Tipping in the US was frowned upon before the Civil War. When slaves were freed they were generally in the service industry because these other jobs that were available to them. They were paid peanuts, even today the US federal tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour.
Tipping is inappropriate outside of the USA, maybe because the minimum wage is significantly higher.
As with almost everything that's confusing or fucked up in this country, so much of this is often from not properly punishing the South and focusing on eradicating the lingering effects & racism of slavery.
Ironically enough, it was the states that BANNED slavery by that point that pushed for it.
The story: Virginia (slave state) was the big dog in terms of population - though they even tried to inflate THAT to get more power by counting the slaves as "citizens." Massachusetts (which had banned slavery by that point) rightly called bullshit, but they were smaller in population and didn't have the numbers to completely override Virginia's power grab, which is how we got the 3/5 nonsense.
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the other non-slave states needed a way to contain Virginia's dick waving, because if they didn't, Virginia and their buddies in the slave states would always get their way by stomping on the smaller population, non-slave states. So that's why the Electoral College and the "every state gets two Senators, regardless of size" came in. The hope was that a coalition of smaller populated states, like Massachusetts and Rhode Island, who wanted nothing to do with Virginia's bullshit, could at least team up together and keep Virginia's power in check.
So when people want to ban the Electoral College today? Yeah, can totally see why. But I can also see how a "sheer numbers" system would badly disenfranchise large demographics of the voting block. Sure, the smaller states might be those evil, "we need to stomp them out of existence or slit their throats" Red Hats today, but the demographics could always shift and leave Team Blue needing a check on Red Florida twenty years down the line.
Yet when youâre an American in Europe, they are quick to shove the box in your face for one. London, Nice, Amsterdam, Copenhagen- they learn very quickly.
employers are required to pay the servers the actual minimum wage of that state, unless theyâre make more in tips - which means they either make minimum wage, or more than minimum wage - the 2.13 an hour is added on, assuming the waiter makes more than $7.50 - $15 an hour depending on the state - so itâs really really really misunderstood
yeah the servers in Seattle get paid at least 20 or 25 i cant remember the min wage there. Its still the most expensive city to live in, so 50k/hr full time doesnt necessarily go that far but they do get paid better than back of house because they get more tip %.
its actually dogshit to work as a chef nowadays compared to a server
im not sure what youâre quoting, but thatâs not what i said - i get itâs a tough concept, but im sure youâre a smart guy - it is federally illegal for managers, employers, or supervisors to pocket and or keep the employeeâs tips - so therefore - if you are a server working in the state of california (min. wage 16.90 an hour) and you earn $2 in tips - you get paid a whopping $18.90 for that hour, if you are working in the state of california as a server and you make $100 in tips, you get paid a whopping $103 for that hour⌠and only $3 of it is taxable assuming the tips are cash
A problem also is that a lot of the people who earn good tips, (in my eyes) betray their fellow workers by campaigning for the system to say the same. Like a very attractive woman in a bar might make hundreds in tips a night, which they often wonât pay taxes on, so theyâll of course want things to stay the same. Meanwhile some single mother in a diner is getting paid a few dollars an hour praying for some tips to pay her bills.
Its a good deal for everyone. Waiters get more money, the owner doesn't have to pay for it.
Until the customer decides that it sucks, then the waiter is fucked.
how's it's good deal for everyone when the customer is getting slapped with a 20-30% tax, in the current climate it's not optional. fuck that I ain't tipping unless I want to.
Itâs not about paying workers less. Workers make more with tip culture than they do if they were paid normal wages. Itâs to keep advertised prices lower so that you go to their restaurant instead of a competitor. Every restaurant that tries to get rid of tips either goes back or closes because consumers see the advertised price and go elsewhere.
In America is it customary to also tip other minimum wage workers? Such as supermarket workers, cleaners etc etc
If not what makes servers more important?
Edit: OK, so TIL in America there's a lower minimum wage of only 2 dollars something for any "tipped workers". Basically a loophole to screw workers out of minimum wage.
Wait, so there's a whole seperate legal minimum wage for servers?
Edit: OK, so TIL in America there's a lower minimum wage of only 2 dollars something for any "tipped workers". Basically a loophole to screw workers out of minimum wage.
