Tipping

[Houseman]

Wow, how have I not made this topic until now? This is almost my favorite subject to rant about!

I think tipping is a horrible, unethical, broken system propped up by social guilt and corrupt business.

For those of you fortunate enough not to live in a country where tipping is widespread, "to tip" is to give your server extra money for doing their job. Money on top of what their employer already pays them, which is below minimum wage. How much money you give them depends on the price of your meal. Mostly, only servers at sit-down restaurants and bartenders get tips.

First of all, this is unethical. Servers aren't being paid a living wage by their employers. Employers have to depend on the kindness of strangers in order to afford rent. There is no contractual obligation between the table and the server. The table could leave no tip, and the server could earn no money, and there would be no recourse.

How do employers get away with this? What makes the restaurant business so special that they get to underpay their employees, and depend on the customer to pick up their slack? How is it that every other industry in the US is capable of both paying their employees fairly AND making a profit?


Secondly, tipping is enforced by means of guilt. It is a social stigma NOT to tip, or to tip too low. You will be seen as "cheap", "selfish", and other unfavorable adjectives. Society is the restaurateur's closest ally. Society does all the work of guilting people into continuing this practice with arguments such as "But servers only get $2 an hour! They need your tips to survive!" or "If you don't have money to tip you shouldn't be eating out" or "You're literally stealing from them!"

Who pays servers so little money? Their employer. So start guilting them instead.
Who agreed to be paid so little money? The server. So start shaming them instead.
Who allows for this system to continue? Society does, and probably also politicians who take money from restaurant owners

Really, we should be ashamed. Other countries have restaurants and pay their servers well enough, and all without tipping. The US is the weird one, here.

Just tack on 15-20% to all your prices and pay people a living wage. Other restaurants do it. Other countries do it. There's no excuse other than greed and social brow-beating.

Discuss.

 

[Signa]

I dont like tipping much, but I've decided that a flat $3 per plate is an acceptable amount to pay for the service. I'll drop that down if the service is poor, but if they are doing their job and working hard at all the tables, and if everyone gave them $3 a plate on an hour, they'd make more than I do working in IT. I know it wont always pan out that way, but it's the best I can make from the system as it is.

The alternative is to just not tip which is basically a fuck you to what probably was a decent person doing a decent job.

 

[Houseman]

The alternative is to just not tip which is basically a fuck you to what probably was a decent person doing a decent job.

You're doing the "social enforcing" part I mentioned, guilting and shaming the customer instead of the employer.

Do the employers see their servers as decent people doing a decent job? If yes, then why aren't they paying them decently? If not, then you should be directing that statement towards the employer, not the customer.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Yeah. Tipping have always looked weird to us normal countries.

The (full) price for a product/service should ALWAYS be upfront, before partaking of it.
Otherwise, you are only asking to be fooled.

Another reason I think you missed Houseman, is as a starter job.
That it is meant for young adults who do not have much experience yet, hence the low starting wage.

 

[Ogoid]

Tipping isn't a thing in my particular neck of the woods, but we do have something called "10% service fee", which amounts to pretty much the same... and yes, I also find it annoying as all hell.

Just include that in the goddamn price to begin with instead. Seriously, how hard would that be?

 

[Signa]

The alternative is to just not tip which is basically a fuck you to what probably was a decent person doing a decent job.

You're doing the "social enforcing" part I mentioned, guilting and shaming the customer instead of the employer.

Do the employers see their servers as decent people doing a decent job? If yes, then why aren't they paying them decently? If not, then you should be directing that statement towards the employer, not the customer.

I thought the law was that if tips aren't making up the difference, then the employer will have to pay them the difference. So tipping still gets the server better than minimum wage as long as enough people are doing it, hence my $3 rule.

On the whole, I do agree it's a shitty thing to expect people to do, but I still consider it optional. I won't pay a tip if I think I didn't get the standard service, and I'll tack on an extra bit if I feel the service went above expectations. I actually consider the mandatory service charges to be more criminal because those are not specified in the prices, and there is no way to opt out. I can go anywhere and expect a government tax to be added to the price, but I can't just expect I'm going to get an extra tax just by eating somewhere that has a policy.

Also, I never said anything about guilting the customer. I feel like I'm saying "fuck you" to my server if I don't tip them, and I have no problem taking my money elsewhere if I didn't get what I expected. Otherwise, not tipping is like denying someone a handshake, even if your reason is you're a germophobe. I don't feel like I'm being guilted into anything, but I'd rather engage with the social convention correctly if there's no good reason to not. You can argue that the social convention sucks, and I won't disagree with you, but for what it is, I'm happy to give some extra cash to someone that's doing a job I simply could not handle. Fuck working the food industry.

 

[Houseman]

I thought the law was that if tips aren't making up the difference, then the employer will have to pay them the difference.

Yes they do. And then they get fired as soon as that happens, because the reasoning goes "You're not getting enough tips? You're not doing a good job".

Assuming of course, tips aren't pooled between all employees.

Also, I never said anything about guilting the customer. I feel like I'm saying "fuck you" to my server if I don't tip them

Ah, okay.

 

[andersonnnunes]

Hypothesis:

Tipping is self-enforced price discrimination. If you can pay more, pay more willingly and skip the lengthy negotiation.


I can't find the article now, but I remember reading about how Arnold Schwarzenegger gave someone a $500 tip or something like that. Props to him I think.

 

[juicebox]

We have to because restaurants are allowed to pay servers like $2 an hour for some fucked up reason

If we don't, they either get fired, or they simply don't get paid any more to make up for it

And everybody under the age of 50 hates it. Older people still think they're just being nice

I don't go to restaurants often at all, mostly for this reason

 

[RiseOfTheWhiteWolf]

We do actually tip in Europe, although mostly less than in the US. For example in Germany and the UK you tip like 5-10%, in Spain and Italy you don't even have a choice cause they just put that shit on the bill automatically at 12%.

I don't have a problem with it, its just part of the cost of going out to eat. Don't like it? Don't go. Can't afford it? Don't go. I don't know how the situation in the US is but the average restaurant owner here isn't making a killing, its not just pure greed. Its not like going to a restaurant is without alternative often.

Also waiters have to deal with me, a complete cunt. I have to deal with myself 24 hours a day and let me tell you, I'd tip myself liberally for the effort if I could.

 

[Samtemdo8]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-qV9wVGb38[/youtube]