This is really hard for me but I have had to put my foot down in recent times. It still makes me uncomfortable but I just can’t support this anymore. If I’m sitting down at a restaurant with a server I tip 20 - 25% but
I’m tired of tipping for takeout and I absolutely refuse to give extra when checking out at a store.
Tips have crept up because cost of living has crept up but minimum wage has not. People can’t live on 2.25 plus tips and 7.25 if you don’t make enough tips to be more than 7.25. It’s just insultingly low wages and impossible to live off of
That's the golden number for me, but only if I eat in the damn place, not takeout. I also tip gas station employees only when they calibrate my tires or wipe my windows.
Honestly I dont use percentages unless the meal is insanely expensive. I never tip at something as simple as a coffee shop or quick-dine-and-go thing (unless I'm a regular). Otherwise they get 5, 10, or 20 depending on service and food (regardless of total meal cost). My favorite places always get a little extra (5 -> 7, 10-> 15, 20 -> 25)
I don’t go to coffee shops but I wouldn’t tip there either. I don’t think I should be responsible for paying employees a living wage. Charge me appropriately for the item and pay your fucking employees.
This is very occasionally popping up in restaurants in Australia. Whether you live here or travelling. Do not tip unless they did something incredible. I’m talking the fish brought your grandma back to life and the chef reconnected you with your long lost father.
We don’t want to encourage tipping culture. We want to increase minimum wage. It’s like $23 now and we need that to keep growing with the economy.
I mean, that's on you for agreeing to pay $30 for an avocado on toast.
I'm against (forced) tipping culture but the waiter is not at fault for the prices a restaurant sets up. If I saw the price and still decided to order it, I will definitely not fault the waiter for it.
Waiters that give great services gets tipped because I want to encourage waiters to give great service.
Tipping culture is capitalists telling workers it's their fault for not making enough money. It's true though, because workers don't organize nearly enough to change the culture. People should stick up for themselves and their fellow employees and demand a better wage and benefits.
And then have the media (Wall Street Journal and Readers Digest especially) tell everybody that yes, tipping everybody everywhere is the new normal and we need to get used to it.
I've gotten into so many arguments on Facebook with people who tip their mechanics and doctors. People are eating this shit up.
I recently had a pretty crappy experience at a restaurant for a few reasons, the last being their tipping system. You won't believe how they asked me to tip, it was mad.
There was no menu, I had to Google their name and find their website (which was some obscure subdomain on some obscure food payment site).
Their site didn't work in Chrome (on any of the phones we had with us), luckily I had a backup browser installed that worked.
I had to order and pay on my phone, unable to use the cash I had budgeted and brought with me for the meal.
It asked me how much I would like to tip, but this is paying DURING MY ORDER, when I had not yet received any service or food. I chose not to tip.
Tipping, here in the UK, is only something you do when you were very happy with the service (and have the extra cash you don't mind giving away as charity, basically). Our waiters, as with every worker in the country, are paid a real wage that isn't designed to be subsidised by begging.
So, being asked to tip for the good service BEFORE receiving the service? That's INSANE.
Due to the various ridiculous issues we had just trying to order food and pay for it, and the audacity of being asked to tip that way, I will not be going back there again.
What's wrong with the tried and true system of a waiter taking your order, you eat, they take your payment at the table either with a normal wireless chip-and-pin machine or by cash, and then you leave? It's simple, easy, smooth and fast 🤦♀️
Yeah, that tipping before service idea has to be costing business. There are several places I avoid because they request tip before service. My local Foxtail coffee shop is one of those places, and the lowest tip option is 15%. On the 3 times I have tipped, they still gave me subpar service. Like, they didn't even do the bare minimum, let alone anything exceptional.
I understand where you are coming from, but haven't there been locales in the past where you tipped before service to let your server know you are magnanimous?
I could be wrong, but I swear I read this in a European travel guide from the late 90s.
I occasionally go to a liquor store where the till asks if you want to tip, and it's the most ridiculous thing ever because it's a small store and the clerk isn't helping you find shit.
In this specific instance, not much more, because I live in one of the few states where the minimum wage is the same for tipped and untipped workers (although gig drivers are still getting screwed here).
Not tomorrow either. Flashing that in front of me doesn't mean I'm tipping you for grabbing a donut 6feet away from you and putting it in a bag. That's literally your job. Charge me the amount it costs for the item and your labor don't try to prey on my charitabilty. I use those feelings to distribute the limited extra I have to give to research for sick kids, educational charities, housing initiatives, and anti-gun lobbyists. Fuck if you're anywhere near those categories donut slinger. Tell your boss to fuck himself for even putting that shit in front of customers.