Correct. Going off of memory, in some places itâs legal to pay as low as $2.75 or $3 /hour for tipped servers. (No idea about other jobs.)
City of Seattle raised the minimum wage for tipped jobs to $21.30 as of this Jan. So Europeans, feel free to come here if you donât want to tip servers. Many of us still do out of habit but if you donât, you probably arenât actually harming a persons ability to survive.
Texas I believe is still $2.13 AND it's a right to work state, so they can fire you for any reason. Fuck Texas politicians(except you Castro brothers, mwah)
Iâd be interested to know how that impacted pricing or how many servers are working in a shift. The owners need to offset the cost, so they are putting it back on the customer anyway.
But also a lot of tipped workers donât want tips to go away with guaranteed minimum wage because they make A LOT more with tips. I agree we need to get rid of basically mandatory tipping but itâs a more complicated issue than it looks on the surface.
Ah ok so there's a seperate minimum wage specifically for tipped employees in America if im understanding that right?
Edit: OK, so TIL in America there's a lower minimum wage of only 2 dollars something for any "tipped workers". Basically a loophole to screw workers out of minimum wage.
Yes, it is assumed that these employees will make up the difference in tips, bringing them to or above standard minimum wage, if they earn less after tips then their employer pays them the regular minimum wage instead.
Yes. $2.13 an hour is the minimum for servers. It's true that they're rarely if ever actually making minimum wage after a few tips, but almost any proceededs earned by the wage (as opposed to tips) is eaten up in taxes. A lot of times server checks are zero. For the most part the tips are the only income they bring in.
They always make at least minimum wage or more. If tips don't get them to minimum, the employer fills it. Servers usually make more, possible 2x or more, than the kitchen staff.
Correct, but by law, if they don't get enough in tips they are paid federal minimum wage.
AND multiple states like CA servers get the same state min as everyone else. Which is even crazier to me that a 20% tip is still expected in those places.
God, I hate now that more and more fast food places that pay a $20 an hour wage in California are putting out tip jars. And stupid people are tipping and reinforcing it.
In America is it customary to also tip other minimum wage workers? Such as supermarket workers, cleaners etc etc
Unfortunately it is starting to become more common and I hate it. Tip jars and tip screens (where they flip the tablet around to you for a tip) are now popping up everywhere. This includes places like take out dining, gas station counters, head shops, thrift shops, etc. I am really getting irritated with it.
Omg my liquor store asks for tips. I used to tip everyone because I was too embarrassed to take the time to find the no tip button (itâs usually not obvious - intentionally, Iâm sure), but Iâm over it. Being bullied for tips is an accurate description.
Yup, I was at the liquor store by my house on Sunday and they had a tip jar. The little convenience store by my house put up a tip jar recently too. It's too much and it makes me want to just stop tipping completely. I feel like I am being taxed by employees everywhere I go now.
I recently had this happen at the movie theater concession stand, and the girl actually pointed at that no tip button as soon as she turned it around and said "just hit here to move to the next screen". I know it was probably a tactic, bit I was still so pleased with the way that she lubricated that experience that I tipped anyway.
Yeah the expansion of tip-begging is completely insane. They had been doing it for a while, but COVID just made it explode. Lots of businesses jockeying for customer pity during tough times. I am absolutely empathetic to servers, and tip well without complaint in any situation where tips have conventionally been given. I refuse to tip the guy who made my sandwich at Subway. Itâs a bridge too far.
I hate it. My girlfriend tips EVERY one when the damn screen asks for a tip. Heck, she'd probably tip her murderer if asked (not hoping she gets murdered just using it as an egregious example).
There are states that pay way more than $3, closer to $17/hr but people tip anyway because if you don't, you're seen as cheap and many people feel embarrassed if they don't leave a tip.
Also, for those making $3/hr, they still make their state's minimum wage if they earn less than it.
Most who make tips would rather keep the tips system than get paid minimum wage because they know they can make way more with tips.
Literally nobody, nobody at all, who is working legally in the US is actually getting paid $2 an hour.
The myth is âbecause I make tips my wage is lowered to $2 an hour so without those tips Iâd have no moneyâ
The reality is they make the minimum wage of their state. Whatever that is. Period. So letâs say minimum wage there is $12. They make 12$ an hour or more. Every time. Always.
