Ivar’s to raise restaurant workers’ wages to $15 right away

[skeeter]

Menu prices will increase by 21% – 4% for increased cost of wages and 17% to cover tips. I like this idea! I’ve always found tipping to be unfair and arbitrary.

Other thoughts?

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/economy/ivars-to-raise-restaurant-workers-wages-to-15-right-away/

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[rw]

Congrats and good luck to their experiment. Admirable. I hope it succeeds. It might be hard to roll back pay if the experiment fails. On the other hand, it they succeed I think many other local restaurants might be willing to follow their lead.

I wonder if they consulted their staff members who rely on tips before they adopted this policy?

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[Smitty]

I say good on them for getting ahead of the game. A couple of observations:

1) I think by being out in front of this (especially in liberal, “cause-driven” Seattle) this will have the effect of increasing business as people show their support by frequenting more often.

2) I wonder how this impacts service? If you know your tip is set, what is the incentive to provide excellent service? Or more importantly, if “I” am working harder than the other guy, why should we split things equally?

I think longer term, the “seasonal” properties will be impacted the least (tourists expect to pay a lot) but the year-round properties (salmon house) may fair differently.

I will certainly be interesting to watch.

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[justadumbguy]

Ivar’s sit downs are a bit out of the dumbguy household price range so it will not have any immediate impact on us. I wish them luck, it is a large cultural change to try and implement. Such a system is quite common in other parts of the world so perhaps it will catch on here.

Smitty, in regard to your item #2 keep in mind that many places (at least many I worked at) ‘pooled’ tips so in some ways it was the same. I always looked at that as it protected me against the grumpy folks who came to dinner every Saturday night at 5:00PM and tipped 5% no matter what. There are though other ways it could be looked at.

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[trickycoolj]

Don’t count them out on price, they have a stellar Happy Hour that runs the entire evening! I’m pretty excited to see how this will pan out. I love going out to restaurants in Germany where tipping isn’t normal and you pay cash and round to the nearest Euro to avoid pocket change. It’s so refreshing and less stressful to deal with the math. I tend to tip generously now that my own salary has grown and it makes some of my strict 15% friends feel uncomfortable when we split bills. I think of it this way, I go to work and my employer pays my full salary. A waitress goes to work and should earn her full salary from her employer as well and not have to worry whether she gets generous customers or the stingy guy who argues automatic gratuity for parties over 10 off the bill.

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[pattilea]

Trickycoolj, I so agree with you!I think of it this way, I go to work and my employer pays my full salary. A waitress goes to work and should earn her full salary from her employer as well and not have to worry whether she gets generous customers or the stingy guy who argues automatic gratuity for parties over 10 off the bill.

I was raised by a waitress Mother. She was am awesome waitress, and made great money for the time because of her tips.

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