There’s no waiter in this world who doesn’t like tipping, but those working at Joe’s Crab Shack should get used to saying goodbye to this extra income source. According to a report from Reuters, the seafood chain is planning to conduct a test, consisting in removing tipping from 18 of its more than 130 restaurants.
Will tipping be gone forever?
For the moment, they don’t have any plans of implementing this idea nation-wide, but it comes after a nascent movement has been launched, in order to remove a tradition which is present in our lives for more than 100 years.
Currently, Joe’s Crab Shack employees are paid with a minimum of $12 per hour at the test locations, but the company has not specified how much they were making previously. Recently, the company has also modified their menu prices, raisin them with less than 20 percent, in order to compensate for the high labor costs, as stated by the above-mentioned source.
Overall, this test turned out to be a success, as initial surveys have shown improvement in services in restaurants where the no-tipping policy is active.
Great service should be included in the menu price
“We believe that consistently great service should always be included in the menu price, so we are taking the responsibility for paying the service staff,” said Ray Blanchette, CEO of Joe’s Crab Shack parent company, Ignite Restaurant Group Inc.
Like expected, this so-called test attracted a lot of criticism, but the Joe’s Crab Shack’s representatives said that removing the tipping will lead to higher, fixed hourly wages for all employees, making staff retainment easier. Besides this, it will be able to keep track of all the money coming in.
According to the United Stated Department of Labor, if an employer has tipped employees, it its required to pay a minimum of $2.13 in direct wages.
