If you can’t afford to tip your bartenders, don’t go out. They depend on us to live.
There are currently over 726,000 people employed as bartenders in the United States. Of those, 59% are women and 38% are men. They earn an average of $22,414 a year, and largely depend on their tips for a living. And if you can’t afford to tip them, you shouldn’t be able to afford going out to drink at all.
According to a study performed in 2018 by National Employment Law Project, bartenders earn more in tips than they do from an hourly base pay. Over half of a bartender’s monthly earnings are attributed to tips, meaning their livelihood, bills, and maintenance of a roof over their head all depend on tips.
Cheyenne Myers, a former bartender of a “hole-in-the-wall” bar located in Basalt, Colorado, said that these statistics aligned with her experience on the job.
“The majority of what I made there was tips. I definitely relied on people tipping generously, and if I ran into people who didn’t tip again later, I would prioritize other customers over them.”
Detractors of tipping argue that making sure that their bartenders or waiters have a livable wage should fall on their employers, not them as consumers. This is well and good, and incredibly true. Base wages across the United States should be raised — especially considering the fact that if the federal minimum wage had kept up with worker productivity since 1968. If it had, the minimum wage today would be $24.
However, until the day comes that the federal minimum wage is raised to catch up with worker productivity, part of the responsibility unfortunately falls on us as consumers to make sure the people serving us are paid a livable wage.
The people that we choose to serve us our beer, cocktails, bar food, other drinks deserve a livable wage. When we go out in search of entertainment and a fun time, they are there waiting on us hand and foot.
They put up with our drunken antics and they face the potential for an interaction to go awry when they have to cut off someone who’s had one too many. In addition to this, they also have to ward off unsavory characters who are harassing other people — often women. They go through a lot and meet some unpleasant people.
All of this is to say that bartenders put up with a lot, and deserve more than minor ducats for it. It would also substantially improve your service to provide them with a polite “please” and “thank you.”
