Askthepizzaguy
Know the Dark Side
In 2004, when I worked for a certain pizza company delivering pizzas,
The price of gasoline was a lot lower than it is now. It currently costs me about $50 to fill my tank, which empties in 2 shifts (250 miles of driving is roughly 2.1-2.4 shifts)
I earned minimum wage even while on the road. In fact, I earned slightly above it, due to raises and my employer "staying competitive" with the competition.
I got 50 cents to a dollar per delivery, depending on the cost of gasoline at the time. That meant that more deliveries meant more money, regardless of whether or not we got a tip.
The delivery charge largely went to the driver's actual, driving expenses.
I was also guaranteed a standard, livable minimum wage whether you tipped or not. And your tip had some kind of meaning- it meant there were times I earned decent money, because I served you so well. There were times I didn't earn decent money, because we were running behind and the pizzas were late. Sometimes you tipped anyway, and I appreciated that, especially because it was the driver's fault roughly 1 percent of the time, such as going to the wrong address or forgetting to bring the soda. Every other time, we were just busy.
I took home my tips and it enabled me to save, and work towards a college education. I then went and attempted to obtain that very thing.
The job was exactly what you believe it should be- a livable wage, and a path toward improving oneself. It was also a pretty rockin' job.
Let that sink in for a moment. The companies, all of them, were quite profitable, and the workers were properly compensated.
Now.
Imagine I told you the corporate powers that be invented a way to
pay the employee absolutely nothing, and also, steal that person's tips directly out of his pocket.
You'd call that absurd, right?
Watch me prove how they did it, with actual math.
__________________
After 2004, they cut the driver's wage to $4 an hour.
Then, they raised the delivery fee higher and higher. Going from $1, to $1.25, to $1.50, to $2, and eventually.... $3.
Per delivery.
$3
Per delivery.
That means, if I take 4 or 5 deliveries an hour (I do) I am generating for the company between $12 and $15 per hour in delivery fees.
Which, of course, I still only earned $1.25 maximum in driver's compensation, per delivery.
Which means they only ended up paying out about $5-6 in compensation per hour, for the $400 a month I spend on gasoline, the 220 per month I spend on car insurance (not lying about your profession means you're covered in an accident, lying about your profession means lower premiums but no actual coverage) and of course, constant tire replacements and oil changes.
Which means I was still getting decent compensation for what I was doing, however, they had cut my guaranteed wage in half, meaning it hurt me when you tipped, and it hurt me when you didn't tip. It hurt all the time.
Then, they removed that compensation.
Now, they pay by the mile. Which means, if I take 3 deliveries all in the same general area, which still takes me way more time than 1 delivery, I only get compensated for, essentially, 1 delivery, while doing three of them.
Which means my driver compensation dropped from over 20 dollars per day to roughly 10.
Which means my wages and my driver compensation both were cut in half.
At the same time, the delivery CHARGE remained the same.
They would earn 3 dollars per delivery, 9 dollars total, for a triple-dispatch, and only end up paying me a dollar in compensation.
Now, customers are furious at the 3 dollar delivery fee, and mistakenly believe I get that money. They do not tip much, if at all.
Which means, the money they were going to tip me, is now going to the delivery charge. Which I no longer get a very big piece of. Instead of half, I basically get 1/9th of it, instead of half or a third.
I'll bring the company between 9 and 15 dollars per hour just in delivery fees alone, and I will get 4 dollars an hour in wages, and 1 dollar (not enough compensation for gas, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation) in driver's compensation, and between 10-15 dollars a night in tips.
I used to earn 50-80 dollars a night in tips.
That money was stolen from me, because of the delivery fee, and my employer kept it.
Then, they had enough money from the delivery fees alone to more than cover a 7 dollar an hour (nearly 8) dollar an hour wage, without it directly costing them ANYTHING (because of the delivery fee profit).
So, they had an employee which they provide almost no benefits for, and then the labor cost didn't just drop to zero, it became less than zero.
Because I'm bringing them more in delivery fees than they spend on me being there Way, way more.
So, my take-home wage was cut in half, my driver compensation was cut into a third, and my tips have essentially vanished because my customers do not understand how badly I am being screwed, and how much they are being screwed, by this delivery charge.
If drivers bring up the subject of tips at the door, they can be fired immediately. We cannot even explain to you what's happened to us.
We cannot unionize, or we will get fired on the spot.
What, can't legally terminate us for no reason? They can still do the next best thing: Reduce our hours to 4 per week. I've personally seen this happen. One half-shift a week. Can you pay your bills on that?
