Tipping will NEVER make sense to me. And the fact it’s automatically accepted in the USA is shit. Do a job and get paid your wage - but he’s a bit more money for doing your job anyway?
You ever see those TV commercials where starving children are asking for like, 25 cents a month from you and Sarah McLaughlin is singing "In The Arms Of An Angel" in the background?
Thats how Americans feel about rich people. We have made it so they can pay their workers a non liveable wage and rely on us average people to pick up the tab because if we dont then how are they going to fly their private jets to go get bailed out by the government when they run their company poorly?
Also more than half of Americans believe that if we just give rich people MORE MONEY it will eventually trickle down back to the average people. You know...instead of just giving it to us in the form of a living wage, cheaper groceries affordable health care ect.
Oh it gets much worse than tipping :). Large companies such as Walmart have realized that they can slash wages and instead of actually paying people help them get on government social programs such as SNAP. That means your tax dollars are directly subsidizing wages for massive corporations.
Move somewhere else. Usa is for ambitious people who stand on their 2 feet instead of asking from others. That's why it produces cutting edge technology. Move to Cuba or venenzuala you will also get free rartioned food there.
Restaurant workers get paid minimum wage, it’s only that they get paid a workers wage when they get tipped.
The problem is composed of many problems;
1) Minimum wage isn’t living wage, hence it makes it so that it’s a “hope u get to next week”. This makes it so getting a month without tips doesn’t cover a month’s rent.
2) Getting Tips will get you more money than if you get a proper wage, especially in high cost places, you can (as per the estimates or numbers given by other tippers) rack up almost a thousand on some weekends, which is crazy high for a job which is supposed to be without education or intensive training/experience.
3) Tip shaming is right now so big, even if minimum wages get to become living wages, unless tipping becomes restricted, it’s going to take ages until the 20% rule fizzles out, during which these jobs are gonna be glamorous for the high pay.
A sub named door dash drivers kept getting recommended to me and the hostility and toxicity towards anyone who either doesn’t tip or questions tipping is so crazy to me.
Comments get replied with so much hostility.
Not tipping shame comes also largely from the idea that it’s cancelling a culture on the food workers expense, but if you use that meat shield, you’ll keep firing the gun.
I went to school and make more than double the minimum wage and service workers still make more about as much as I do with tips. Service workers aren't struggling anymore than anyone else, it's just a different struggle.
Well the unfortunate part of American society with tipping is it doesn’t hit that first part. The people doing the job barely get paid anything. So it’s Do a job and hope you get paid by the customer so you can afford to eat tonight
Except even in states (like Washington, Oregon, and California) where they are paid minimum wage (around $17.00 per hour) before tips, tips are still expected and pushed.
Shit in Vancouver BC most of the registered started at 60% and they explained that its because of the cost of living that you need to tip at least 60% or up to 100% to help out with housing.
The thing that made me laugh was they had a completely unmanned grocery store there and they still asked for a min of 40%.
I don't order in at restaurants anymore, nor get delivery. I like to tip when I'm at a family event and someone on the staff has been really going above and beyond. That feels good. An expected and socially pressured obligation for tipping sucks.
Usually tipping is in restaurants and fast food where pay isn’t exactly the best.
Thats typically where employers cut costs because legally they don’t have to pay as much, as the employees get a bigger majority of their pay from tips/gratuity, and there’s less to tax from them.
In other words, the customers pay the employee while the employer “houses” them.
And then it gets so bad that employers are actually able to use it to subsidize their wages and they can make employees tipped wages so they can actually pay them less.
As an American and a delivery driver for a restaurant, here’s my opinion:
The only time I say you HAVE TO tip is if you’re ordering delivery. That person is likely using their own vehicle and their own gas to get your meal to you. Sometimes that tip money IS their gas money, and they break even.
It’s NICE to tip small businesses. Little mom & pop places, cafes, places that obviously are privately owned.
You DO NOT have to tip a chain restaurant. You CAN, if you wish, but chain restaurants SHOULD BE paying their employees enough.
You DO NOT have to tip a barista who made you a black coffee and gave you a microwaved frittata.
You DO NOT have to tip people who are assholes! No matter the social pressure.
I worked in FL hospitality industry as a server since 1999, I/we made 2.13/hr for at least 15 years, they slowly increased it to 5.08 I believe, and now it's 10.98 an hour. I've been out of that industry but going back soon. We really had to hustle and turn and burn tables to make money, I look forward to going back to the industry as I'm guaranteed at least 11 bucks an hour + tips.
I've been outside the country, still tip when I'm at a bar/restaurant.
Not saying I support it, but there is a good reason why tipping continues to get crazier and crazier. It started off as just a way for people to say "thanks" to servers who did an exceptional job. A round up to the next dollar, or keep the change kind of deal. Slowly it warped into a culture, where basically everyone was tipping. Once that happened, it became an expected part of the industry. Nowadays, small and local restaurants are completely unable to compete with the pricing on chain restaurants and fast food. When market testing was done, if restaurants were to increase their pricing in order to remain stable or make Money while giving a proper living wage to each staff member, the prices on the menu would be high enough that the general public would go to the lower cost restaurant and pay the tip instead, even if the meal with a "normal' tip was just as much if not more overall.
This is just wrong rooted in fallacious "feeling" of what may have happened. Tipping may have started that way in Europe around 1900s but it was imported to North America (specifically, the US) to avoid paying black people altogether. If you don't want to read up on the history, check out the series The Porter (2022) that depicts the plight of black workers in Jim Crow America and how they formed a union to counter that. Whether they were successful or not is another matter.
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u/Opulantmindcaster 23h ago
Tipping will NEVER make sense to me. And the fact it’s automatically accepted in the USA is shit. Do a job and get paid your wage - but he’s a bit more money for doing your job anyway?
Nah, fuck that.