5 ms·

Now if only they’d outright ban tipping. Businesses should pay their employees, not the customer. Tipping culture in the US is insane.

Lucasoato 2y ago
Tipping culture is just another tool of capitalism to exploit the working class.
- michael1999 2y ago
  Is that true? Or do Americans really like having servants?
  - Zigurd 2y ago
    It appears to be true based on restaurants being one of the worst industries for wage theft. Also tipping enables restaurants to give the impression that good earnings are possible without actually having the wherewithal to provide good wages, meanwhile not taking responsibility for workers.
    - michael1999 2y ago
      Completely agree that wage theft is terrible, and tipping is silly. But it seems hard to deny that people love servants when they love their DoorDash, lawn services, and maids so much.
  - tacocataco 2y ago
    Considering slavery is still legal as per the 13th amendment, yes. We are addicted to cheap/free labor for businesses.
- Nasrudith 2y ago
  That doesn't actually mean anything, especially after I've seen how much you have abused definition of "exploit". Literally anything less than an impossible 100% profit pass-through is "exploitation". While operating under utterly-stupid economic assumptions about fixed universal values to add insult to injury.
a_c 2y ago
When Americans travel, they bring their tipping culture with them. I blame, for the increasing tipping culture perceived personally and anecdotally, the americans
- KMnO4 2y ago
  You’re not wrong. We don’t even having a “serving wage” in Ontario; all waitstaff make at least minimum wage ($16.55). But we follow America to a tee with this sorta thing, and you’re some sort of heathen if you don’t pay at least 20% extra for the privilege of eating out.
- Freak_NL 2y ago
  Just ignore it. Tips are for above and beyond service here in the Netherlands (and in most of Europe). Anything below 'actually quite good' does not warrant a tip. Let the American tourists tip if they want.
mateus1 2y ago
Amen. But we should reframe this: these workers should be paid a fair wage, tipping will then become optional and significantly reduce. Americans should raise service worker’s wages to a decent living salary.
- j7ake 2y ago
  It’s California, they’re paid a minimum wage of 16 dollars per hour before any tips.
- jghn 2y ago
  Keep in mind that it is often the tipped employees who push back the hardest on getting rid of tipping. The people I know in the restaurant/bar industry would be taking a giant pay cut if their establishments switched to paying a "living wage" without tipping.
- jandrewrogers 2y ago
  Many of these workers are paid a fair wage. Minimum wage in Seattle is $40k, higher than the median wage in many European countries. With tips they might double that. The biggest beneficiaries and proponents of tipping are the workers themselves, empirically their net wages decline when tipping is not allowed even when wages are increased to offset that.
Auracle 2y ago
Tipping culture has turned insane, spreading from California out. That said, I’ll still take it (in restaurants) over a lack of tipping. It depends on the country, but in quite a few the wait staff are… significantly less motivated to actually serve you, to put it nicely. It’s no fun to run out of water and then wait ten minutes, realize they’re never coming and you haven’t even seen them to flag them down, and then either get up to find them or just continue eating without anything to drink.
- lolinder 2y ago
  For me the problem with tipping culture isn't with sit-down restaurants—that's one of the few places where I can see a slight argument to be made in favor of it. What irks me is that tip prompts have started showing up in order at the counter take out places, where I'm literally going to receive no additional services besides the food itself, the cost of which is presumably baked into its price.
- piva00 2y ago
  It's not fun either to have waitstaff hounding you with fake smiles all the time, pretty exhausting to be repeating "no, not right now, thank you" every 5 minutes when they come to ask if there's anything else. Worse, in a lot of places it feels they just need you to hurry up, more tables served, more tips. I don't feel I get "good service" in most places in the USA, I get waitstaff interrupting my table all the time to check if we want to order more, it's quite grating. I just need waitstaff that are attentive when I'm looking for them to order, not to be pushed into ordering or rushing me out.
Ekaros 2y ago
Pretty simple treat it in every single case as a bribe. Both briber and bribee go to jail. Minimum sentence should be lengthy. At least a few years. Only solution against this sort of corruption.
lern_too_spel 2y ago
California already doesn't have a separate minimum wage for tipped workers. Unfortunately, it hasn't had an effect on tipping culture because this varies by state and because of inertia. If everyone else is still tipping, you don't want to be the curmudgeon who doesn't. https://www.dfederlaw.com/articles/the-minimum-wage-requirements-for-tipped-workers-in-california/ https://www.dfederlaw.com/articles/the-minimum-wage-requirem...

