Competition

A real organization called the Brotherhood for the Respect, Elevation, and Advancement of Dishwashers (BREAD) encourages restaurant patrons to leave tips not just for the servers, but also for the kitchen staff who bus tables and wash dishes. What will happen if this organization achieves its goals?In the short run, life will be better for dishwashers. They’ll collect tips, and they’ll probably decide to work additional hours to collect even more tips. But in the long run, people in other occupations — car wash attendants, grocery baggers, and others — will attempt to get on the gravy train. Restaurant kitchens will be flooded with job applicants, and the wages of dishwashers will be bid down. In fact, wages are likely to be bid down by the full amount of the tips — if tips amount to, say, $2 an hour, then wages fall from $8 an hour to $6 an hour. It turns out that respect, elevation, and advancement don’t show up in take-home pay…