As a weed smoker for something like 25 years who has spent his time doing a lot of studying of the science because I understand that it is not an inert substance, and I know its affecting my health long-term somehow...
I've seen the studies that have shown specific strains have more to do with different "highs" than whether it is indica or sativa (nevermind that there is no such thing as a true indica anymore.), do you have any idea how I feel when some fucking twentysomething starts telling me about the (bogus) differences between sativa and indica and expects me to give a shit when all I care about is potency.
Like sorry, you're not getting a tip for knowing less than me, some bum off the street, about the stuff I'm putting in my body.
You seem really mad at the person behind the counter, perhaps instead consider being mad at the millionaires and billionaires in charge that decided to make it this way.
Not mad at them, just not impressed enough to pay beyond the asking price. I don't have a sense of guilt or obligation about it. When possible I would urge people to choose jobs that pay fairly and don't support this awful system. I fully understand that's easier said then done (I've been there myself). I don't even really blame the millionaires. We all have at least a touch of greed in us, some more than others, and any system that allows this to get to crazy proportions will foster this kind of nonsense. The answer isn't to just make Millionaires feel bad until they stop this - that's not going to happen. The answer is legislation that recognizes that tip culture is wrong on so many levels, that most of the world manages to keep it in check and that in the US laws are needed to curb this insanity.
In the meantime, people are able to swing culture shifts and it's up to all of us to start saying enough is enough to tip culture and as much as possible spend our money at places that aren't capitalizing on charity to pay their employees. Recognize the racism and sexism in this practice and treat it like the dirty thing it is.
Reminder for everyone that when there are efforts to change the system and have employers pay higher wages instead, the majority of workers are vehemently against it.
You'll see people in this thread telling you that it's not the workers' fault, and that taking it out on the workers by not tipping is not fair, as if they're victims of the system.
Most pressure to maintain the system (or add tips to new industries) comes from the workers, and I feel that not tipping is entirely appropriate if you want it to change.
When the workers themselves start clamoring for raising wages and getting rid of tipping culture, I will empathize with them more.
People don’t want to constantly pay more fees in the form of “voluntary” tips that are supposed to be a courtesy based on service quality, not a tax and payroll dodge for employees and employers who obviously have no incentive to report cash income like this. And now even more people are jumping on the tip bandwagon, and on top of that they calculate the tip on the total including tax. I’m not giving the government a tip, too. Tips are becoming compulsory in the eyes of far too many service industry employees.
It’s far easier for them to shit on customers than it is to assume any risks associated with fighting employers and the established system for real wages. Leeching off the hard work wages of customers rather than doing the hard work of fighting for a real wage.
It's getting ridiculous though like even gas stations are starting to ask. Like sorry why should I leave a tip to get a Snickers and bottle of water rung up?
I have no problem tipping wait staff or bartenders for the service, but I'll be damned if the cashier at my local Chinese restaurant is getting a tip because they handed me a bag of carryout food I ordered online... tipping has definitely gotten out of control.
With this little change, you might think you’re supplementing their minimum wage pay, but the owner can lower their pay to the “federal tipped minimum” in some states. You basically just make it cheaper for the owner in the long run (they’re probably sold on this by the Point Of Sale software company), and the workers can get little or no extra money.
Tip functionality is a business decision that comes from the top. The Devs have no say in whether a feature is included or not, and dislike it as much as you do.
If you're serving me alcohol (or something similar) at a bar, you get $1 per drink. If you're taking my order at a table and bringing me food, you get 15%. That's it.
What annoys me isn't that they ask for a tip, it's how much they ask. I'm willing to round up to the nearest dollar if the service was good, but those little iPads always seem to ask for at least 15%. I am not giving a 15% tip to someone who only pressed buttons on a tablet.
This was so weird in the US. Everywhere you get asked for a tip. I got a tip screen even in a supermarket once. For the cashier. I got back home to the EU today and was happy to not tip anymore everywhere...
It's the Square checkouts and the other new POS like them. I'm pretty sure Square takes a chunk of the tip which is why they're enabled by default (and I'm not sure you can disable them).
There's a street food hall place in Manchester where you can only order via an app and some food businessess force you to pay a "tip" while ordering your food. Can pay 5, 10 or 15%.
Who the fuck do they think is going to willingly pay more than they have to? It's blatantly a service charge, you don't give tips before you've even ordered your food.
