2024 Theses Master's

Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire: Unintended Consequences of Restaurant Policies Targeting Discriminatory Outcomes of Tipping

Casey, Róisín

In the United States, 16 states still uphold the tipping provision in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which permits restaurants to pay tipped workers a poverty subminimum wage of $2.13 per hour, disproportionately affecting Black and women servers. The practice of tipping creates a complex system of power imbalances between customers, management, and employees that perpetuates unsafe work environments and economic cleavages between the idealized white male server and racialized and sexualized servers.

In this thesis, I utilize an intersectional lens to identify potential unintended consequences of restaurants’ corporate strategies to combat discriminatory tipping practices and outcomes in relation to wage inequalities and unsafe work environments, specifically analyzing the case of Black and Brown women servers as some of the most vulnerable workers in the restaurant industry.

I classify these strategies into two types: tip-focused strategies and workplace culture-focused strategies. While all strategies rectify some specific harms created by tipping practices, I contend tip-focused strategies exacerbate safety concerns, notably increasing the risk of sexual harassment. Although slower in implementation, workplace culture-focused strategies positively improve server-management relations, thus ameliorating servers’ safety and reducing management biases which can influence servers’ wages. Overall, I advocate for restaurants to use a human-rights centered approach to counter workplace discrimination to not further exacerbate inequalities.