It stopped being a cultural thing decades ago. Now it’s about about companies not paying employees a living wage and America’s right wing constantly blocking legislation that would force employers to pay people enough to have shelter and food.
I tip for exceptional service. If someone goes above and beyond what’s required of them, I leave a tip. I also tip if I make their lives more difficult that they should have been.
Dealing with our general public, during COVID definitely counts as both. Particularly with the number of people who couldn’t figure out how to wear a mask. At the same time, I also didn’t go out much during the pandemic, mostly due to the whole pandemic thing going on.
But you see, this approach is an international problem on both sides of the tipping argument. Are you against tipping and think the worker should be compensated by their employer? That’s great. Do you believe in this philosophy enough to actually seek out politicians who will make sure employers compensate the workers? All around the world, it seems that nobody cares that much about workers when it’s time to vote. Workers in countries where tipping is not customary earn a crappy salary that does not allow them to live without depending on the kindness of their families. Good luck making yourself independent of your parents on a typical salary a waiter earns in Spain, for example. Workers in the USA where tipping is all the rage don’t do much better. You can work in the retail industry and earn minimum wage, or sometimes slightly higher than minimum wage and live out of your car or live with your parents. You can work at a restaurant and depend on tips and live out of your car. You can be a visiting professor of sociology at whatever university and live out of your car. In Spain, you can have a PhD and ghost write for full professors and live out of your car or you can wait tables and not have a car and live with your parents. I mean, really. There is no difference in the end. Wages from work are low all around the world. They are low in democratic countries because people care more about some other issue and not about the people who bring food to their table at a restaurant, no matter what kind of tipping culture is predominant in that democratic country.
It used to be quite the opposite. Tipping was big in Europe but not in the US.
That changed with Prohibition. When alcohol was banned, there was suddenly a large whole in the bottom line of restaurants across the US. They turned to having a tipped staff to stay open.
Sadly, when it was repealed, tipping stayed. It was since inflated from 10% to 15% to now over 20%.
Some have tried to get rid of it, but sadly it hasn’t worked.
Tipping seems to be a cultural thing in the States.
Here in the UK we take the Mr. Pink approach to tipping.
It stopped being a cultural thing decades ago. Now it’s about about companies not paying employees a living wage and America’s right wing constantly blocking legislation that would force employers to pay people enough to have shelter and food.
During the UK lockdowns, I tipped all the front line workers where I could. That’s it.
I’m not tipping someone as compensation for doing their job, that’s what their employer is for.
I tip for exceptional service. If someone goes above and beyond what’s required of them, I leave a tip. I also tip if I make their lives more difficult that they should have been.
Dealing with our general public, during COVID definitely counts as both. Particularly with the number of people who couldn’t figure out how to wear a mask. At the same time, I also didn’t go out much during the pandemic, mostly due to the whole pandemic thing going on.
But you see, this approach is an international problem on both sides of the tipping argument. Are you against tipping and think the worker should be compensated by their employer? That’s great. Do you believe in this philosophy enough to actually seek out politicians who will make sure employers compensate the workers? All around the world, it seems that nobody cares that much about workers when it’s time to vote. Workers in countries where tipping is not customary earn a crappy salary that does not allow them to live without depending on the kindness of their families. Good luck making yourself independent of your parents on a typical salary a waiter earns in Spain, for example. Workers in the USA where tipping is all the rage don’t do much better. You can work in the retail industry and earn minimum wage, or sometimes slightly higher than minimum wage and live out of your car or live with your parents. You can work at a restaurant and depend on tips and live out of your car. You can be a visiting professor of sociology at whatever university and live out of your car. In Spain, you can have a PhD and ghost write for full professors and live out of your car or you can wait tables and not have a car and live with your parents. I mean, really. There is no difference in the end. Wages from work are low all around the world. They are low in democratic countries because people care more about some other issue and not about the people who bring food to their table at a restaurant, no matter what kind of tipping culture is predominant in that democratic country.
It used to be quite the opposite. Tipping was big in Europe but not in the US.
That changed with Prohibition. When alcohol was banned, there was suddenly a large whole in the bottom line of restaurants across the US. They turned to having a tipped staff to stay open.
Sadly, when it was repealed, tipping stayed. It was since inflated from 10% to 15% to now over 20%.
Some have tried to get rid of it, but sadly it hasn’t worked.