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

[Stottie Girl]

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.

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

[ChrissyRyan]

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 🔗 [Link: nber.org/papers/w34545/] 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.

====


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

[Lori Dee ✅]

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.

[Stottie Girl]

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.

[ChrissyRyan]

No 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.