potential tips hospitality staff can earn but this is at the discretion of the punters.

There are ways around this such as zero hours contracts but most companies will offer the standard employment contracts.

Ultimately if a business cannot pay it's staff a fair wage then it has no business being in business! The public have to accept higher cost of services but conversely they no longer have to tip so the difference is probably fairly minimal

On Jan. 1, 2026, all employers in Seattle have to pay a minimum wage of $21.30, regardless of business size, and cannot count tips or medical benefit payments toward this minimum compensation. 

If prices get too high, some may stop buying or buy less often.



Then from this article:

"Seattle's Delivery Minimum Wage Failed Drivers and Raised Costs"

Increased hourly rates corresponded with lower tips and fewer orders to share between drivers, leaving gig workers no better off than they were before the law passed.

C. JARRETT DIETERLE | 12.20.2025 7:00 AM

From:  https://reason.com/2025/12/20/seattles-delivery-minimum-wage-failed-drivers-and-raised-costs/

Exerpt:
Seattle's delivery minimum wage currently sits at over $26 per hour—higher than the city's general minimum wage.

In the first few weeks after the new minimum wage was enacted, DoorDash reported a decline of 30,000 orders, while UberEats saw a 30 percent drop in order volume. Reports indicated that drivers were earning less than half of what they had prior to the ordinance's passage.

But what was once merely anecdotal evidence now has hard economic facts to back it up. In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, https://www.nber.org/papers/w34545?utm_campaign=ntwh&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntwg24 researchers from Carnegie Mellon University unpacked the Seattle experience using cross-platform, task-level data that allowed them to track individual drivers over time.

While finding that per-task base pay doubled under the new wage, researchers also saw a corresponding decline in driver tips and a reduction in the number of tasks completed by each driver. As a result, within one month of the law's implementation, the most active drivers had experienced no increase in monthly total earnings, according to the researchers. There was also evidence of increased wait times between tasks and more idle (i.e., non-earning) time spent by deliverers.

The researchers conclude that in a labor market with free entry—which is the case with gig-based delivery work, given that new drivers can always sign up and join a platform—increases in base pay are fully offset by these declines in tips and order volume.

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No doubt workers should be paid fairly for a fair day's work.  There are market forces in the macroeconomic world.  It is complicated. 

I remember when they were talking about a $15/hour minimum wage. I think about the "cook" at McDonald's assembling hamburgers, and cannot get the condiments inside the bun. Did they earn $15 an hour for poor craftsmanship? I think not.

There have been a few times when I ordered a burger from Burger King or Culver's, not McDonald's, and when I opened it, everything was exactly the way it should be. I asked to see the Manager and told the Manager I would like to speak to the person who made my burger. The young man came out, and I thanked him for such a fine job. The Manager was expecting a complaint, so he stayed to listen. I said that the fast-food industry is one place where pride in craftsmanship is severely lacking. I handed the cook $20 and told him to keep up the good work. I have done that several times.

You can see yourself as just a burger-flipper, but there is no reason you cannot be the best Burger Master in town. If you want to be paid $15/hour, fine. Earn it.

I always tip well if I have been treated well. If the cook or the server is just going through the motions, sleepwalking at their job, I won't encourage that with more money. I rarely eat out, but when I do, I want it to be a treat.

Well bravo Seattle. That is gratifying to hear.

Lori, good on you, that is how tipping should work. If someone does an excellent job they get a bit extra in their pocket.

Chrissy, Businesses loosing trade is no reason not to pay a fair wage. Punters will adjust and they will come back to it or they won't and the number of businesses operating in that particular sector will fall to compensate. Either way the system will balance out eventually.

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on March 17, 2026, 05:55:31 PMNo doubt workers should be paid fairly for a fair day's work.  There are market forces in the macroeconomic world.  It is complicated. 

If you make replicators (ala Star Trek) and energy all widely available to all and free, the need for money would be less.  We are not there yet.

Perhaps people's demonstration for love, kindness, a good reputation, and contribution to the betterment of society would be more valued.

Whatever you do, do it well.