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.
How about just paying food service workers a living wage, so that tipping isn’t critical for basic survival?
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.
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
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.
I think a minimum tip is a great idea.
Well, ideally employers just pay enough so it isn’t pushed onto customers.
Maybe even just call it a service charge like other places in the world.
How pathetic. So much mental gymnastics here to justify it all and avoid admitting that tipping to begin with is the problem.
Tip generously or stay home.
Preferably just stay home and stop giving money to this industry.
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?
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.
In the short term it might, but ultimately the moral burden is on the employers, it shouldn’t be pushed on to the customers. Stop going to those businesses is fine as well but I think it would have the same effect.
If you stop going to those businesses you aren’t partaking in the exploitation of workers, and furthermore, you aren’t literally giving money to the exploiters.
From the worker’s perspective there’s quite a difference between “I didn’t make tips today because no one came to our business” and “I didn’t make tips today and still had to work my ass off to serve no-tip customers”.
From the employer’s perspective, too, there’s a difference between “I can’t find anyone to work for poverty wages without tips” and “I can’t find anyone to buy my shit” even if both result in their business collapsing.
You aren’t going to change Applebee’s from the inside.
Well like I said, I’m not American so it’s not really my battle anyway. I’ve only heared about the broken tipping culture in the US, and it always surprises me that threads complaining about it are often still filled up with comments like “but make sure you still tip generously” when that sounds like the most counter-productive thing you can do to deal with the problem. That’s the extent of my observation.
That’s why I said we have to stop visiting these businesses in the first place - that’s what’s really counter productive, because it literally gives money to the businesses that exploit their workers.
But if you still do business there and then just refuse to tip, you are not hurting the business. You are only hurting the worker. Sure, maybe if the worker is hurt badly enough they’ll stop working there, but maybe they’re so fucking desperate that they’d rather work for $2.50/hr without tips than stay home.
It’s like, you could technically hurt these businesses if you slashed all the workers’s tires. Maybe don’t do that tho
Well there’s not much danger of me walking in to an Applebee’s, that would involve long and expensive flight.
Haha, you’re punishing the workers by not tipping, so therefore don’t go at all … which, is also not tipping.
Genius!
I’m not defending tipping, just laughing at ridiculous statements.
The point is to punish the employer dude
We have too many morons who justify tipping and participate in it.
- downpunxx ( @downpunxx@kbin.social ) 8•1 year ago
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.