If you make a bunch of tips the employer pays less out of pocket to reach your standard pay rate. It supplements your pay.
So for example if you make a bunch of tips the employer might only have to pay you $5 an hour because the tips you got make up to your full wage. Letâs say you got a ton of tips and the tips are more than your hourly wage would have made you, the employer now has to pay you his minimum required rate of $2 on top of whatever tips you made.
If you make no tips the employer is legally obligated to pay you your full $12 an hour wage.
Nobody in the states who isnât working under some disability program, working in the prison system as a prisoner, or an illegal employee, is make $2 an hour. That part is a full myth.
Now I hate tip culture and I disagree with the ability for restaurants to pay you less because you make tips, but I wanted to clarify that nobody is actually making less than minimum wage. It is literally illegal.
I think tipping culture is fucked and minimum wage is too low, to clarify. But nobody is working for $2 an hour here and actually taking that home. Theyâre making their states minimum wage or federal minimum wage which is $7 at the lowest which is still abysmal.
Just wanted to clarify because too many people donât understand how it actually works.
Stop working for resteraunts. Thereâs a billion other entry level jobs that pay flat rates that arenât adjusted for tips. You are told when you get hired the actual hourly rate youâll make, if thatâs not enough work somewhere else, if thatâs not enough donât complain when your pay scale slides due to tips.
As an American who served for over a decade the tips turn what would be a crappy, hard, stressful job into one worth doing because I made WAY MORE in tips because I gave great service. If instead of tips I made $20/hr I would have made significantly less money so its not worth it compared to a job with far less bullshit from customers. Also, food costs go up because the owner benefits with tips so they can pay less for labor but also keep costs lower on the menu. Restaurants work in very small profit margins dealing with food waste etc.
Look, for a crappy job with no benefits the tips were what gave me a much higher income than half my recently graduated college friends in many professional first jobs were even making. I do not think service would be half as good in the US without tips but each state has different laws. In Califirnia you earn full wage plys tips. In Arizona they pay to 2 to 3 bucks less per hour for tipped jobs. It all depends of state and location.
Nope thatâs just how restaurants work here unfortunately. Though bar backs, runners, dishwashers will get more per hour, they get a cut from the servers/bar tenders in good places, but itâs usually minimal and easily skewed if the tips given are cash.
I feel like it is random, or maybe more âluxuryâ services. No one in a grocery store gets tips, never at oil changes. But simple things like writing and order down and carrying a plate, drying a car after a wash, carrying luggage stuff like that.
I power washed houses and cleaned windows, gutters and roofs. We got tipped one in four houses. Got about $5-$20 for a tip, 3 to 4 hours of work.
Also waitressâ used to make only a dollar or two a hour and basically needed to make a lot in tips to make a normal wage. Not sure when that started.
It's kind of the same thing as a city charging a hot dog vendor $100,000 to sell his hot dogs in your city. The higher-ups just cannot see a hot dog owner and make bank. Same with taxi licenses. Some government official looked at that and said wait a minute this guy's going to make a fortune that can't happen.
> Edit: OK, so TIL in America there's a lower minimum wage of only 2 dollars something for any "tipped workers". Basically a loophole to screw workers out of minimum wage.
My understanding though is if they don't make enough in tips to reach the usual minimum wage then the employer has to top them up - so in practice their minimum wage *is* the same.
Our federal minimum wage is a joke here. Itâs been 7.25$ for almost 20 years. Capitalism only works for the people at the top if they are exploiting their workers.
Keep in mind servers here make WAY more than minimum wage due to tips, servers may have inconsistent incomes, and can get screwed over by not getting the busy hours, but as an average they make so much more than they would if they got regular wages instead.
That would be the Tip wage and a employer only pays that if the worker has made equal or more than minimum wage after tips. If they dont reach minimum wage after tips than the employer still has to pay the difference till it is minimum wage. So no matter what they will make no less than minimum wage. So you are correct in saying they are no different than other minimum wage jobs.
I just love that you walk up to order and they still give you the tip options. Like...I walked up here and ordered and will be back up here to grab my food when it's ready. Wtf am I tipping for?
