Optimism is Tip-Free

At Optimism Brewing, we believe employee wages should be the responsibility of our business, not our customers. Our employees deserve a living wage they can count on, which is why our hourly rate starts at $25/hour and why we pay 100% of our employees’ health care, among other benefits like three weeks of vacation per year and one month of paid parental leave.

 

Why we stand by our no-tipping and anti-gratuity policies:

  • Tipping creates unfair disparities between the staff members who create the products and the staff who serve them, with servers often out-earning the makers, creators, and, in our case, brewers. We believe that disparity is wrong.

  • Tipping has a classist and racist history. Tipping began as an aristocratic custom that rose to prominence in the United States after slavery was abolished. Employers didn’t like having to pay wages to newly-freed African-Americans, so tipping became their only source of income.

  • Tipping is sexist: 70% of all tipped workers are women, whose wages often depend on those tips, compelling them to tolerate inappropriate and unnacceptable behavior from customers in order to make a living. The restaurant and food service industry is responsible for staggering 37% of all sexual harassment claims.

  • Customers don’t like tipping, and who can blame them?! Tipping feels awkward and compulsory, and doing the math when the bill arrives is a pain. Customers come to Optimism to enjoy good beer, and we believe that’s all they should pay for.

  • Tips do not fix poor service. If someone has a bad experience at Optimism, it’s not the company’s fault, nor is it the server’s. A tip is a very inefficient way of communicating a problem to the people who can actually do something about it. If you’ve had a bad experience at Optimism, please report it to us HERE.

  • Tipping fosters competition between co-workers for the best shifts and sections, instead of cooperation and teamwork—both of which are vital for maintaining a close-knit team and supportive, non-toxic work environment.

  • Studies have shown, tips do not ensure or encourage good service. We don’t tip our doctors or bankers. Why should we treat food service professionals be any different? People in other professions perform their jobs well without being tipped by customers. For most of us, the motivation to do our jobs well comes not from money but from taking pride in our work. The concept of tips ensuring better service is classist and dehumanizing: it makes the server a lower class person.

 

If you really want to show your appreciation for our beer and service...

Here are some other ways you could do it:

  • Bring your glass back up to the counter when you are done.

  • Tell your friends what a good time you had and bring them along with you next time you visit!

  • Leave us a review on Yelp.

  • Follow @OptimismBrewing on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter and tell us what you liked! Hearing that we’ve done well by our customers really makes our day in a way that a tip never could.