Minimum wages and universal basic income

[jamincan]

The example of wilderness guides is actually a useful one here. A restaurant server not being tipped in one instance maybe loses $10-20, maybe more, maybe less. Overall, though, it's not that significant and so it's easy to discount the loss of income. A wilderness guide, however, is typically tipped between 10-20% of the trip cost which can be in the thousands. Black Feather is a well-regarded backcountry tour provider. Their two week traverse of Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island is $6,100 per person. One person who decides to not tip legally can do so (unless the contract stipulates otherwise, I don't know), and would be depriving the guide anywhere from $610-1220 of income for two weeks work. Imagine if you have $1200-2400 of your monthly salary left to the whim of your employer?