10 Reasons Why Tipping Culture Should Stay & 10 Ways It's Bad For Everyone
To Tip Or Not To Tip?
Tipping culture has been a cornerstone of hospitality and service industries for decades, especially in North America where it's so ingrained in society that restaurants are allowed to pay tipped employees less than the legal minimum wage. While tipping was classically a way of showing gratitude and rewarding great service, many customers and restaurant workers agree that it's gotten out of hand. Instead of being a meaningful gesture, it's become an absolute necessity, with the responsibility of restaurant workers receiving a decent wage falling onto the customer instead of the employer. As a result, most countries around the world have eradicated tip culture altogether, opting for higher salaries instead. Should the US follow suit? Here are the 10 most popular pro-tipping arguments and 10 compelling ones against.
1. It Impacts Service
Perhaps the greatest argument for tipping is that it incentivizes good service. If they know they might earn more for it, servers will go above and beyond to provide a positive dining experience.
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2. It Empowers The Customer
Tipping gives you as a customer more power to reward good service or "punish" particularly bad service. It allows you to decide more or less how much you want to pay for the experience you just had.
3. Boosts Worker Income
Servers at restaurants in the US routinely get paid less than minimum wage because there's an assumption that tips will more than make up for the gap. Your tip goes directly towards supporting the individuals working hard to serve you, not towards their bosses or major corporations.
4. Lowers Base Cost For Businesses
Because they're allowed to pay their staff a little less, businesses can hit their baseline and stay afloat. For small, independent restaurants, this can make a huge difference, especially if they're just starting out, and trying to make ends meet.
5. Allows You To Show Appreciation
Tipping is a nice outlet for you to show your gratitude and generosity beyond the standard transaction. By leaving a nice tip, you make someone's day as well as your own.
6. It's Real-Time Feedback
When done correctly, tipping provides the opportunity to give tangible feedback. It's like a constant evaluation. When the system works, the better you perform as a server, the better tips you'll receive.
7. Supplements Low Wages
Tipping helps supplement the low wages restaurant staff gets which is oftentimes less than minimum. With your small tip, you're helping to prop their income up from below minimum wage to a comfortable sum they can actually live off of.
8. Encourages Social Interaction
Tipping culture encourages more social interaction, banter, and pleasantries between servers and clients. If you've ever been to a country where tipping doesn't exist, you'll notice how much more minimal the interaction is and how purely transactional it feels.
9. Leads To Greater Worker Satisfaction
As an employee, receiving generous tips fills you with that "job well done" satisfaction. If you routinely get tips that exceed the minimum amount, it's a constant reassurance that you're good at what you do.
10. Possibly Makes Dining More Affordable
While the percentage for what's considered a normal tip keeps climbing, it's still probably more affordable to tip on top of your check than it would be if it was all included in the price. No matter how it's presented, you'll still have to pay for the service you receive.
Now that we've covered some of the most popular arguments for why tipping should stay, let's go over some of the most compelling arguments against it.
1. It Perpetuates Classism
Tipping culture perpetuates classist structures by putting the power into the hands of paying customers who decide how much their server gets to make. Servers are expected to smile, flatter, and "perform" for customers whose tips directly affect their livelihood.
2. It's Discriminatory
Studies have found biases in tipping where people of certain races, women above a certain age, people with disabilities, or those in the LGBTQ+ community receive lower tips. Whether conscious or not, tipping perpetuates discrimination and societal inequalities.
3. Varying Social Norms Around Tipping
In some places, it's customary to receive 30 percent tips while in others, 10 percent is the norm. This is a huge gap and it can cause confusion if you're traveling outside of your region, with the tip not necessarily reflecting service, but simply what's considered "normal" at that time and place.
4. It Results In Unequal & Unfair Pay
Tipping culture creates a pay imbalance among restaurant staff, especially between kitchen workers and front-of-house. Even within front-of-house, servers receive different pay for the exact same job based on popularity and random factors.
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5. It Results In Overly-Attentive Service
There's a stark difference between service in the US and abroad. In the US, it's customary to check on tables repeatedly throughout the meal which is, frankly, quite annoying. Many people prefer the more laid-back feeling of dining abroad where servers only come to the table when you flag them over.
6. The Onus To Pay Staff Properly Falls On The Customers
At literally any other job, the employee is paid by the employer. However, in places where a tipping culture exists, the employer gets away with paying less than minimum wage and the customer is expected to make up for it.
7. It Results In Unstable Workers Income
Tips are inconsistent and unpredictable. If the restaurant has a slow week or series of weeks, restaurant staff might not be able to pay their bills that month.
8. It Gives Customers Too Much Power
Tipping creates a power imbalance between the customer and server that some customers might take advantage of by being rude or rowdy. The server must always be pleasant if they want a tip, even when customers don't deserve it.
9. Promotes Underreporting & Wage Theft
The tipping system is set up in such a way that employers can easily take advantage of it. They'll underreport income on taxes or skim tips, keeping some for themselves. They'll also fail to ensure total pay after tips meets minimum wage and neglect to make up the difference if it falls short, which is illegal.
10. No Correlation Between Tipping & Service
While different countries may have different customs and expectations when it comes to service, it's not as if servers are terrible just because they aren't getting tips. In fact, many are well-paid professionals who take pride in their work as opposed to being diminished by relying on tips.
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