this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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If you think that workers aren't being paid an equitable wage and you continue to spend money on something that isn't essential, you're complicit. The employer may be putting the idea of underpaying their workers on the table, but you're the one allowing him to continue to operate. He doesn't exist in a vacuum.
The entitlement here comes both from the greedy employer and from the greedy consumer. Greed is wrong regardless of what side of the counter you stand on. No ethical consumption under capitalism, sure, but that doesn't mean you have to participate in stiffing someone.
Totally agree with this.
You've brought up very good points. As long as consumers support this it will stay the same.
It's not the customers responsibility to save a worker who chose to take a job that doesn't pay a livable wage.
I think people do have a responsibility for the systems they're complicit in, but I also think that we actually owe one another something as human beings, and most people seem not to.
It's true that the people using the services are also enablers, but I don't hold them responsible either, when it comes to wage related questions.
The employer is responsible for paying a livable wage, but the employee is responsible for choosing to do said work.
If nobody did, the system would collapse and change in a month. No amount of never tipping/feedback can fix what's broken, only the employees can.
That doesn't really line up with reality though. We're living in a world where the gap between the rich and the poor is expanding and wealth is being consolidated. Minimum wage fails to be enough to support a person, but most service-oriented companies seem to manage to get away with paying it pretty readily.
Workers can try to unionize, but that's an uphill battle and it doesn't immediately guarantee a living wage for their labor. In the case of a lot of service jobs, it may make a lot more sense individually to just get out of the industry rather than try to improve it.
Like, I've worked in places that would benefit from a stronger bargaining position for workers, but that doesn't mean unionizing is going to be achievable in all of those contexts.
And for some jobs, tipping is literally what makes them sustainable. Outside of a metro area, tipping may well be the reason you even have a taxi company or any restaurants at all. I don't know about you, but I like living in a world where we get the stuff that we need. To me, that means that I should participate in those systems in good faith when I use them rather than subverting them and making the margins thinner for the most vulnerable people involved.
The reality is that this issue only exists in the US, if we're talking about first world countries. It's a cultural problem in attitudes.