U.S. tipping culture is insane, it’s gotten out of control and what’s worse is that it’s getting exported to the rest of the world. Workers should be paid by their employer, not by an uncomfortable system where customers are supposed to pay extra – on top of posted charges – paying some amorphous amount meant to supplement an employee’s wages.
Some people believe that the scheme is meant to encourage better service, to align incentives, because apparently companies are bad at managing their workers, creating a customer-focused culture, or providing the incentives needed to deliver a quality experience.
After all, ‘tips’ is sometimes said to mean “to insure prompt service” although there’s little evidence to support this.
And when tipping is introduced to an industry or country where it wasn’t previously common that doesn’t even mean the worker benefits. Tip amounts are just a less pre-determined part of an employee’s pay package, and the company can pay less to attract workers precisely because the customer will pay them more directly.
- If a worker needs to earn $20 an hour to make the job worthwhile
- The company can pay $20, or they might pay $10 and customers pay $10
- Adding in tipping lets the employer pay less while still attracting the employees they need
But shouldn’t we at least get good service for tipping? Shouldn’t we be a high service culture?
And yet cultures where tipping had previously been anathema tend to offer better service (Asia, especially Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia) or at least as mediocre (Europe) as the U.S. Oddly the connection between tipping and service quality is weak at best.
- people tip because it is expected.
- sometimes they feel good about doing so, and they may offer a thank you
- but great service doesn’t mean great tips, since tip amount has more to do with who happens to be the customer than the service performed
- mediocre service often doesn’t translate into lower tips
Many people are simply formulaic: “double the tax” or “15%” or “20%” regardless. Few people do a thoughtful retrospective analysis of an experience to determine tip amount, and few people being tipped assume that customers are doing so. As a result tipping is ‘something we do’ not actually something ‘tied to service’. We get the worst of both worlds, a dysfunctional pay system that creates awkwardness for customer and employee alike, and a low service culture despite the tipping practice.
When drive through workers complain when they aren’t tipped something has clearly gone wrong. We know it’s broken, yet enough of us keep doing this that the scam continues. Tipping culture leads to lower worker pay (since the compensation workers demand in exchange for their time gets covered directly by the customer, the employer can offer lower wages and still attract workers). This must end.
And suggested tips at 20%, 25%, and 30%. What BS.
I have no qualms about pressing the no tip option on these countertop tablets.
% is an insane method. What about using.m… Time or amount of food.
A server gets paid $20 for walking a $100 steak to a table but only $3 for a Burger
“After all, ‘tips’ is sometimes said to mean “to insure prompt service” although there’s little evidence to support this.”
Am I the only one who hates it when people use this phrase? Insure /= Ensure. Even if you don’t/didn’t know the difference, a free grammar checker alerts you that it’s wrong.
Regardless, tipping *is* out of control, and I agree that the service (usually) doesn’t match. Don’t get me started on all those POS systems that prompt you for tips. Or the preset percentages that include taxes/fees in the calculations.
That is because the USA has a resturant “turnover” culture.
Management pushes servers to get the patrons to eat-up and get out.
More customers per table per night = more profits (but bad service & bad experience).
As to those who get a full hourly wage and still demand tips, we’ll, that’s just guilt based panhandling (and likely tax fraud).
I am expected to calculate 1) What wage an employee may (or not earn). 2) What the level of service was offered. 3) What is customary. This is too much math for a sandwich for instance. While I enjoy rewarding a pleasant experience, I am uncomfortable propping up someone’s poor life choice working for a crap employer.
On top of everything being said, we are being sucked into feeling bad for waiters. I would agree that being a waiter at a local diner is a tough job. But many waiters especially at nicer restaurants earn exorbitant amounts. A few example:
– I know several cocktail waitresses in Vegas that earn 250-400k a year working 3 days per week – extreme end admittedly
– At a steakhouse in Silicon Valley the waiter recently told us he studied Engineering but works as a waiter instead because he earns more
– a friend’s daughter works as a waitress at a touristy mid-tier restaurant, she gets paid $17/hour PLUS tips. Tips are usually 200-400 a night (4-5 hrs)
So tell me again how I should feel bad for them? We got told similar sob stories about fire fighters, military and other highly paid public workers with insane pay packages and amazing benefits.
“Am I the only one who hates it when people use this phrase? Insure /= Ensure.”
Lighten up, Francis!
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/how-to-use-insure-vs-ensure-vs-assure
I would prefer to round up the change. Tipping mentality has become stupid.
On a recent trip to Denver, the 20%, and sometimes a 3% for other staff, was auto included with the bill. That’s better, but just include it in the price.
I have argued that for consumers to get the best experience is to tip someone in advance. Then, at that point, it is no longer a tip, it’s a bribe.
https://travelupdate.com/stop-tipping-and-start-bribing/
The current method does not align the incentives between the server and the customer.
Currently, the risk is on the server, they can provide outstanding service, but you might still tip below expected. Alternatively, if you bribe the server, the risk is tilted towards the consumer. Only on a few occasions has that approach backfired. In most scenarios, and on average, I believe I have been far better off to bribe rather than tip.
The only time tipping pisses me off is when there is no service involved. For example, I was going to order a kitchen gadget I saw online. A 10% tip was added in automatically that I could not remove. So I cancelled it. It’s bad enough that anything mail order usually has absurd shipping charges. Tipping a piece of code goes too far.
At least for table-waiting staff, tipping culture may help incentivize the restaurant staff to turn tables faster by bringing out the bill and taking payment faster. But other than that, I can no longer see a strong positive correlation of quality and timeliness of restaurant service with on whether I’m in a tip-heavy region or not.
