Don't Call it a Tip. It's an Employer's Subsidy.

 Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

I saw this in a restaurant window yesterday. It is a classic example of how we earn a living defining our outlook on life as Marx so strongly pointed out. It is also an example of how the system tends to work behind the backs of the capitalist class as someone else said.You can ask a capitalist, a small business owner for example, or a wage worker for that matter, what the source of profit is. They will say that it arises in selling a commodity above its value. But that is not the case. Profit is made before a commodity is even sold in most cases. It is "realized" through the sale of the commodity because the commodity contains labor time within it that the capitalist has paid for and labor time he/she hasn't, it's free money. The working class produces more in value than is paid in wages. Profit has a source in this surplus value.

But beyond that, this capitalist(s) might be an honest fellow, letting us know that the consumer prices will be put up and the consumer will be paying more for a commodity, in this case food,  not so the owner can make more money for themselves but will be able to pay a "living wage" to the worker. 

One who earns a living primarily, or to any significant extent from the profit of capital as opposed to working (wage labor), instinctively phrases a price increase this way because it is a lot more palatable to the consumer if we think we are contributing to the worker whose wages are inadequate in the first place. Let's join them in helping the worker this employer says. But they are not sacrificing anything.

What is not so palatable is the owner saying that they are raising prices of their goods to pay their employees more and do not want the raise to come out of their income, out of profits. Better say nothing about profits at all. We don't get a choice to see if the consumer should pay or the owner as their profits are not in the equation. 

This is true when large concerns do the same thing. We have to raise prices to pay for a wage increase. But prices and wages are not organically linked. if they can raise prices they will, if the market won't bear it they can't and are forced to eat in profits.

I always refer to tipping as the employer's subsidy. It is a horrible thing. It creates competition, bootlicking, tension between workers and forces the consumer to pay for better service through bribery but in the US we have to do it as workers wages are so linked to tipping.

It's a great deal for the boss.