Just curious about this. I heard today that fast food places are asking their customers when they

[Frustratedlady]

drive through to pick up their order if they'd like to add a tip. These are national chains, for the most part.

One very busy restaurant is now charging $5 for each carryout. For Styrofoam? It's not as though they need to serve us or wash our dishes/silverware/glasses. This extra charge isn't for pricey containers or bags. They don't deliver it to your vehicle.

I'm for raising the minimum wage as it's been too low for too many years. But I also feel it is time for restaurants to start paying their wait staff what they deserve and not rely on tips. I tip because I feel sorry for the waiters, since restaurants don't pay much in wages and rely on tips to make up the difference. That's one thing for a sit-down restaurant, but a drive thru?

Am I behind the times? Is it throughout the country or just in our area.

[DBoon]

1. The cynic in me says that when workers are regularly tipped

their base wages can be cut

[Hugh_Lebowski]

3. The cynic in me suspects that the cynic in you is 100% spot-on (nt)

[DBoon]

11. always tip in cash

never add to the credit card.

You want management to be in the dark about tips.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

17. Sage words (nt)

[dalton99a]

25. +1

[retread]

28. Bingo!!

[pennylane100]

15. I would hope that would be illegal.

A tip is given to the server as a gesture that rewards good service. The employer would be guilty of theft if he/she interferes in that transaction and steals it from the employee.

[Frustratedlady]

21. Good point. Unless the owner divides the tips at the end of the day among the workers..

the tips would go to the owner. Good game!

Another poster mentioned the tip on the computer may be the reason. Say the worker at the window plugs in your order and "tip" pops up, they would ask if you want to add a tip to your order, (it would not necessarily be required/anticipated). The end result would still be the same. The tips would go to the owner.

I won't feel so bad when I say no.

[pennylane100]

22. Well you certainly maybe right.

I am certainly not a lawyer but it seem like intent should come into play. The money was given to the employee as a gesture of thanks for good service. There was never any intent tor it to be shared or taken by the employer. Of course, that is only my opinion. In the real cruel world, the employer would probably be able to legally steal from his/her workers.

[tanyev]

2. I'm tipping extra generous right now because we can work from home

and many restaurants are barely hanging on. I don’t disagree with the point you’re making, but I don’t know if this is the time to make it.

[RainCaster]

4. I am supporting my local businesses

But I will not support any chain fast food places.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

8. You can pay workers less than minimum wage if tips are typical in their jobs

"A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage."

Have to say I'm very suspicious as to why employers are suddenly starting to solicit them for their employees at fast-food places ... in the midst of the possible passing of a bill that would dramatically raise the minimum wage.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

5. Everyone wants a freaking tip nowadays

Everywhere I go, they either have a tip jar or they have the tip option on the card machine....it’s pretty annoying....the only people I use totip were waiters, barbers, bartenders, food delivery, taxis, and hotel room cleaners....now everyone wants a tip, even owners of places....for instance, if I go to a food truck where the owner is the one I am dealing with, they want a tip

Edit - I understand that people should probably get paid more, but I can’t afford to give a tip to everyone

[Frustratedlady]

12. You may have answered the question. Maybe it is due to a new tip option on cc machines.

That would explain the drive thru person asking if you want to tip, although I never use a cc at a fast food site.

I have never left a restaurant without tipping. I don't know what the wait staff gets paid/hour these days, but I did hear it was only $2-3/hour. That is ridiculous, no matter what job you have. But I was shocked that Panera (one mentioned) asked about a tip, and then other fast food chains were also asking.

[blueinredohio]

6. I rarely go to a drive thru restaurant but

the couple I have used haven't asked for a tip.

[2naSalit]

7. Fortunately I don't live close to many chain outfits...

I wouldn't readily choose to go to one either. I like the mom&pops around here though. I tip heavily because I know what it's like to live on tips and I know the wait and kitchen staff.

[Ms. Toad]

9. It's the logical extension of the tip jar at the cash register -

which has irked me since it became a fixture sometime between 2000 and 2013. Now that more of us are doing drive-through (or order for pick-up off of shelves), the tip jar doesn't collect so many tips.

I think wait-staff should be paid a decent wage, and the price for that wage built into the prices charged for the food.

The current system has a number of flaws.

First - it shifts the choice for how much to pay workers to the customer rather than the employer, and as a practical mattter allows tipped workers who are routinely given the breakfast or lunch shift (lower bills; lower tips) to earn less than minimum wage with few consequences. When I was in college, classmates who were less favored by the local diner were routinely given the breakfast shift; the more favored were given the dinner shift.

Second - tipped workers rarely accurately report tips. (In 5 years of doing taxes, I never had a single client who reported additional tips. I am now reporting my daughter's tips on her tax return - but I also know my sister never reported her tips as a cosmetologist.) As a result - many of these workers are not receiving the social security they deserve (since social security is based on reported wages + tips). Since my sister (as an example) has less than $10,000 in savings at age 61, she will be working until she dies because her SS will not be sufficient to pay her bills. It probably still wouldn't had she reported (and paid SS taxes on her tips), but it would be closer if her tips had been paid to her on a W-2.

So, I resented it when the tip jar started appearing at my local coffee shop where I never did more than grab and go. It's right there were it is clear they are expecting a tip. Now that people are ordering from their cars, it is logical that they need to replace the visible tip jar with some other means of requesting tips to supplement the (below) minimum wage their employers are permitted to pay.

I always tip generously when we eat out - and other places where I know making minimum wage depends on tips. But it doesn't make me happy that both the tipped employees and the customer are put in this position.

