I’m so lost on how to tip anymore. I remember back when 12% pre-tax was considered a really good tip, but now the kiosks recommend 20-25% (which is usually ON TOP of tax).
I already don’t tip anywhere I’m not sitting down with service, but 20-25% is crazy when I’m just trying to get fed.
0%. Why is it my job to subsidize low wages. I’ll start tipping when I start receiving them myself working in trades
Why is it my job to subsidize low wages[?]
Never was.
Tipping should be a 0%+ thing: really good service is rewarded. I say this as a starving waiter from the college days. I made decent tips, but school was/is crazy-expensive.
Many regions are abolishing the lower minimum wage for servers. Your region could have already gone that route. Learn what the regs are and report or correct anyone saying otherwise: servers’ wages start at the same minimum as the cook in the back.
Tipping should be a 0%+ thing
Absolutely agree, I’ve been studying in Europe for the past few months and one of the best parts about going out to eat is having the price on the menu be exactly what you pay. No one expects you to tip. We should be including taxes in prices as well.
I grew up in Canada but now live in Asia. I dread, absolutely dread going to any country where ‘tipping’ is normal. Why do we have to pay someone to do their job? The price should be the price on the menu.
I would travel to any country in Asia that doesn’t have tipping rather than go back to Vancouver to pay $12 for a beer and be expected to tip for someone taking a bottle of beer from the fridge. I could never move back to Canada. /rant over.
Traditionally, tipping is unrelated to low wages. It has to do with the transactional structure related to serving alcohol. There is good reason why the practice emerged in bars and why many of the laws established around tipping refer specifically to alcohol.
Unlike other liabilities which are shouldered entirely by the business, the liability related to alcohol falls on the server. Likewise, the server has free rein to reject your request for alcohol, even against the wishes of the business. This is so because there is, legally speaking, a direct business relationship between the server and the customer when alcohol is involved. Tipping exists because of that business dealing that exists outside of the establishment’s business dealings with you.
In the trades, when you do work directly for a customer – done so under your name with you bearing the responsibility and liability, you too will collect payment directly from the customer. This isn’t unusual or exclusive to serving.
So, yes, paying 0% makes sense. Without alcohol being purchased, there is no business relationship with the server. The transaction is clearly with the establishment and the establishment alone. With alcohol, things are less clear cut, but I have never met a server yet that outlines their fee structure. It is generally understood that they are going to do the work for free.
I don’t think that’s true. My understanding is that typing first started in the US because black workers were not getting paid, or paid less, and it was a way for them to subsidize their income.
Also, the general etiquette back in the day, when tipping at restaurants was 10%, was to not tip on the alcohol portion of your bill, only the food, and don’t tip the owner.
Tipping in the US isn’t thought to have began until well into the 1800s, which is centuries after the practice is thought to have began. The US didn’t exist when tipping is believed to have originated.
However, I think it is fair that you point out that black people not being paid paid by a business would be, for all practical purposes, self-employed, and as such the business relationship again would be directly with the customer.