Find a better job, obvious solution. Fraid the millions of people employed by these companies cannot all find jobs elsewhere. There are millions more unemployed people trying and failing as we speak.
Let me ask you a question.
Have you ever had to take a 50% pay cut?
Have you ever had a job where the job-related expenses were once compensated for, and now, are not?
Have you ever had a job where your employer literally stole your tip money from you?
Well, I still end up getting about $7 per hour, if you factor in the tips.
Literally none of it actually comes from my employer anymore.
It all comes from the tips I earned, and the delivery charge my employer adds on to the regular price of the meal. My cost to the company is less than zero.
My pay, however, is half of what it used to be. And my cost to the company is now nothing.
Because, my employer figured out how to steal my tips, from you.
Legally.
You will keep in mind, I've been promoted, cross-trained to do everything, I am often literally in charge of the million dollars a year that my store generates in gross sales. I am entrusted with that money.
I am not a bad, disloyal, inexperienced, or ineffective worker. I am a highly valued, loyal, skilled, and trusted member of the team, and I'm often placed in charge of the team.
Yet, my wages were stolen from me, and the tips that you give me, were stolen from me.
Money is fungible. Even though my employer is not directly taking my tips out of my hands, my employer has managed, through reduction in pay, and raising of delivery fees, and restructuring of my cost compensation, to reduce their actual costs of having me on the team down to zero, and literally all of the money that I earn comes from your tips, and a portion of the delivery fee, which covers my slashed into thirds compensation, and my slashed in half wages.
And my tips are suffering, because this scheme of theirs has rendered it so that if you want to actually tip me, you've got to tip on top of a 3 dollar charge that you believe helps me in some way.
Which means, you're essentially spending 5 dollars, personally, every time I deliver to you, if you gave me a two dollar tip.
And yet, because many customers no longer tip at all, I still end up earning about 5-6 dollars an hour.
Nothing you do will change this.
I am not asking you to tip more.
I am just letting you know how extremely greedy, selfish, and unethical businesses are, and why employees need to be able to unionize without retaliation, and why employees need better legal protection against these kinds of unethical practices.
This is also why there has to be a legal minimum wage that is STRICTLY adhered to.
Those of you who argue that the minimum wage should be abolished: There are not words to describe how much I despise you.
The price of gasoline was a lot lower than it is now. It currently costs me about $50 to fill my tank, which empties in 2 shifts (250 miles of driving is roughly 2.1-2.4 shifts)
I earned minimum wage even while on the road. In fact, I earned slightly above it, due to raises and my employer "staying competitive" with the competition.
I got 50 cents to a dollar per delivery, depending on the cost of gasoline at the time. That meant that more deliveries meant more money, regardless of whether or not we got a tip.
The delivery charge largely went to the driver's actual, driving expenses.
I was also guaranteed a standard, livable minimum wage whether you tipped or not. And your tip had some kind of meaning- it meant there were times I earned decent money, because I served you so well. There were times I didn't earn decent money, because we were running behind and the pizzas were late. Sometimes you tipped anyway, and I appreciated that, especially because it was the driver's fault roughly 1 percent of the time, such as going to the wrong address or forgetting to bring the soda. Every other time, we were just busy.
I took home my tips and it enabled me to save, and work towards a college education. I then went and attempted to obtain that very thing.
The job was exactly what you believe it should be- a livable wage, and a path toward improving oneself. It was also a pretty rockin' job.
Let that sink in for a moment. The companies, all of them, were quite profitable, and the workers were properly compensated.
____________________
Now.
Imagine I told you the corporate powers that be invented a way to
pay the employee absolutely nothing, and also, steal that person's tips directly out of his pocket.
You'd call that absurd, right?
Watch me prove how they did it, with actual math.
__________________
After 2004, they cut the driver's wage to $4 an hour.
Then, they raised the delivery fee higher and higher. Going from $1, to $1.25, to $1.50, to $2, and eventually.... $3.
Per delivery.
$3
Per delivery.
That means, if I take 4 or 5 deliveries an hour (I do) I am generating for the company between $12 and $15 per hour in delivery fees.
Which, of course, I still only earned $1.25 maximum in driver's compensation, per delivery.
Which means they only ended up paying out about $5-6 in compensation per hour, for the $400 a month I spend on gasoline, the 220 per month I spend on car insurance (not lying about your profession means you're covered in an accident, lying about your profession means lower premiums but no actual coverage) and of course, constant tire replacements and oil changes.
