On the other side of the US, Rachel Miller, chef and owner of Nightshade Noodle Bar in the town Lynn, Massachusetts, moved to a tip-free model five years ago when they reopened after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Her motivation was to make it fairer for the kitchen staff.
“The people breaking their backs and minds in the kitchen – often the least visible and the least celebrated – were taking home a fraction of what the front staff made on tips for the same hours,” she says.
Miller says she found it “deeply unsettling” to see higher tips going to white male staff and lower tips to everyone else.
“Tipping lets guests, consciously or not, pay people differently based on gender, race, or sexuality and I was not willing to let that decide my team’s income.”
To pay the staff higher wages, Miller also increased prices at the French-Vietnamese restaurant. Its tasting menus now start from $102 (£75) for seven courses before 18:00, and $126 (£92) for nine courses.
“Our prices are higher than a comparable restaurant’s because they carry the full cost of paying people properly,” says Miller. “That is the trade, and I stand behind it.”
