[ad_1]
Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti (left) and founder and chairman Danny Meyer are seen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on January 30, 2015 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Restaurateur Danny Meyer doesn’t believe customers need to tip when picking up fast food or buying coffee.
“If you’re just eating, and it’s just a deal — I give you money, you give me a cup of coffee — I don’t think there’s any obligation to tip at all,” Meyer said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. ” Thursday.
Meyer founded Shake Shack He serves as Chairman of its Board of Directors. The burger chain added tipping to its restaurants last year. He also founded the Union Square Hospitality Group, which operates mostly full-service restaurants. The company’s restaurants include the Union Square Cafe, the Gramercy Tavern, and the fast-casual Daily Provisions chain.
As more companies adopt Square’s and Toast’s point-of-sale systems, customers are becoming more accustomed to being asked to tip while paying. But some are left feeling confused or at a loss as to how much they should pay.
At full-service restaurants, some advocacy groups like One Fair Wage are lobbying to eliminate flipped wages. Tipping opponents say the practice leads to precarious income for servers and can fuel sexual harassment and racial discrimination.
President Joe Biden pledged to end flipped pay during the election campaign in 2020. A handful of states, including California, have already banned the pay system.
Meyer has a complicated history with tipping. In 2015, he announced that his restaurants would no longer accept tips in an effort to narrow the income gap between servers and chefs. Five years later, when many of Meyer’s restaurants reopened during the Covid pandemic, he reversed the decision.
“It was inhumane for you to tell our servers that you cannot accept this expression of gratitude,” he said.
[ad_2]