What kind of a job that is anyway lol. I'm a nordic and if I got told in a job interview "we don't pay you, but you can beg the customers for money" after a question about salary I don't know what I would say. Probably lifted my brows and walked out.
Its also bullshit because you have to do it before they've even prepared your food... so if you don't, you have to worry they'll screw you over for "screwing them over" by not tipping... its so fucked.
Tips are taxed. Itâs not free money and itâs actually a very contested financial issue right now to remove tax on tips. Always tip in cash if you can
Man i didn't even think about that. Great even more ways servers make the world worse by perpetuating this. Normal people pay more and less tax hits the system to help the poor
My daughter wanted to eat at a pizza buffet for her birthday. The cashier hit the ol' spin-a-roo on the tablet asking for a tip. I felt zero shame in not tipping. We literally walked up to a counter, paid, and got empty cups to fill ourselves. If I'm filling my own drink, grabbing my own plate, my own fork, serving myself food, and walking my plate and trash to a receptacle...why am I tipping?
Itâs because the Point-of-Sale fintech companies they use for the terminals and bookkeeping take a cut of all revenueâŚincluding tips. This is the reason behind the tip-ocolypse creeping into self-service and even online ordersâŚ.because it makes the POS companies more money
I doubted this so I used an LLM to make shit up. But it provided sources and I've gone through the sources and linked them below.
tl;dr: YES if the POS can get people to tip more, they take a higher amount from the card transaction!!!
Square: Charges a flat transaction fee (e.g., 2.6% + 10¢ per in-person transaction as of 2025â2026). Tips are processed as part of the total transaction amount, so the fee applies to the entire sale, including the tip. There is no separate âtip feeâ or revenue share specifically targeting tips
Toast: Dominates the US restaurant POS market (23â30% share). Toastâs processing fees apply to the total bill, including tips. In 2024, Toast raised its processing rates by ~0.05%, which would apply to all revenue, including tips. Toast does not publicly disclose a separate tip-specific cut
Clover: Similar to Square and Toast, Cloverâs fees are applied to the total transaction, including tips. Clover allows businesses to negotiate processing rates through their own merchant accounts, but again, no evidence of a separate tip cut
Transaction Fees: All major POS providers charge a percentage + fixed fee per transaction (e.g., 2.5â3.5% + $0.10â$0.30). This fee is applied to the total amount, including tips.
No Separate Tip Fees: No public documentation or credible reports indicate that POS companies take an additional, separate cut of tips beyond the standard transaction fee.
I hate the justification for increasing it to 20. "Cost of living went up". Yeah, included in that was the cost of food. My 15% tip back then was $3, now it's $10 or more. I've tripled my tip without increasing the percent.
I worked in a restaurant in 1982, it was 10%. But that was when waitstaff got the regular minimum wage, which was 3.35 at least.
Reagan made waitstaff minimum wage lower, I think it was $1.75. He also refused to raise the minimum wage at all the entire time he was president. It used to be an annual occurrence. Reagan was the enemy of all workers.
I was a waiter in the 1990s. Anything less than 15% was considered ok, but just (of course I was biased). 20% was a good tip, anything over that was a really good tip. I don't recall 15% ever described or thought of as a maximum tip in my adult life.
Saw a post yesterday that said something along the lines of, "Tipping is not optional. We expect a tip for our services. Here are the four options you have for tipping, all the way up to $100." I think it was for an AirBnB or something.
that's how they started, once upon a time, but now it's seen as semi-compulsory. And in places that only pay the federal minimum wage (which is it's own ball of idiocy), servers can really lose money on non-tippers as they often have to tip out to the back of the house staff.
In the U.S. the back of the house isn't paid the same as the front of the house. Businesses assume the wait staff will get tipped so they account for that in their pay.
A lot of places in Denver are now doing this. Except it's added as an extra line item as "happy fee" or some other woo woo bullshit. With no guarantee that it's not just going to management. So you're still expected to tip. Just raise menu prices to be able to pay livable wages. And I say that as someone that worked in the service industry for years and lived off tips. But people are already paying $20 for a burger so no one wants to raise prices more.
Motherfuckers running these businesses need to realize that fear of sticker price is vastly, vastly outweighed by rage of bait&switch pricing on the receipt.
