> When the practice was brought to the United States in the 19th century, the American public was deeply uncomfortable with it. Many saw tipping as undemocratic

> When the practice was brought to the United States in the 19th century, the American public was deeply uncomfortable with it. Many saw tipping as undemocratic and therefore un-American. A powerful anti-tipping movement erupted, fueled by the argument that employers, not customers, should be paying workers. But American restaurants and railway companies fought particularly hard to keep tipping, because it meant they didn’t have to pay recently freed black slaves who were now employed by those industries.[1] (emphasis mine) > Europe eventually did away with tipping. But in America, pressure from powerful corporate interests resulted in a two-tiered wage system for tipped and non-tipped workers, institutionalizing a highly racialized system of economic exclusion. Formalized in 1938 in the first minimum wage law as part of the New Deal, this separate and unequal system stated that employers were not obligated to pay a base wage to workers whose minimum wage was met through tips.[1] (emphasis mine) Tipping, and the laws surrounding it, are based on forcing minorities to work for substandard wages and opening them up to exploitation and harassment with no accountability for their employers. Appealing to the laws is appealing to inherently racist rationalizations of what fair wages are and should be. People know how tips work. How tips work is the problem that needs to be solved. History and context matters, in this case and many more. [1] https://www.fordfoundation.org/ideas/equals-change-blog/posts/american-tipping-is-rooted-in-slavery-and-it-still-hurts-workers-today/ https://www.fordfoundation.org/ideas/equals-change-blog/post...