[Frustratedlady]

13. I hear you! Tipping in a sit-down restaurant doesn't bother me because they do have to serve you.

But drive-thru is totally different. I can't believe restaurants have gotten by with paying so little all these years. Not everyone tips, so the waiter is left out, but the restaurant still gets their money. How/when did that start? I can't remember.

I can't picture tip jars are distributed among the workers, but I can see the owner depositing the money at the end of the day. I never add to tip jars.

As far as SS/taxes/retirement. I know a woman who cleans, but never claims it all. I've also thought she was cheating herself out of a bigger SS check, but never said anything.

[Ms. Toad]

18. If you patronize Starbucks -

Those tips are distributed to the baristas. My daughter works there and routinely has $30-$80/week in tips (her share of the tip jar). I only know the general time (2000 - 2013) because I know where I was working when the tip jars started popping up.

We took my daughter out to eat (at an outdoor restaurant) for her birthday. She invited her fellow baristas along. Every single one of them pulled their little tip baggies out to pay for their meals. So most of what is given to the Starbucks tip jar goes right back into the local economy if my daughter and her buddies are any indication.

You're right as to all of the under-the-table work. Anyone not reporting income decreases the SS they will ultimately receive. I'm having conversations about that with my daughter in the context of reporting her tips from last year, as well as in connection with a new tip reporting system Starbucks is implementing so that all of their tips end up on their W-2.

[Frustratedlady]

23. It's good to hear that they divided the tip jar money up among workers.

I hope they all divide the tips, but it would be so easy not to do so.

[Ms. Toad]

31. I'm surprised at how much she is getting.

Often a coupe bucks an hour, or more. So I'd be surprised if they aren't dividing it all. Plus that would run counter to everything else I've seen there. For close to half the pandemic, baristas were permitted to skip work and were still paid for the number of hours they were accessing before it started, no questions asked. Those who actually worked were paid catastrophe pay $2/hour more, as just one example.

[xmas74]

24. It's the same with Chipotle.

My daughter works there and is a full time college student. Their tips go to the front line and cashiers/runners. She regularly earns enough for a daily Starbucks (next door to Chipotle) or Scooters and always pays for her gas with her tips. Some late nights the tips go to Doordash in an envelope waiting at the door so it's not on the app.

[MichMan]

29. True that not reporting tips hurts one SS, but it is also tax evasion

Your cosmetologist sister probably pocketed more from not paying taxes than she lost later in Social Security

[Ms. Toad]

30. It is tax evasion,

But that's not generally how the math works out.

Yes, she pocketed mire money, but only a fraction of the money pocketed would have gone to pay SS taxes. Typically, especially at low wages, the return at retirement is a pretty good "investment."

And it is pretty hard to convince people to report ask their income by telling them it is illegal not to. They are far more likely to, if there is something in it for them.

[happybird]

10. I've not heard of this

I drive a friend to do her errands about once a week and we always go through a drive thru so she can pick up dinner and we have never been asked to tip. Maybe it’s a local thing or the idea of a local franchise manager? A quick google search didn’t pop up news stories or a trend.

I’m also a long time restaurant business worker and one of the the Cardinal Rules is never ask for, or about, a tip, to anyone. Ya just don’t do it. Ever. No matter the circumstances.

[brush]

16. No, you're not behind the times. That "asking for tips in drive-thru"...

won't last long, especially since the beginning of drive-thru restaurants there is no custom to tip.

People will stop driving through because they'll be afraid of say no to the tip in fear of what would be done to their food.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

19. Fast food restaurant workers were not tipped in the past.

At least I never tipped them.

At other restaurants, I'm happy to tip. Yeah, I wish the servers were paid a better wage, but knowing they are not, I'm happy to help out. In the past I never tipped for carryout, but these days I do. There's a local Chinese restaurant I like. I've done both eat-in and take out in the past, and in the past never tipped for take out. Nowadays I do. Maybe I don't need to, but I do.

I also tip far more generously than I used to. For one thing, I'm not eating out or doing carryout as often as before. I'm also aware that the servers are in a far more precarious financial place than they used to be. I have the extraordinary good fortune to be retired, have a decent income, and can afford to tip. It's as simple as that.

[RockRaven]

20. Because of COVID, I haven't used a drive thru in over a year...

And it's probably another year-plus before that the last time I did. In general, when I eat fast food I do so on site -- I dislike eating in the car, and generally letting fast food sit around and become room temp makes it taste worse.

But to specifically address the question, the last time I was at a drive thru (a couple years ago, and most likely an In-n-Out in Northern CA) there was no tip solicitation. That's a new one to me, but not surprising given COVID might be reducing the proportion of customers who go inside and have an opportunity to encounter the tip jar in person.

[TreasonousBastard]

26. I see tip jars all over the place now. Sometimes I throw change in there, usually not. But...

I have seen places where the owner takes part of the tip. One argument is that if it goes through his card billing, he gets a piece of it. Also seen a lot of tip pooling, which the servers hate because they figure the little bit extra they might get on a typical night doesn't make up for losing the occasional huge tip.

Now for some real fun, look at Uber's class action suit-- https://blogs.findlaw.com/decided/2017/02/uber-settles-class-action-claim-of-stealing-driver-tips.html

Note that Uber was not told to pay the drivers, but had to refund the tip money to customers. Also note that this is illegal and should not have needed a class action suit to deal with it. Some bureaucrat in a government office should have done it without making a law firm rich.

[Jose Garcia]

27. Which chains?