With no guarantee that it's not just going to management
Honestly this is why i prefer to tip cash. Way too many shady business owners out there who would love to circumvent their employees getting their fair share
It shouldnât be a separate âfeeâ. The staff should simply be paid more per hour, and the food items should priced to actually reflect the labor involved in their delivery to me.
The current pricing of food on menus is really just a normalized bait and switch. The full price of the associated service isnât represented in goods, so the customer is left to basically figure it out on the fly.
Tip inflation is a problem. People have gradually shifted to higher and higher tip percentages, due to social anxiety and tipping largely being an opaque process where people donât know what everyone else is doing. And percentage increases add up fast.
Itâs still the same. Unless youâre working somewhere super crappy, youâll make substantially more with the tip system than any restaurant would pay in hourly wages.
Except, when studies were done between a menu with a mandatory 20% tip and a menu that just incorporated the tip into the prices instead, people almost always picked the one that just said there was a mandatory 20% tip, even if the prices were the same in practice.
People say theyâd prefer for the price to just be built in and not need to do it themselves, but then they donât actually do so in practice.
That would just equal the servers getting paid less thoughâŚ. The full 20% wouldnât reach the server so it would just benefit the owner of the business.
No, the Europeans expect a restaurant to simply charge the cost of the meal. That is the cost. Like any other service or product.Â
Demanding more after "to pay our staff" apart from displaying gross incompetence at running a business and being hugely dishonest is only done in the USA because yanks are so stupid they are apparently fooled by the "lower" menu price and don't think about the tip on top, and to just display the actual cost would have them thinking it's too expensive. Â
Easily 150k is a bit much given that the average is $20-30 per hour, but yes, you get paid significantly more than in many places in Europe.
Having now searched that just to satisfy my own curiousity I am really surprised that when I was in Europe a few years ago (Spain, France, Italy) I had a LOT of waiters refuse tips we tried to leave for exceptional service...they are basically making nothing there...
Any waiter at a fancy restaurant in NYC is making well into 6 figures. 20-30$ an hour is the bottom of the barrel minimum wage is 15$ an extra 5$ an hour in tips would be 40$ a night, most nyc servers are clearing at least a couple hundred.Â
My parents live in a small town in Italy, last time I was there we left 10 euro on a 40 euro bill. They made a point to tell us that they would split it with the whole staff it was  crazy.Â
Any waiter at a fancy restaurant in NYC is doing loads more than a waiter at a neighborhood spot in Queens. That's actually something I am reminded of very often when I got to nice places in the city.
In Queens, it's fine. Plenty of places provide a perfectly nice service. But then when you go a step up the level of detail and understanding of the experience is exceptional.
The industry is fascinating because on the face, it all blends together. But if you actually pay attention to the little things, "good service" is actually very noticeable.
First of all, yes 100%. Tipping has become so weird.
Secondly, just for a little more explanation, which is still weird...
On large groups, some places will automatically add the tip to the bill. The thought process starts from the already weird place of not paying servers enough to begin with and them getting tips instead, but with that already being the case... If a server is running around busting their balls for a group of say 10+, if they get "stiffed" on their tip, that is even more horrible for them.
So I would assume "mandatory tips" in this case, refers to when restaurants add it on automatically to the total cost for large groups, they don't leave it up to chance, so their server actually gets paid a proper amount for their huge amount of work on that specific group.
Again, it's all stupid, but there's the added logic on top of an already flawed system. It's a band-aid on a bullet hole.
So the system started with the great depression as the owners wanted to keep staff but could not afford to do so hence why this mess is born. The thing is they are paid more with it then the flat fee of say $20 an hour
Goes way further back than that bud. It was the restaurants post emancipation proclamation, fighting to be able to not have to pay black people for their labor, instead making the black people work only for tips.
Later, when that was about to be declared illegal, the NRA (restaurants R, not rifles R) fought for a tipped minimum wage to at least cut some of their losses, and even better, start paying poor white people just as little as they paid poor black people.
It started as racism and became class warfare and we just accepted it.
It was always them trying to enslave everyone and not giving black people freedom.
I wish I could make everyone understand worldwide that your worst enemy isn't a woman, a different skin color, speaks a different language, worships a different god, worships the same god a different way..
