$2 to cut a sandwich in half: The outrageous rip-offs targeting tourists in Italy | CNN
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Getting gouged is all part of the experience in tourist hot spots, but some Italy seems to be taking it to audacious new levels amid complaints Italians can no longer afford vacations at home.

An Italian holiday may be a priceless experience for those who have enjoyed all this country has to offer. But the summer of 2023 will go down as one of the priciest in history after a slew of price gouging scandals at cafes and restaurants that have affected foreign tourists and Italians alike.

    • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
      131·
      1 year ago

      See how long you last as a server if you have to get paid up by the manager to make minimum wage.

        • Hacksaw@lemmy.caEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, the min wage fight is important no debate there.

          The tip fight is important as well though and shouldn’t be ignored. It’s an attempt by capitalists to make customers pay employees wages for them. It’s spreading to all service industries and we might as well stop it everywhere all at once.

            • Hacksaw@lemmy.caEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              The “they’ll just raise prices” narrative is just a scare tactic. In the end the customer is paying for it whether in tips or cost. The amount you’d have to increase price is TINY for most business cases.

              Also the fact you’d never do the job for min wage is exactly the point. If enough people wouldn’t do the job for min wage, restaurants won’t be able to pay min wage. That’s what the current labour shortage is about. No company that pays their employees what they’re worth has a labour shortage. Tipping culture is spreading to many industries and this massively reduces wage pressure on employers. Wage pressure is the rising tide that lifts all boats!

    • Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
      92·
      1 year ago

      it doesn’t cost extra

      They still have to tip you 20% otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford rent

        • Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
          1·
          1 year ago

          And since people can’t survive on a minimum wage, not even close, I have no idea what point you are trying to make. Instead of paying the stuff their salary, restaurants offload most of this cost to customers directly, which creates whole lot of problems for everyone involved. And that’s just a fact.
          They can do it because the labour laws in US are abysmal, and low minimum wage is just a tip of the iceberg. But the thing is, restaurant owners don’t have to treat their stuff like trash, they chose to do it because nobody is stopping them. That part of the blame is squarely on them.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
          15·
          1 year ago

          I don’t think I you read any of the replies from people…

          Did someone try to make the most annoying bot or something and that’s what going on?

    • thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev
      52·
      1 year ago

      Minimum wage is $2.13/hour for a server in the US… You’re being disingenuous by implying they make federal minimum wage which is $7.25/hour.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
      2·
      1 year ago

      You’re technically correct, but most people, including workers, don’t know this. The companies often don’t pay then for the missed wages. This is called wage theft, which is the most common kind of theft, by far, in the US. Yes, it’s technically illegal, but it won’t matter unless they’re held accountable, and what service worker has the time or money to sue them over a little missed money?

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
          1·
          1 year ago

          Oh, I agree. It absolutely was not defending tips. If anything, the opposite. It’s to never trust your employer and that workers need more protections and rights.

    • Crazypartypony@lemmy.worldEnglish
      54·
      1 year ago

      Yea, you’ll be fired if you aren’t making tips. It’s right to work too, remember. Think a little bit before your condescending to others for having thoughts.

    • Madlaine@feddit.de
      21·
      1 year ago

      Coming from a country where we at least give servers minimum wages* and then they can keep their tip tax-free** on top; this still doesn’t sound right.

      I at least know that all** of my tips go to the server on top of what he would’ve get in the first place. Otherwise I’m essentially not gifting money for good service but paying part of the wage for normal service as well. And that’s something that should be priced into the products, not tips.

      *unless they were unemployed for years, then minimum wages don’t apply for the first six months, and i guess there are some other loopholes; but in general minimum wage is the minimum

      **unless its a “throw everything in a pot and then share it at the end of the month” arrangement; or if the tips is required; it must be a voluntary gift from the customer directly towards the server to not count as income

        • Spendies@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I think he’s primarily talking about states where tips can make up part lf the minimum wage instead of it just being the baseline with tips on top.

          Also, I’m pretty sure his first * is him talking about his country, not America.

          Realistically if we removed tipping in America restaurants would be forced to raise wages to get anyone to work there. It would be a rough transition though.

    • Anamnesis@lemmy.worldEnglish
      33·
      1 year ago

      You make minimum wage over the course of a whole pay period. Because tips vary, some nights you may work nearly for free as long as later in the pay period you make enough tips to get you to minimum wage for that whole week/two weeks. People have the impression that you get minimum wage as a baseline that you can’t fall below on a given day. It does actually work that way on the West Coast of the US and a few other states, but not the majority.