Which means I was still getting decent compensation for what I was doing, however, they had cut my guaranteed wage in half, meaning it hurt me when you tipped, and it hurt me when you didn't tip. It hurt all the time.
Then, they removed that compensation.
Now, they pay by the mile. Which means, if I take 3 deliveries all in the same general area, which still takes me way more time than 1 delivery, I only get compensated for, essentially, 1 delivery, while doing three of them.
Which means my driver compensation dropped from over 20 dollars per day to roughly 10.
Which means my wages and my driver compensation both were cut in half.
At the same time, the delivery CHARGE remained the same.
They would earn 3 dollars per delivery, 9 dollars total, for a triple-dispatch, and only end up paying me a dollar in compensation.
Now, customers are furious at the 3 dollar delivery fee, and mistakenly believe I get that money. They do not tip much, if at all.
Which means, the money they were going to tip me, is now going to the delivery charge. Which I no longer get a very big piece of. Instead of half, I basically get 1/9th of it, instead of half or a third.
I'll bring the company between 9 and 15 dollars per hour just in delivery fees alone, and I will get 4 dollars an hour in wages, and 1 dollar (not enough compensation for gas, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation) in driver's compensation, and between 10-15 dollars a night in tips.
I used to earn 50-80 dollars a night in tips.
That money was stolen from me, because of the delivery fee, and my employer kept it.
Then, they had enough money from the delivery fees alone to more than cover a 7 dollar an hour (nearly 8) dollar an hour wage, without it directly costing them ANYTHING (because of the delivery fee profit).
So, they had an employee which they provide almost no benefits for, and then the labor cost didn't just drop to zero, it became less than zero.
Because I'm bringing them more in delivery fees than they spend on me being there Way, way more.
So, my take-home wage was cut in half, my driver compensation was cut into a third, and my tips have essentially vanished because my customers do not understand how badly I am being screwed, and how much they are being screwed, by this delivery charge.
If drivers bring up the subject of tips at the door, they can be fired immediately. We cannot even explain to you what's happened to us.
We cannot unionize, or we will get fired on the spot.
What, can't legally terminate us for no reason? They can still do the next best thing: Reduce our hours to 4 per week. I've personally seen this happen. One half-shift a week. Can you pay your bills on that?
Find a better job, obvious solution. Fraid the millions of people employed by these companies cannot all find jobs elsewhere. There are millions more unemployed people trying and failing as we speak.
Let me ask you a question.
Have you ever had to take a 50% pay cut?
Have you ever had a job where the job-related expenses were once compensated for, and now, are not?
Have you ever had a job where your employer literally stole your tip money from you?
Well, I still end up getting about $7 per hour, if you factor in the tips.
Literally none of it actually comes from my employer anymore.
It all comes from the tips I earned, and the delivery charge my employer adds on to the regular price of the meal. My cost to the company is less than zero.
My pay, however, is half of what it used to be. And my cost to the company is now nothing.
Because, my employer figured out how to steal my tips, from you.
Legally.
You will keep in mind, I've been promoted, cross-trained to do everything, I am often literally in charge of the million dollars a year that my store generates in gross sales. I am entrusted with that money.
I am not a bad, disloyal, inexperienced, or ineffective worker. I am a highly valued, loyal, skilled, and trusted member of the team, and I'm often placed in charge of the team.
Yet, my wages were stolen from me, and the tips that you give me, were stolen from me.
Money is fungible. Even though my employer is not directly taking my tips out of my hands, my employer has managed, through reduction in pay, and raising of delivery fees, and restructuring of my cost compensation, to reduce their actual costs of having me on the team down to zero, and literally all of the money that I earn comes from your tips, and a portion of the delivery fee, which covers my slashed into thirds compensation, and my slashed in half wages.
And my tips are suffering, because this scheme of theirs has rendered it so that if you want to actually tip me, you've got to tip on top of a 3 dollar charge that you believe helps me in some way.
Which means, you're essentially spending 5 dollars, personally, every time I deliver to you, if you gave me a two dollar tip.
And yet, because many customers no longer tip at all, I still end up earning about 5-6 dollars an hour.
Nothing you do will change this.
I am not asking you to tip more.
I am just letting you know how extremely greedy, selfish, and unethical businesses are, and why employees need to be able to unionize without retaliation, and why employees need better legal protection against these kinds of unethical practices.
This is also why there has to be a legal minimum wage that is STRICTLY adhered to.
Those of you who argue that the minimum wage should be abolished: There are not words to describe how much I despise you.