Lucasoato 2y ago

Tipping culture is just another tool of capitalism to exploit the working class.

michael1999 2y ago
Is that true? Or do Americans really like having servants?
- Zigurd 2y ago
  It appears to be true based on restaurants being one of the worst industries for wage theft. Also tipping enables restaurants to give the impression that good earnings are possible without actually having the wherewithal to provide good wages, meanwhile not taking responsibility for workers.
  - michael1999 2y ago
    Completely agree that wage theft is terrible, and tipping is silly. But it seems hard to deny that people love servants when they love their DoorDash, lawn services, and maids so much.
- tacocataco 2y ago
  Considering slavery is still legal as per the 13th amendment, yes. We are addicted to cheap/free labor for businesses.
Nasrudith 2y ago
That doesn't actually mean anything, especially after I've seen how much you have abused definition of "exploit". Literally anything less than an impossible 100% profit pass-through is "exploitation". While operating under utterly-stupid economic assumptions about fixed universal values to add insult to injury.

a_c 2y ago

When Americans travel, they bring their tipping culture with them. I blame, for the increasing tipping culture perceived personally and anecdotally, the americans

KMnO4 2y ago
You’re not wrong. We don’t even having a “serving wage” in Ontario; all waitstaff make at least minimum wage ($16.55). But we follow America to a tee with this sorta thing, and you’re some sort of heathen if you don’t pay at least 20% extra for the privilege of eating out.
Freak_NL 2y ago
Just ignore it. Tips are for above and beyond service here in the Netherlands (and in most of Europe). Anything below 'actually quite good' does not warrant a tip. Let the American tourists tip if they want.

mateus1 2y ago

Amen. But we should reframe this: these workers should be paid a fair wage, tipping will then become optional and significantly reduce. Americans should raise service worker’s wages to a decent living salary.

j7ake 2y ago
It’s California, they’re paid a minimum wage of 16 dollars per hour before any tips.
jghn 2y ago
Keep in mind that it is often the tipped employees who push back the hardest on getting rid of tipping. The people I know in the restaurant/bar industry would be taking a giant pay cut if their establishments switched to paying a "living wage" without tipping.
jandrewrogers 2y ago
Many of these workers are paid a fair wage. Minimum wage in Seattle is $40k, higher than the median wage in many European countries. With tips they might double that. The biggest beneficiaries and proponents of tipping are the workers themselves, empirically their net wages decline when tipping is not allowed even when wages are increased to offset that.

Auracle 2y ago

Tipping culture has turned insane, spreading from California out. That said, I’ll still take it (in restaurants) over a lack of tipping. It depends on the country, but in quite a few the wait staff are… significantly less motivated to actually serve you, to put it nicely. It’s no fun to run out of water and then wait ten minutes, realize they’re never coming and you haven’t even seen them to flag them down, and then either get up to find them or just continue eating without anything to drink.

lolinder 2y ago
For me the problem with tipping culture isn't with sit-down restaurants—that's one of the few places where I can see a slight argument to be made in favor of it. What irks me is that tip prompts have started showing up in order at the counter take out places, where I'm literally going to receive no additional services besides the food itself, the cost of which is presumably baked into its price.
piva00 2y ago
It's not fun either to have waitstaff hounding you with fake smiles all the time, pretty exhausting to be repeating "no, not right now, thank you" every 5 minutes when they come to ask if there's anything else. Worse, in a lot of places it feels they just need you to hurry up, more tables served, more tips. I don't feel I get "good service" in most places in the USA, I get waitstaff interrupting my table all the time to check if we want to order more, it's quite grating. I just need waitstaff that are attentive when I'm looking for them to order, not to be pushed into ordering or rushing me out.

Ekaros 2y ago

Pretty simple treat it in every single case as a bribe. Both briber and bribee go to jail. Minimum sentence should be lengthy. At least a few years. Only solution against this sort of corruption.

lern_too_spel 2y ago

California already doesn't have a separate minimum wage for tipped workers. Unfortunately, it hasn't had an effect on tipping culture because this varies by state and because of inertia. If everyone else is still tipping, you don't want to be the curmudgeon who doesn't. https://www.dfederlaw.com/articles/the-minimum-wage-requirements-for-tipped-workers-in-california/ https://www.dfederlaw.com/articles/the-minimum-wage-requirem...