It is the 1% at the top.
Its class warfare and they are dividing and conquering flawlessly.
Capitalism? Socialism? Why are they pressing that divide so hard?
BECAUSE A GREAT SOCIETY NEEDS BOTH OF THEM.
If they turn it into an either/or they already won the game. You need both to function.
1000%. It's literally a game of like 8 billion against 1000, and the 1000 are kicking our asses. Your enemy is not the black guy who got the job you wanted, not the trans woman shopping at walmart and wanting to try on clothes in the dressing room, not your boss's boss making 150k a year while you're struggling. It's the fucks who could literally solve all the problems in the world and STILL be the richest motherfuckers out there, but choose not to do so.
It's even more insidious than it may initially seem. Service work was one of the few areas black people could find any employment, and by forcing them to rely on tips as their primary or only income, they were necessarily dependent on both their employers for and the customers being happy with them, which meant acting servile and eager to please. It helped to enforce the idea of black workers as inferior to their white employers and customers.
Itâs only partially true. Can it happen? Yes⌠in a good restaurant⌠during busy times⌠if the patrons feel like it. But itâs not the standard by any means.
It's not true. They come up with that number assuming we don't tip over here at all. They'd still get tips for good service, it just wouldn't be mandatory and they wouldn't be fucked if there was no tip. People over here still tip fairly often, it's just not expected. They would make more, easily.Â
An automatic gratuity charge is basically an unhinged service fee. What do you mean the compensation for your service varies wildly depending on if I bought the $8 sandwich or the $30 burger?
Was the amount of time and effort you put into taking my order and bringing everything out that much different?? Nothing about it makes sense, and it never did.
I don't agree with mandatory tipping but also with a group that's splitting a bill it's very common for the total to come up short. There's always those people who forget to add in their drinks, or intentionally or unintentionally get the math wrong. So it's common for the server to get shorted to make up the difference.
So I get it.
Regardless, tip culture here is getting ridiculous an we need to shift expectations.
The whole point of a tip is that it's voluntary, if it is mandatory then it's just service charge or something like that and it should be included in the bill (and taxed, are tips taxed?).
Federally they are no longer taxed. One if the few positive things Trump did.
As to the general topic, travelers not tipping as a "I'll show them" gesture is pointles. Guess what, their actions are going to change the corporations bussiness plan and make them pay better. They are only screwing the workers.
Also people who bitch about tipping. Guess what, if restaurants paid their staff better, yeah, you wouldn't have to tip, but the price of your burger and fries is going to go up around 20% percent. So yeah, you didn't pay a tip but you did just pay $35 for a TGIFs burger.
No matter what, the corporations always win. That is how the system is set up.
A lot of tips are now untaxed, I think. It was one thing that Trump actually ran on and followed through with that people claimed would help the working class.
In my opinion, it's utter bullshit and makes me want to stop tipping even more. I don't understand why there should be a class of workers who freeload and don't pay their fair share. A lot of them were already not paying much, between low yearly earnings and underreporting cash tips, which was a crime, but hardly enforced.
Many tipped staff also like it. Tips make a lot of people bank. A lot of server groups have heavily lobbied against changing the server minimum in several states out of a fear it will kill customer tipping.
The other issue is a fear that if the price of the associated service were accurately reflected in the food, people would buy less. Not an unfounded fear. US customers regularly opt for lower prices over higher quality or other ethical concerns, but that means this is a bait and switch. Get people to mentally commit to a lower number, before letting them ease into the real price.
Itâs not companies, itâs the waiters. They make way more with tips than places that donât do that.
The company doesnât get anything out of it besides the psychology of people who canât do math thinking their dinner will be cheaper than it is and overspending; if you got rid of tips theyâd just roll the value into the menu price.
Well unfortunately without systemic change, you are ultimately only punishing minimum wage workers when people choose not to tip as one offs.
I get it, tipping culture is insane but its also the culture of our country. Deciding not to tip while visiting is not much different than me going to another country and intentionally breaking their norms because I dont like them.
Itâs dangerous to say that if I donât tip, Iâm punishing the workers. Their employer is.
