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If you order delivery, please tip your driver.

Lush Father·3/18/2019, 1:52:30 AM·36 votes·16,725 views

Hello, I'm a delivery driver for Dominos. I'm 18 years old, in highschool and live on my own, and I have to say that people who don't tip their delivery driver are just fucking ridiculous, and here's why.

I make 4.25 an hour, because tips are supposed to make up for that low minimum wage. It works the same way as a waiter. This means, if I work 30 hours a week, I'll only make $127.5 for that week. As you can probably tell, that isn't enough to live off of. My rent is $550 a month, and I still have to pay for food, gas, etc.

I just worked 11 hours today, and drove 80 miles. That's roughly 47 dollars on hourly wage for the day, and I only got tipped **$6 dollars. ** I wish I was kidding about this, but it's true.

If you're going to order delivery, please tip your driver as little as a dollar, because that's legitimately better than nothing. I did 9 runs in a row today and got absolutely nothing for each one. We have to pay out of pocket to drive to your house.

If you can't afford a dollar tip, then I don't think you should be ordering food.

157 Comments

L Psy Kongroo3/18/2019, 2:13:06 AM45 votes

Or how about employers stop forcing customers to pay their employee's wages for them. Tipping wouldn't be necessary if greedy business owners actually paid their workers properly.

notFREEfood3/18/2019, 2:14:43 AM34 votes

If your tips don't make up the difference between your wage and the untipped minimum wage, your employer is supposed to make up the difference.

A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage. If the employee’s tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference. Many states, however, require higher direct wage amounts for tipped employees.

In addition your employer should be reimbursing you on a per-diem basis for the miles you drive delivering pizzas, and at 11 hours I believe you should be getting overtime.

Moody P3/18/2019, 2:22:11 AM16 votes

Then work somewhere else. I'm not obligated to make sure you get paid.

ChickenWrap3/18/2019, 4:10:46 AM11 votes

"I make 4.25 an hour"

What if we didn't tip people but instead paid them proper wages? In Canada, we do both.

Tipping culture is stupid.

How Do You Meta3/18/2019, 2:44:03 AM8 votes

I agree with other posters, greedy business owners should just pay minimum wage at the minimum instead of having people tip. Tipping ruins the service industry both for the employees and the customers, and the owners are the ones that only benefit from it. The employees have to rely on tips and are really upset and nervous about being tipped while the customers feel uncomfortable with thinking what to tip the employees. The owners get to pocket those extra savings and call it a day.

In other countries besides United States, tipping is not only discouraged but also can be illegal because the service industry gets paid a livable wage. In fact we used to not tip either and it was considered vulgar to tip someone but then somewhere along the lines the restaurant industry decided to shift it into a tip based job (I don't remember why). If other countries and United States (in the past) could pay servers a reasonable wage without tipping, then we should go back to it.

I'll still tip when I can, but I won't follow a 15% rule. I tip based on the service. If you do a good job, I'll tip a good 15-20%. If you cut my hair and do a great job, you get a 50% tip. Other services that require some skill other than food usually get ~30% tip. I don't tip delivery drivers much (sorry op) and maybe it's 10ish%. I tip maybe max 5% if I'm picking up food. If you do a poor job like delivery my food cold, make me wait in a restaurant for 3 hours for my food (this has happened!), are rude, or anything else that really ruins my experience, then I won't tip. I'm not going to tip out of obligation because there isn't enough money coming into your paychecks if you do a terrible job. That's not how it should work. If you are in the service industry, you are expected to perform a decent service and I'll pay extra accordingly.

Oh and PS as this actually happened before: If you come after me and say I didn't tip the 15% or something like that, I will take back the tip, make a scene, tell everyone I know not to support the establishment, and I will leave scathing reviews on yelp and other sites to make sure no one has to go through that. There was this one time at an event where the group paid $30 in tips and the manager came at us and said we didn't tip $35 and our bill won't be considered paid. The guy who was serving us kept messing up our orders constantly and gave a person who specifically said "NO SEAFOOD IM ALLERGIC" a plate of scallops.

Vekkna3/18/2019, 9:28:29 PM7 votes

Here is some info:

  • Under no circumstances is it legal for you to work and earn less than $7.25/hr average in a pay period, inclusive of tips. If you make $0 in tips over 2 weeks, Domino's has to pay you $7.25/hr in wages.

  • Domino's is required to guarantee you $7.25/hr minimum after reimbursing your driving expenses. The IRS recommends this reimbursement be paid at $0.58/mile in 2019.

  • Federal overtime pay kicks in on hour 41 in a single Sun-Sat work week (not 7 consecutive days).

You say that you are paid $0.28/mile for deliveries? Here's a news article where Domino's paid $850k to settle a class action for underpaying mileage at $0.30/mile.

https://www.daytondailynews.com/business/400-pizza-delivery-drivers-win-850k-settlement/62YLxxKEFrQZXJoSVetLVJ/

There are actually lots of other examples, including 8-figure settlements involving Domino's for uncompensated mileage, undercompensated mileage, unfair tip deductions, and failure to meet minimum wage requirements.