The tipping getting out of control has led me to eat in restaurants less. I will buy take out food but I don’t tip for that because nobody from the restaurant cleans my table at home, sets the table with clean dishes, takes the order, brings the food and drinks, etc. Minimum wage for tipped employees is $15.50 an hour so tipping beyond that makes their job pay a lot better than the kitchen staff who are actually making the food.
Because of all the morons who are willing to tip just because…
Tipping is bribing. Quite literally. There are even morons who give cash (in the form of gift cards, as if somehow that’s any different) to flight attendants, jeopardising their employment. And bloggers who suggest bribing check in staff to get better rooms (also jeopardising employees).
Thankfully in low bribery countries people go to jail for doing this.
It’s always so nice eating in tipless restaurants because any server will help you. In the USA, if you need anything and get the attention of some one wait staff, you’re often left waiting because they “have to find your waiter” fist.
Terrible way to treat guests.
The tipping scheme in the U.S. has become bizarre. The wait staff are not working any harder when I order a $40 item instead of a $20 item, and my kids are young enough to order off the kids menu but can and usually do eat adult portions. The expectation of tipping a percentage is annoying. In Japan and Korea, tipping is insulting to the person receiving a tip yet service is usually superior to that in the U.S.
I don’t tip. Period. It’s very simple. If you don’t like your job, work somewhere else.
I have loudly started asking when prompted to leave a tip “Do you get the money, or does the boss steal it?” If they’re going to make it awkward for me, I’m going to make it *more* awkward for them. By the way, when they don’t answer and look around uncomfortably, you know where the money is going.
If everyone starts doing this when a lot of people are around, making conversations stop like a record scratch, I think this practice will stop.
Boring. Not saying I’m any better, as I share the same opinion, but what would be a logical solution to go against the tipping culture.
On the hilarious sitcom “3rd Rock From The Sun”, “Dick Solomon” (a/k/a John Lithgow) was trying to understand the tipping system. His squeeze “Mary” (Jane Curtain) explained how the system worked. At a fancy restaurant, he put down a stack of $1.00 bills. When queried about the stack of bills, “Oh, I base the tip on the service.” “I’ll have the salmon.” “I’m sorry sir, we’re out of salmon tonight.” “Uh oh!” and he takes a bill out of the stack. Mary goes berserk. “Well, I’ll have the steak then with a baked potato.” “I’m sorry sir, we only have mashed potatoes tonight.” “Uh oh!” and he takes another bill from the stack. When the waitress did something to his liking, he added a bill back to the stack. If it wasn’t so tacky to do that, I’d consider putting a stack of bills on the table and following “Dick Solomon’s” lead!
My biggest gripe is when they suggest a tip that is calculated on the total amount including the tax. Sorry but I don’t tip on the tax.
What do expect in a culture where many people believe big portions means good food.
Recently in Spain where tipping seems to have almost disappeared yet service is excellent – what a pleasure!
Most people don’t know who Bestoink Dooley was! I knew him when I was a kid as George Ellis sang baritone in my church’s choir! All of us kids loved talking to him after services in the parish hall. He was truly a treasure and delighted his audience!
In some parts of Europe where there was little tipping and what little tipping there was seemed to be disappearing as people migrated increasingly away from cash payment, I am now seeing some uptick in the card processing terminals at restaurants and other places enabling/pushing tipping and hearing that wait staff has seen an increase in tip income for the restaurants/bars going to the restaurant/bar.
When I was in France in September, I paid in restaurants primarily by credit card. Virtually all of the credit card terminals had no provision for adding a tip. You paid what was on the bill. What a breath of fresh air.
@Gary. You’ve hit a subject almost everyone agrees on. Let’s just pay people a wage so that they will stay at the job and do good work. Then charge accordingly.
I like how you people say service is superior in Japan. Ha ha We were there in the summer of 2019 in Tokyo and Kyoto and did not experience that. We were charged a $5 per person coverage charge at a restaurant. It took forever to place the order get a bill and pay the bill. There are no refills of water. There
Was no. Is everything all right.
“I’m not a tipper, unless it’s a stripper”
Tipping in America, is like the unnatural gun addiction of American society, will never go away, will never change and nothing will be done about it! It is an American tradition that ingrained in the American psyche! You may say what is the relation between these two issues? Nothing and yet everything… It is just one of those American weirdness that puzzle everyone in the world outside the US… So y’all get over it, make peace with it and try to find happiness in your lives!
Many people who are commenting are under the wrongful impression that in america, leaders and waitresses are making minimum wage. In a restaurant that is usually not true. The restaurant is able to pay a much lower wage around four dollars per hour and the tips will bring the service staff to over minimum wage.
@Yumi Santiago – that very much varies by state (and also a lot of airports do not have this)
As others have said, tipping is for good service. That’s why I tip ahead of time. It a) surprises the server, and b) now guarantees good service. I’ve never had a case where the server took it for granted or I was taken advantaged of.
And yes, that means bring cash. Cash is KING to servers, and is even a better way to get good service.
-Jon
@Yumi Santiago, I live in California, the most populous state, and the state law requires that the minimum wage for tipped workers is $15.50.
@Gary: Your post contains a link to www[dot]dailydot[dot]com/irl/dutch-bros-drive-thru-tipping/ which, at least for me, loaded a full page “You are using an older version of Chrome” fake warning to get the unwary to download malware. I strongly encourage you to remove the link.