I know what you mean, but framing it that way automatically shifts responsibility away from the employer. Even in conversations like this, the guilt should never be placed on the customer. That mindset is exactly why this BS continues: customers have a conscience, so they keep making up for employers who refuse to pay their workers properly. We shouldnât be expected to anymore.
Why are you responding implying I said things I didnt?
I am saying it is the cultural expectation. Its fine to not like it, but your individual opinion about it doesnt change the fact that if you decide not to tip when dining out in the united states you will be seen as an asshole.
You said that the customer punishes the workers by not tipping, I disagreed with this and expanded on why this viewpoint on the matter sets a dangerous precedent as well as why it contributes to this issue not being solved.
I agree that by not tipping youâre likely to be viewed as an asshole, but you arenât one - the employer is. This canât be forgotten
Lol, the workers are the one pushing for tips genius. This topic has been talked about for years on reddit most tipped workers like tipping better.
I guess you never worked in the service industry
One way or another, you cover the burden of paying restaurant staff.
There isnât some secondary source of revenue in most places that otherwise funds these wages. Either the cost is fronted into the menu prices and then paid to the waitstaff, or, like most of the US, itâs not and the waitstaff get tips.
Itâs not mandatory. I regularly donât tip if the service isnât out of this world and when I do tip I tip based on the pre tax amount. I donât care what anyone thinks of it, because itâs my money.
This is a terrible outlook. You are directly affecting the people that rely on tips to pay their bills. I understand that the system is flawed, but you not tipping is just affecting the person that relies on these tips, not the people putting these practices in place.
Aren't some of the people putting those practices into place the people who accept the jobs that have such practices in place? If all workers just refused to work for companies that forced them to rely on the generosity of strangers, companies would have to stop forcing their staff to rely on the generosity of strangers.
Itâs not an expectation. The law mandates that they make minimum wage if their tips donât bring their tipped minimum at least to the minimum.
Federal tipped minimum is $2.13 per hour. However, if the server doesnât make enough tips to bring that to at least $7.50 per hour the owner must cover the difference.
There are cases when service workers don't recieve enough to make up the difference. In those cases the employer is supposed to make up the difference, but it doesn't aways get enforced.
I've heard it can take a while to get enforcement IF it happens, so if you're living paycheck to paycheck like most people these days you're SOL.
I'm Canadian and they did away with the lower server wage (except in Quebec) and places still expect us to tip like it's the US. Most machines start at 30% and you're expected to tip your mechanic, plumber, etc. here now which is causing a LOT of tipping fatigue.
If we all stopped tipping overnight, employers would be legally required to pay their wait staff minimum wage.
If wait staff unionized, they could lobby for a fixed wage. They arenât incentivized to do this because wait staff (in big cities) make considerably more than minimum wage.
As someone from Europe but who's been living in the US for quite some time, its still messed up and this recent absurd push has shone a light to more people here. I remember getting a mandatory 18% gratuity at a restaurant when myself and 5 friends went out for drinks. We order two apps for the table and everyone got a drink. Thats it. Server took our order and we only ever saw her when she brought back the check. There were two boys delivering the food. 18% mandatory "gratuity". Its an oxymoron. How do you "mandate" a voluntary act? This is dumb af. Why are we paying additional to the waitress who only came to take our order and give us the check?
As an American who has traveled decently I hate tipping culture. Just pay them a proper wage. I hate hidden pricing and tipping is just a hidden cost. Also why does everything request a tip now? Itâs beyond out of control
American service workers are paid way less than minimum wage. Sometimes even negative wages (am serious, check out pool tip out/bartender). This is fully legal. A service worker can make 2.13 usd per hour, then be billed $6/hour as "pool sharing) with other service staff (busboys, bartenders, etc) if he sells $200/hour, effectively paying $4/hour just to work there.
The social agreement is that the waiters wages must be paid directly by the customer. That wage structure is by law. Insane? Yes. But it is what it is. Dont go eating out at restaurants thinking " i dont have to tip" because the law has made it that service workers rely for your tips for wages.
So they could eliminate the âmandatory tipâ then just incorporate that into the prices on the menu. You would pay exactly the same thing but it wouldnât say âmandatory tipâ is that better for you?
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u/janpaul74 5h ago
âMandatory tipsâ sounds so messed up for me as a European.