💬 Quoted… “There’s an ongoing rejection of the whole system by both workers and consumers who have been increasingly pissed about it.”

• The tipping era, aka the period when even your mechanic flipped around a screen at payment-time to show three big squares, may have already peaked. As of last month, service-sector workers in nonrestaurant leisure and hospitality jobs made $1.28/hour on average in tips, down 7% from the $1.38/hour they made a year prior. But the data, drawn from an analysis of 300,000 small and medium-sized businesses by payroll provider Gusto, tells a different story about the profession we most-associate with tips – restaurant workers. Restaurant workers earned an average of $3.83/hour in tips and overtime in November, the WSJ reports, up 8% from the previous year. Though this traditional tip system is also under fire – in October, Chicago became the second-largest US city to vote to require tipped workers to make the full minimum wage. And legislation to get rid of tipped minimums is moving in eight states and measures are on the ballot in an additional four, according to worker-advocacy organization One Fair Wage.

🎁🎉 Stat of the Day: Office holiday parties in 2023 are like the sunset when the days start to turn cold – getting earlier and earlier. A November poll of more than 200 companies conducted by executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that nearly 60% will be hosting their holiday gatherings during the traditional workday this year, up from less than half last year. Another office holiday party data point: 64% of companies are planning gatherings this year, up from 57% in 2022 – though they could be sparsely attended affairs. A LinkedIn survey of 6,000+ people indicated that 55% of workers aren’t planning to attend their company’s holiday party this year.

🤔 Did You Know?... Less than 40% of young Americans say they are regular drinkers (38%), compared with 40% for older adults and 48% for middle-age Americans. In previous decades, young adults were more likely than older ones to drink regularly, according to Gallup polling.

📰 Worth a Read: Seven Months Inside an Online Scam Labor Camp → (NY Times)