It's more normal in fancy places, or where you genuinely want to thank a server for above and beyond service. But it's not expected, you're not rude for not doing it, and you don't do it for just any old outting.
I'll tip a bartender who mixes me a drink with 3+ ingredients that's not on their drink list, I'll tip the server who painstakingly reviews the menu with our table to make sure we don't have issues with allergies, I'll tip the barista who rushes over with a cloth to help me after I accidentally knocked over my whole coffee who tried to make me a second coffee on the house. Because that's excellent service and tipping is just an excellent way of saying thank you.
Not sure why you're being downvoted. While we typically don't tip, you can go to most food places with table service and gratuity is either automatically added, or is an option when you pay.
Over here in the UK we don't tip as a rule, unless we've been directly served by someone, and even then it's mostly just to leave whatever change there may be.
But it's become very fucking common for chain shops to ask if we want to round up to the nearest £ and donate that money to whichever charity they're working with.
Because it just doesn't feel right to me. And I know that it's kinda churlish, but there's a part of me that doesn't want huge supermarket chains who keep posting record profits while paying the bare minimum they legally have to, to take the credit for me donating a few quid a month in rounding up my bill. Many of the charities wouldn't be needed as much if these companies actually paid adequate wages.
Charity donations are tax deductible (usually) so what you're doing is giving the business a means to bring down their contributions for the year. It'd really be best if you just donated directly.
Tipping culture is just a way that disproportionally affects workers in such a way that there should be a mathematical equation that compares titty size of the waitress to how much you will tip. Theres a reason why people think there is misandry in fields that require tipping. I try to not tip whenever I can unless I am friends with the people there. Why? Chances are, you get paid a minimum of 10+ an hour wage and you get pissy if I even think you didn't deserve that cherry on top. No I dont want to pay you more than I make an hour for serving my food. Its not up to me to decide how much you deserve for your efforts. Yes Ill be bitter, i dont care, i fucking hate tipping culture. Ill fight anyone that thinks otherwise... in a videogame of course.
Edit: also I want to give a shout out to BJs for being the most toxic environments for tipping. They only allow electronic payments on some proprietary website and it auto adds 20% and they cross their fingers hopeing you didnt see. Then it asks if you would want to tip ON TOP of that. If you bring it up to staff they will actually announce that you arent tipping. Like fuck you guys
I agree, I don't like to tip for blowjobs either. I also prefer to pay by cash for those.
Seriously though, I don't think I tip based on attractiveness. But I do tend to tip more as I get more drunk. A few of my friends even check how much I'm tipping if they think I'm too drunk and tell me to lower it. They've probably saved me around $100 in the last few months lol.
Oml yes it does. Some always gets taken which is super fucked up but they make up part of the wage. 60% of my income is tips and that's how most American service workers are. Please tip. It's a shitty system but it's the system. You're not rebelling by hitting no tip.
I assume any "fast casual" tip goes directly to the boss. If you didn't come to my table and take my order then the little iPad is paying the guy that wasn't here all day.
It's the tipped employees who don't realize they are getting fucked and maybe their clients shouldn't be the people expected to fill the shortfalls of their paychecks instead of, you know, their boss. It's not the people who work regular jobs themselves where they are not tipped.
Source: Working the first tipped job I have ever worked and motherfucker these people are entitled. Delivering pizza to poor people living off of disability and judging them for not tipping. It makes me fucking furious. I live in a state with one of the highest minimum wages in the country, it's not like these people are being paid $2.13 an hour. Depending on the day they can make $30+ an hour when you include tips. They're so fucking angry and shitty and petty when people don't tip. It's like, I guess fuck anyone who just wanted some comfort food in the middle of their shitty lives and it's not their fault your boss doesn't pay you better. I have previously only worked jobs where I was never tipped but still had customers acting entitled. People who demand or expect tips on top of the highest minimum wage in the country are fucking crybabies angry at the wrong fucking people. That's on them, not the people tired of the bullshit tipping culture.
My local vape shop has started asking for tips when you pay now. I'm definitely not tipping for a D8 cart that's already 20% more expensive than buying it online from the makers.
The workers are paid enough. Other people are still tipping and most tipped workers prefer the tipping system over an actual livable wage because they make more in tips.
You could try feeling bad for your server who can't pay their rent or buy groceries because you decided they don't deserve money for their work. Whether you like it or not, that's the reality, and it's as real as anything can ever be when you work all day and don't make enough money to buy yourself a meal.
