No-Tip Policy Restaurant Explains How It's Avoided Labour Shortage

A San Francisco restaurant with a no-tipping policy hasn't experienced any staff shortages over the course of the pandemic.

Some people don't like to tip. 'If someone deserves a tip, if they really put forth an effort, I'll give them something a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, it's for the birds,' as Steve Buscemi's Mr. Pink once said.

However, most people (myself included) tend to always chuck down a few quid at the end of the meal. In the US, it's a bit different, because tipping is often built into the pay structure for hospitality workers — so if you don't tip, your server isn't being paid a fair wage, really.

It's insidiously common across the country, but Zazie, a French restaurant in San Francisco, doesn't bow to this economic tendency. Instead, it does something rather revolutionary: it pays staff well, gives them benefits such as paid family leave and health and dental insurance, and shares its profits — what a concept!

Megan Cornelius, co-owner of the restaurant, spoke to Insider about its success upon reopening and how 'everyone returned', despite reports of labour shortages in cities all around the US. Meanwhile, Zazie has enjoyed 'very low turnover', with just one server leaving during the pandemic, and that was due to them changing career.

Zazie has close to 40 employees, and around half of them have been with the restaurant for 10 years or more. Only a handful of staff have left throughout its tenure, and it's never been as a result of unhappiness with the workplace; they've either moved onto somewhere or something new. Cornelius herself worked as a server for nine years before buying the restaurant in 2020, alongside its executive chef and general manager.

While it wouldn't have been feasible to pay the staff the entire time the restaurant was closed, they were paid during the first month and could still access their health and dental insurance throughout the pandemic.

Instead of tips, all servers get 12% of their sales, while 12% of the restaurant's total sales go the back-of-house staff. 'Profit sharing just made sense to us as it's reflective of how busy we are. If we are busy, the staff and the restaurant make money. If you simply raise wages, it can get expensive. It also is an incentive to work hard and maintain great service with your table,' Cornelius said.

'Tipping is a very archaic way of people making their money. It's just nice to not have tap dance for money,' she added.

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