Here's a nice list of cases filed by just one firm that does a lot of these cases. If everything you say here is true, you might give these folks a call. I did a quick search and couldn't find where these issues have been litigated against Domino's in Louisiana.

http://pizzalawsuits.com/experience/

Source: being a bloodsucking lawyer.

Trump4Prison20203/18/2019, 2:18:17 AM7 votes

I dont think $4.25 per hour is legal wherever you are.

Kanzler3/18/2019, 2:30:08 AM7 votes

Dominos specifically has a delivery fee and they explicitly say that the delivery fee is not a tip. What is this delivery fee going towards if they are paying you so little?

Unfortunately there are a few jobs, like delivery drivers and waiters, that are paid below minimum wage because tips are supposed to make up the difference. Also unfortunately, you get people who dont tip because they are under the impression that they are "not obligated to make sure you get paid".

Nut on my Butt3/18/2019, 12:03:22 PM6 votes

I really don't understand why Dominoes charges a delivery fee if they're making their employees pay out of pocket like that.

That's why I only do carryout. If I'm going to pay a delivery fee AND tip, I could easily just buy an extra pizza with that money instead.

TwitchInMyPants3/18/2019, 10:05:30 AM5 votes

Just saying, at all these goons who think they're protesting the system by not tipping while still ordering food... you're not doing anything at all. The corperations you're objecting to are still making money. You're just fucking over the people spending their own money on gas to serve it to you.

You aren't making a practical objection. If you wanted to do that, DONT ORDER OUT FOOD AT ALL. If you're going to bother, tip your servers. Don't order but then refuse tip as protest, you're fucking over the people most affected by this then telling them to pick themselves up by their bootstraps, you're eating overpriced food in their faces while being a pretentious jerk. Seriously if you object to how things are just don't even bother ordering in the first place.

Linna Excel3/18/2019, 6:08:15 PM5 votes

This is why I think tips should be banned and employees should get paid. All I can say is try to find another job ASAP.

Sexy Jack Rabbit3/18/2019, 2:04:39 PM5 votes

In my country we just pay our workers a livable wage.

Krigjer3/18/2019, 3:38:31 AM4 votes

My boyfriend drove for Domino's for some time, and while I don't know the exact details...

He made at least 10$ an hour (fast food makes a lot by default, at least in our state) and was paid something like a dollar per mile. The math equaled to him getting more as payment than he paid in gas. AND he kept tips on top of it.

What your boss is doing sounds highly illegal- but it may depend on your state labour laws concerning delivery positions. I would look into it, or consider employment elsewhere.

Frontline Fury3/18/2019, 5:57:51 AM4 votes

I'm so glad i don't live in the states where tipping is custom. In Norway the custom is the opposite - its usually offensive to tip service people, and their pay reflects this. Most places have "tips" accounted for in their drivers' pay.

Has it ever struck you that some people can't afford to give out tips? Some people save up for months to be able to afford to order food once in a while, on a luxurious evening with friends or loved ones. Especially considered the culture in the states, chances are some of the people ordering are hardly any better off than you are.

And of course, chances are some of them are just really stingy. Yay, capitalism!

Serika Zero3/18/2019, 7:04:34 AM4 votes

4.25 per hour. That's 34$ per normal word day, 8 hours. that's 238$ per week.

And that's 952$ per normal 4 weeks month. Meanwhile, me, as a software developer I get 700 euros per month.

yeh I would not tip you. and maybe you'd have better salaries if it wasn't a country wide custom to tip, but I for sure don't like stupid traditions, and tipping is one of them. no tips :)

Also, by my calculations, the minimum income in USA is around 1000-1100$ per month. (easier to do math with per month than per hour as the discrepancy looks bigger). Meaning that, unless this is a part time job, you are being illegally payed less than normal.

Again if you can't survive without tips, a good hint is to get a better job.

Curious Melody3/18/2019, 11:14:51 AM4 votes

Entire concept of forced tips is absurd to me. Why would a customer need to pay additional "courtesy tax" after already paying for both the product and the delivery. Also, I'm pretty sure that this is USA only thing. Both the forced tips and the entitlement of waiters and delivery people for those tips. I've literally never met with it outside of America. If you come to the point where you're forced to ask for tips you should probably change your job.

Audhulma3/18/2019, 4:44:36 AM2 votes

The only time I don't tip is when a restaurant charges 20-30% gratuity automatically. Happened to us many times in New Mexico, fuck that whole state and it's obsession with stucco buildings. Seriously, I'm not voluntarily adding another tip on top of that.

With regards to pizza deliveries, the only place I order from anymore is 2 intersections away (takes less than a minute to get there, even with a red light!), so while I do always tip, I only ever tip $4. Whether the order is $15 or $50, the tip isn't gonna change for a two block drive. Only reason I don't often drive there myself is that it's a pain in the ass to move 2 other trucks out of the way (and back in) to pull mine out once we lock everything down for the day.

But yeah, not tipping at all when the service is good is a dick move.

General Esdeath 3/18/2019, 4:28:23 AM2 votes

Pretty sure if you don't make a certain amount in tips they're supposed to pay minimum wage.

Also what state is this?