Reference no: EM133428424

Case Scenario: Three friends go to a restaurant for a midday meal. We'll call them Avery, Blake, and Casey. It is shortly after restaurants are allowed to have indoor dining following pandemic-related lockdowns. The restaurant is understaffed and it takes a while for the friends to be seated. The server greets them politely and takes their orders. Due to supply chain issues, many of the menu items that the hungry friends ask for are out, and the ones that are still on the menu have increased greatly in price due to inflation and supply issues. They order and their food arrives after almost 35 minutes of waiting, most likely due to staff shortages in the kitchen.

They order moderately-priced meals. No one is ordering a high-end steak, nor is anyone eating a small salad with water.

They split the check according what they ordered, and the three friends decide to tip three different ways:

Avery - Decides 10% is enough. They say that the wait times were unacceptable and what they wanted to order wasn't even available. They say 10% is fair because all prices have increased anyway, and with fewer staff, there are fewer hosts/chefs/bartenders to split the tips with. In other words, one server, one host, and one bartender are now splitting tips from 5-6 tables, where as before the pandemic, there could be 1-3 hosts plus 1-2 bartenders that they would have to split tips with. Effectively, everyone is still making the same amount of money, or close to it. They say that in the long-run if servers are unhappy with pay, market forces will take over and the owner of the business will have to raise wages, and then everyone will be better compensated. This will make up for the lower pay that this server gets in the short-term. They conclude by saying that they, personally, are also taking a hit from the economy and cannot afford to tip more than 10% right now, and will be a better tipper when they are making more money.

Blake - Decides to tip 20%. They say that regardless of service, 20% is what everyone should tip. They always tip 20%. They acknowledge that minimum wage for servers is well below the standard state and federal minimum wages because the state expects patrons to tip approximately 20%. Tipping an even rate allows the servers to make above the federal and state minimum level. If the owner of the restaurant feels that their servers are still being paid too little (20% tip + minimum wage), then he/she can always choose to increase everyone's hourly wage.

Casey - Decides to tip 30%. They say that it isn't the fault of the server nor the restaurant that wait times were long and selection is limited. They say that even though waits were long, the server is working extra hard because the staff is short. Tasks such as rolling silverware, hosting, doing dishes, pouring drinks, and expediting or running food is most likely picked up by the server. They say that servers should be taken care of since they chose to work, rather than file for unemployment and take a government hand-out. They say that a higher tip might incentivize other people to want to work as a server (if they hear servers are making good money), and therefore ease some of the current workload of the current staff.

Questions: In your response, please address the following questions:

• Which ethical framework(s) is each friend using? (Remember that there can be overlap, be sure to justify which framework(s) you feel the friend is using to justify his/her decision.)
• Which friend do you think is most correct when it comes to tipping? Why?
• Is there an alternative tipping system that you would propose? (One that is different from what one of the friends used?) Be sure to justify your tipping system if it's different than one listed above.