The next couple weeks may mark the end of dining out as New Yorkers know it.

According to The New York Times, Danny Meyer, chief executive of the Union Square Hospitality Group and founder of Shake Shack, announced that by November of this year, 11 of his restaurant chains will no longer be allowing customers to tip their servers.

When the minimum wage is raised by the government, owners of eateries and restaurant chains are left to deal with the aftermath.

Meyer made an intelligent and economically sound move by eliminating tipping. His decision sets a precedent for business owners affected by minimum wage legislation to take back control of how their establishments are run. For this reason, state and federal governments must acknowledge these problems and set new standards for levels of involvement with private enterprises.

Even before minimum wage legislation, restaurants were dealing with problems pertaining to employee pay. Waiters and waitresses have the opportunity to receive tips for their services, a luxury that other restaurant workers do not have.

In an interview with CBS News, Meyer explained that there are laws that prohibit cooks from receiving any percentage of the tip that a customer leaves. The legislation only allows tip money to be divided between employees who interact with customers. As acknowledged by Meyer, this policy is unjustifiable due to the fact that cooks are often times the sole reason for the success of an establishment.

This pay discrepancy is only worsened by state and federal government mandated minimum raise wages, which have forced many restaurants to rethink how they deal with these costs.

While the price per meal will be increasing in Meyer’s restaurants, the total at the bottom of the receipt will likely remain almost the same because customers do not have to pay an additional tip.

The elimination of tipping by Meyer highlights the fact that the government should not meddle with business. Oftentimes, the government does not have a great understanding of how the internal operations of different businesses work.

For example, when the state of New York decides to raise the minimum wage again for fast-food workers, it will be indirectly affecting employees of all food-related establishments. This is because the employers of workers at high-end restaurants will soon be facing demand for wage raises because their employees will probably say it’s unfair to be receiving less pay than someone working the drive-thru at McDonald’s.

The money to pay workers the new wage minimums does not just appear out of thin air. Many customers will soon discover that restaurants that keep their tipping policy will continue to raise food prices because it is necessary in order to cover additional wage costs.

Meyer banned tips to remain profitable as the state moves toward a $15 minimum wage for fast-food workers. This move was the right one. By eliminating the need for tipping, he has allowed the wage gap to close, kept the total price paid by customers virtually the same and taken back control of financial distributions in his restaurants.

The government often involves itself in private enterprise. However, it is decisions like Meyer’s that will cause the government to realize that businesses need to be allowed to prosper, struggle and recover on their own.

Victoria Razzi is a sophomore advertising major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at vcrazzi@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @vrazzi.

Published on October 20, 2015 at 11:48 pm