> The question I have is: Why are we OK with this for waiters but suddenly get upset when this happens to the drivers? Do you ask your favorite restaurants their policy?
It's not OK, and it's part of the reason why I don't often go to restaurants even though I could afford to eat at one every night.
There is one difference, though, which is that restaurant staff are well aware of the nature of their pay.
Most DoorDash drivers didn't realize that they were being gypped. I know this because, when I was driving for GrubHub, I would sometimes bump into DoorDash drivers and I would ask them about DoorDash's pay model. Most didn't have a clue that they were getting tipped but that the tip was disappearing into the pockets of DoorDash. I'm sure that DoorDash had something about that in 6 pt font somewhere, but not everyone will read or even comprehend that. Unless the customer asks if you got the tip, there was no way for a driver to even know if they had a tip when that tip did not exceed their base pay. At least restaurant workers know that there are tips and can see the full amount. Until this came out, a lot of drivers considered DoorDash to be supplementary because the customers were "stingy", when in fact that may not have been the case.
But no, I do not ask my favorite restaurants their pay policy. Perhaps I should.
EDIT: Another key difference between restaurant workers and food delivery app drivers is that customers of DoorDash almost always tip ahead of time, so it's not as if the driver can do much if anything to improve their chances of getting a bigger tip. With traditional tipping, it's implied that an advantage in being paid mostly in tips was that better service could equate to more pay. DoorDash a few years ago was taking advantage of people's common understanding of what it means to tip someone and keep both prices and costs down, with the driver being the one to get screwed and not even realize it.
> Most DoorDash drivers didn't realize that they were being gypped.
First, I'm only really bringing this up because I used that same term for much of my early life without knowing it's origins, so I think it's worth discussing because of the way it's unconsciously used by many, and not as an attempt to chastise. The term "gypped" has some connotations once you know where it's from that make it hard to ignore and it ends up distracting from the point. After the origins become clear, it's sort of like hearing "jewed" as a verb. Gypped may be somewhat common, and may be used without ill-intent and unknowingly the vast majority of times, but it's also one of those words that's better dying off.
> Another key difference between restaurant workers and food delivery app drivers is that customers of DoorDash almost always tip ahead of time, so it's not as if the driver can do much if anything to improve their chances of getting a bigger tip. With traditional tipping, it's implied that an advantage in being paid mostly in tips was that better service could equate to more pay.
It is implied, but generally not the reality. The correlation is fairly poor:
> customers of DoorDash almost always tip ahead of time
A tip before you receive a service is indistinguishable from a bribe used to prioritize your service.
I don't understand why this is the norm, and why so many people play along. It would be so much more sensible to tap the user on the shoulder after the delivery to ask them for their tip.
Why is this matter though? at the end of the day, what matter is my final net pay. It doesn't matter if the company take all my tip or deduct something, or some other complicated calculation, all i care is the final amount. If I consider that amount too low for the work I did then I don't do it.
Why wouldn't you want to make more if you could? Wouldn't you want your extra effort to pay off? I get your point, but it's not like the net pay of delivery drivers is particularly good. Most of them multi-app between DoorDash, GrubHub, Postmates and Uber Eats in order to make any meaningful amount of money.
Yes of course I would always want to make more. For example: The company can say my pay is $100 but then after some complex calculation, I get $50. I don't care how they calculate it, all I know is from my perspective my pay is actually $50 (not $100) and I would then use this $50 number to compare with my total effort (normal effort + extra effort).
>but it's not like the net pay of delivery drivers is particularly good
Then I simply won't do it. This has nothing to do with the pay model
It's not OK, and it's part of the reason why I don't often go to restaurants even though I could afford to eat at one every night.
There is one difference, though, which is that restaurant staff are well aware of the nature of their pay.
Most DoorDash drivers didn't realize that they were being gypped. I know this because, when I was driving for GrubHub, I would sometimes bump into DoorDash drivers and I would ask them about DoorDash's pay model. Most didn't have a clue that they were getting tipped but that the tip was disappearing into the pockets of DoorDash. I'm sure that DoorDash had something about that in 6 pt font somewhere, but not everyone will read or even comprehend that. Unless the customer asks if you got the tip, there was no way for a driver to even know if they had a tip when that tip did not exceed their base pay. At least restaurant workers know that there are tips and can see the full amount. Until this came out, a lot of drivers considered DoorDash to be supplementary because the customers were "stingy", when in fact that may not have been the case.
But no, I do not ask my favorite restaurants their pay policy. Perhaps I should.
EDIT: Another key difference between restaurant workers and food delivery app drivers is that customers of DoorDash almost always tip ahead of time, so it's not as if the driver can do much if anything to improve their chances of getting a bigger tip. With traditional tipping, it's implied that an advantage in being paid mostly in tips was that better service could equate to more pay. DoorDash a few years ago was taking advantage of people's common understanding of what it means to tip someone and keep both prices and costs down, with the driver being the one to get screwed and not even realize it.