Colorado Springs restaurant does away with tipping amid labor shortage

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Amid a growing labor shortage and rising food costs, The Wild Goose Meeting House has eliminated the option to tip their staff in an effort to provide a more reliable and equitable wage to their employees.

The downtown Colorado Springs restaurant said the lack of tipping provides their staff a pay rate they can rely on, regardless of which shift they work. They also said it creates more equity among their staff as they believe some customers can be discriminatory in their tipping habits.

"Some customers may, consciously or subconsciously, make tipping choices based on the race, sex, or gender expression of the staff member with whom they are interacting. This dynamic is sad, but it is real," the restaurant wrote on their website.

In addition to eliminating the option for customers to tip based on who they're interacting with, the restaurant also believes the no-tip structure creates equity among different jobs in the restaurant.

"Equal pay for equal work isn’t just a legal issue, it’s a justice issue. We recognize that equal work doesn’t just mean people who are doing exactly the same thing, but people whose work, varied though it may be, is of equal value to the operations of the business and the people it serves," the restaurant included on their website.

Watch KRDO News Channel 13 tonight at 6 p.m. to hear from the owners of The Wild Goose about how this new pay structure works, and whether it will affect menu prices for their customers.