As someone who’s never worked in an industry that does tipping, but provides services, why should I have to tip others? Honestly I can’t stand the tipping norms because they just encourage/allow business to underpay their workers. It shouldn’t be my job to make sure Sally at the local Starbucks gets paid enough for rent this month smh. And for all the businesses that claim they’d have to charge more, then do it at least I’d know how much I’m paying for something. Imo tipping should be an exceptionally rare occurrence for when people go above and beyond their job.
Scandinavia tips around 0%. It’s just not in our culture. We have all reasonable wages as a basis. Also cash is almost gone here, everyone’s paying either by card or some e-banking service (Swish, vipps etc.). There’s no electronic way to actually tip anyone. Sure, some vendors have included a “tip” on their rfid card paying devices, but there’s no actual way that tip goes to the personnel, it goes to the restaurant/service/owner.
Those that should be tipped are those that are making less than minimum wage and the expectation is that a good portion of their tips drive them to a minimum if not better wage. Depending on your jurisdiction, the number of people that make less than minimum wage might equal zero. In Ontario, for instance, your server isn’t reliant on tips to make up their wage, so you don’t need to tip them.
The change to a culturally post-tip environment has dragged behind the legal scenario where what we’re doing is tipping when not required and this avoids the end situation: workers individually or collectively asking for wages above minimum for the work they do. If, with tips, a server was making ~$20 an hour, when the legal situation removing the need for tipping happened, people should have stopped tipping, and the servers should have asked for $5 wage increases with tipping disappearing.
I’m afraid we’re going to see tipping around for a while, and expand into areas you should never tip in (grooming unless the worker rents a chair - which I think is a terrible business) unless a government goes bold and says “that’s it - no more tips.”
If I am ever asked for tips at the beginning (before service), flat zero tip unless the service is mind-blowing then I tip a bit afterward.
10-20% here in Canada is fine… If you can’t tip don’t tip. If you can, do. Everything that’s not sit down service or delivery type stuff I do a cash tip and give them not much more than I’d give the local beggar.
As someone who currently works in a restaurant in the US, I can say this this, at least as far as food service goes, is the ideal, however, it is far from the reality. We can track our tips against the daily numbers, and I see anywhere between 9-13% on average, and only in the rarest circumstance does it go over 15%. Just last night we had multiple $100 tabs with no tips at all.
I'm all for abolishing the tipping culture, but to just not tip as a form of protest against it is only hurting the service industry workers. We don't get compensated for low tip nights by the owner. Changes have to be made in the pay scale first, and then we can remove tipping, but refusing to tip out of principal is devastating to those who rely on it. Trust me, we don't want your tips. We need them. And I know that everyone just says, "You should just get another job that pays better." I enjoy cooking, and I'm good at it. If your attitude is that people who can't make ends meet just quit their job and get something better, I invite you to look at the current job market and how open it is to former line cooks looking to break into the financial sector.
Lastly, who the fuck is tipping the tow truck driver? I've never had a tow that didn't feel like was a violation of my human rights. Waiting on the side of the road for 4 hours and paying triple for weekend/night/holiday/lunch hours. I'll give them their $200 for the three mile tow and be done with it.
Tipping or not tipping isn’t going to change the straight-up robbery done to you in the states with your $2~5 hourly minimum wages… customers are effectively subsidizing the employer because they only have to pay the $7 federal minimum wage if they don’t get tips.
In other words the first $5 an hour in tips goes to the owner, the server doesn’t see it at all. Y’all mericans should abolish the concept of tipped minimum wage. Get to your legislators on that. It’s gone everywhere in Canada (sauf que la province de Québec, they were too drunk to follow suit)
Changes have to be made in the pay scale first, and then we can remove tipping...
I understand what you're saying, but that's just not how things work. As long as tipping is the norm, that pay scale will never change.
The only way it will change is if tipping stops and restaurants find themselves with no staff because they can no longer hire anyone for $2/hour.
Sometimes, communal sacrifice is the only way to get bad practices to change. I agree with you that it hurts, but the simple fact is that restaurants will not stop underpaying staff unless they are forced to.
And attempts to put this into law was fought by the servers themselves because enough of them make more money off of tips than they would from a straight salary.
So it's just not going to happen unless society forces their hand by saying "no, this is ridiculous" and stops paying extra for everything.
Companies set the price for most of then though, not the employee. Do I resent tipping underpaid servers etc. Yeah, but they work in a predatory industry and don’t have much choice in whether they accept poor wages or not. They didn’t choose how much they get paid and I know I’m expected to make up the difference, even if it’s shitty.
Tattoo artists give you their own, personal rate - could be hourly or by size and placement of the piece. It’s decided and agreed upon by both parties before they start. Feels weird to have a standard tip on top of that. They can literally just charge more, it’s their decision.
That’s not guaranteed income and it’s dependent on what job / location you work at. Ideally, your resources ($$$) should be secured, not up to constant performance review by guests while an employer enjoys profits off the excess productivity.
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