Why American Tipping Culture Is Broken
Why American Tipping Culture Is Broken
We dug into how American tipping culture got so broken, and the fight to fix it.
It turns out that your tips are subsidizing the payrolls of multi-billion dollar chains, while they pay their workers under minimum wage.
It's a system rooted in slavery, and pushed by a wealthy restaurant owners onto the rest of us.
But there's a growing movement to change it.
Speaking for the rest of the world, who are saner, F%$^ your US uber etc software trying to normalise this toxic BS 'culture' in other countries.
People that get tips should make at least minimum wage like everyone else. The employer should not get to pay less because someone gets a tip.
I always try to tip in cash. First so the person getting the tip can decide if they want to declare it as income. Second so it goes where I intend it to go.
20% is a good tip. More is not necessary.
I always decline tipping on the screens.
Never pre-tip. Tipping should always happen after service. You won't get a refund on that tip if the service is bad.
Edit: A word
My fear of not tipping before I get my food/product is the fear of a resentful employee tampering with it before I get it. So then I'm left in a situation of feeling like my food is being held hostage if I don't give a tip. It really feels like a shakedown, and I don't appreciate it. It has made me stop frequenting places that ask for a tip before I even get my food.
That doesn't happen. The companies want you to think that happens, but anywhere that you're tipping before receiving service is a place with employees that don't get paid in tips individually. It's either split evenly or the owner takes a large cut of what you "tip." So the employees really don't care enough to fuck with your food, which could get them fired or prosecuted.
Tips like that are an excuse for the owners not to pay their employees a fair wage and tell them during hiring they could make "up to x" amount.
something that's always bothered me when I see this brought up, but what's stopping the businesses from managing all that for their employees themselves? it's not like everyone doesn't have the tech to find out gas prices around the area, and the estimated traffic distance and travel time on any map view. Hell, just tack that on as a service fee instead of the ¯(ツ)/¯ they currently use it for.
this is all rhetorical, because of course it's obvious why businesses don't want to be more upfront about the final cost to the consumer, and keeping the employee blaming the customer for their bad take-home pay
Sorry, delivery drivers should just be paid a living wage too.
Sure, that seems reasonable to me. I rarely do food delivery so I was not really trying to address it with my comment above.
Edit: 2 words
How pathetic. So much mental gymnastics here to justify it all and avoid admitting that tipping to begin with is the problem.
Gentle request to still tip if you think service was bad. The employee could be having a bad day, something could be out of their hands, or even if they're just a shitty worker, they can be let go after enough fuck ups. Denying someone their tip because you think it was "bad service" is part of that bullshit master-slave dynamic. Normal employers can't deny wages if someone shows up and doesn't do the work - they have to be fired or sent home
Gentle request to pay employees properly instead of shifting that burden to the customer and laughing on top of the pile of money you saved.
Denying someone their tip because the service was bad is the exact purpose of a tip. Making it anything else is exclusively helping shitty employers and literally no-one else.
I’ve seen people too because their food came out slowly, even if it was hot then they got it… which is entirely beyond the control of the server, except if perhaps they lagged on turning in the order. Pretty lame if the place is just slammed and they end up doing twice the work for the same amount of tips.
Counterpoint. Never tip ever.
I think a minimum tip is a great idea.
Owners don't want to charge more for the food that people eat at Restaurants fearing it will tip the scale and less people will eat there, so they lowball the menu prices, and leave earning up to each individual server for each individual table instead of paying wait staff a living wage. This is further exacerbated by serving staff being allowed to be paid far less than the meager minimum wage in most, but not all (CA) states.
I don't believe that's really true. Don't get me wrong, I know they'll raise the food prices. But it's not because they're using lower wages to buy better ingredients. Don't let them convince you paying people a liveable wage isn't possible. Somehow other countries all around the world are able to do it just fine.
It was never not broken. It's always been broken and flawed. It simply went from bad to worse and SUDDENLY people wake up and realize it was stupid all along. The fact people ever bought into tipping of any kind and felt it was justifiable is pathetic. Anyone who defends tipping is an idiot. Paying fair wages, expecting the same service every time, and having clear prices makes way too much sense to ignore. Tipping has variability that makes no sense and is not justified.
It always amazes me how business owners are portrayed as greedy monsters instead of the pants pissing cowards they most likely are. If you need to raise the prices of your products to give your employees good wages, do it. And customers need to understand that better paid employees means higher prices.
That's the thing. They don't need to raise the prices to be able to give good wages, they just bribed all the politiciants to make restaurants to be excluded from minium wage requirement to able to pocket all the money themselves.
I’ve started giving 1 star review for anyplace that asks for tip for preorder before I’ve even received anything or for drive thru. Please join me… They use shame and guilt as a weapon. We can also.
Tip generously or stay home.
Preferably just stay home and stop giving money to this industry.
Customers unable to give their money to a business due to understaffing as a result of shit wages and people refusing to tip sends a much stronger message
Why? Never tip ever. Support unions and strikes.
How about not tipping? I'm not American so maybe I misunderstand something, but it seems to me the obvious way to get rid of tipping culture is for lots of people agree to not tip - then employers would be forced to increase wages. It's voluntary isn't it?
We have too many morons who justify tipping and participate in it.
By not tipping you're just punishing the workers. The employer still gets your money.
And in my state when restaurants started to struggle to find workers they just legalized child labor. Now kids as young as 14 can work for tips.
Just stop going to these businesses.
How about just paying food service workers a living wage, so that tipping isn't critical for basic survival?
No no, don't you know that it is your responsibility as a customer to make sure other people's employees make enough money to live? What are you, some kind of europoor?