It seems fairly presumptuous of you to assume that your server can't pay their rent or buy groceries, especially when the servers make more off of tips than most people make with their hourly wage. And I'm not sure where you think it's my decision whether they deserve money for their work, I'm not their employer. It seems to me like you think customers should not only pay for something but should also pay the employees serving it to them. Where does the responsibility come in for the employer? Also, at some point personal responsibility comes into play, you can't expect everyone to give you handouts all the time.
Tipping is why I carry cash for restaurants I don't need to let the server know the number of audible beeps I'm hitting on the machine as they loom over me to guilt me into that 25% tip for whatever ungodly reason exists on the machine.
I think I'm in the smallest minority, but I haven't tipped in close to a decade. When people ask me why, I answer with the question "when was the last time you tipped your grocer l, fast food window attendant or the person at the hardware store that brought out your 100lbs of lumber? " answer is always never and I say exactly.
Are you going to like sit down restaurants in America though?... cuz those people make around $3 an hour most places with no benefits. I don't approve of the system but please don't go to a fine dining establishment and stiff the waiter. It's fucked up.
They make minimum wage, if you make more than minimum with tips you make $3 or whatever plus your tips, if you don't get any tips your employer covers the difference.
Not American. But even if I were, no I wouldn't tip. It's not my responsibility to pay someone's wage while the business opens up at another 2 locations in my city
When was the last time you worked and didn't get paid for it? Why do you feel like you're justified to come to a person's place of work and make them be at your beck and call, but you don't think that these servants deserve their own food or livelihood?
There's nothing intelligent or admirable about this behavior. Quite the contrary, it's simply a disgusting lack of respect for other human beings.
So you agree that they should be paid a living wage. I believe the employer should pay them enough, not customer to pay them on top of the already paying for the food.
Or maybe if everybody stopped tipping and workers went on strike, businesses might actually be forced to pay a living wage instead of telling their employees to beg to get enough money to put food on the table?
I never implied it was "admirable". I shouldn't have to supplement a workers shitty pay, so I don't. What makes a waiter/waitress more entitled to a tip over someone who stocks shelves at a grocery store or works in the fast food industry? Also I'm not American, shocking I know. If an employer isn't going to pay their staff a proper wage in your country then that's between the employer and employee
Jesus, there's a lot of hate for workers in this thread... 😬
Edit: I understand why employers do this, but the fact is they DO do it, and denying tips isn't going to make employers pay their workers more money. They only understand money, not sympathy, and all you're doing is taking away the employees' money, not theirs. If it's not hurting them, they're not going to raise wages because they simply don't care.
So while one stands there refusing to tip out of a (not entirely incorrect) philosophical viewpoint, those workers reliant on tips will be starving because without said tips they can't afford rent let alone food.
In other words, I agree with the general logic behind the conclusion but not the specific logic.
TL;DR:
Making the employers pay the employees more money? Great!
Attempting to do it by hurting the employees but not the employer? Not so great!
Don't make excuses for employers and shift the blame to customers. Missing out on W2 wages means that you are not going to have any social security in retirement unless you actually declare all your tips.
I worked in food service and retail for a long time, not tipped. The idea that I have to leave a tip for putting my stuff in a bag and handing it to me is ludicrous to me. Employers can pay less because they can tell new hires they get tips.
Business owners need to pay their damn employees and stop using the registers to beg customers for more money.
Business owners need to pay their damn employees and stop using the registers to beg customers for more money.
And how exactly are you getting that message across by stiffing your fellow workers? Business owner makes the same money regardless.
I always tip. Not because the service was good or whatever. No one should have to earn a living being a circus monkey. Everyone deserves dignity at work. And everyone deserves a living wage.
By not supporting the worker, you're playing into the game set up ny business owners and CEOs which is to foster an environment of in-fighting of the working class so they can continue to hoard wealth they don't need.
So yeah, I'll always tip and then I give grief to the owner to pay their employees as you say. Because it's them who sets up that worker-on-worker fight club because that's where the grief needs to go. Not the person trying to live on meager wages and deal with shitty customers.
if I have time, I will Google the starting pay at whatever place and see if they are paid above minimum wage or paid that ridiculous $2 an hour that wait staff get since they also get tips.
It is a sad fact that raging against the tipping system by not tipping is only making the lives of tipped workers more miserable under the current system.
You aren't proving a point or changing anything when you stiff your bartender/server, you are only guaranteed lesser service should you choose to return to the place.
The system sucks, but not tipping isn't solving anything. Voting and political action are needed to change the current state of affairs.
Or, vote with your wallet, buy a bottle of liquor, and drink at home.