The American System of Tipping Makes No Sense

Either we've accepted it's a "fuel surcharge" for an airline ticket (as if the fuel isn't part of the price and I'm free to grab my own dishes from the kitchen) -- or it's meant to incentivize behavior. If we pick both, we're not really achieving either.

An under-appreciated aspect of tipping is that it is a form of wage elasticity in industries with small margins and highly variable revenue. Hedging revenue risk is going to come out of employee paychecks, and tipping allows the employee to take on some of that risk for higher average take-home pay. Eliminating tipping has been tried in bars and restaurants many times in the US with poor results, such that they revert; employees hate it because they would rather have the income variability and higher average income, and it also impacts the quality of their hours.

There are some complex economics going on with tipping that it would be foolish to ignore.

You absolutely can restrict it. An employer can forbid their employees from taking tips, there are plenty who do so already. There's all sorts of regulation around tipping, and under federal law, employers can require employees to participate in a tip pool or otherwise share their tips with other employees.

That means by extension that the state or federal governments can require employers forbid employees from taking tips. You're free to give anyone you want money in a personal capacity but in a professional capacity their ability to receive it can absolutely be curtailed by the government. There's lots of prior art here, especially around business conflict of interest. You can't tip a government employee for their service.

As a thought exercise, if you go to a restaurant today where tipping isn't permitted, you offer $10 to the server. They refuse, because their employer doesn't permit them to accept tips. What do you do? Force them to take it?

If I gave my customers a gift it would be an illegal bribe and I could go to jail. My customers are government.

When I was a teenager I worked at a hospital. One of my coworkers was fired for accepting a $1 tip from a patient, we were not allowed to accept any money or gifts from patients or families.

Could or should are different questions, but you're intentionally reducing the conversation to something much simpler than it really is.

If you are, you may not realise that the people serving you realise Americans are used to tipping and so act as if they expect it too. And yes, they'll like it if you do tip.

No where I've been in Europe or the UK is tipping expected.

Also, in countries that do a better job with pin+chip, you never have to even round up. You only do this in Germany, because you mostly pay for things in cash over there.

Yeah, I think this is what Europeans have such a hard time with - why should you pay more than what the sticker says.

In US we accept that more readily, because the combined price: sticker + tax + tip is still smaller than what an official sticker price would be in say Europe, and you get more for the same price, you get the chance to reward someone.

Tipping is not about moody strangers, the vast majority of people eating at restaurants are normal people with normal, predictable and reasonably benevolent behaviors. People will tip if the service is at least average. Won't tip when the service or food is bad. What better way is there to tell how your business is doing?

As many others in this thread pointed out, both waiters and customers like tipping. The minority that hates it has various misconceptions about both how it works, what it does to salaries etc read a few very salient replies in this thread.

Really ... in what other circumstance would you ever reward an "extraordinary" accomplishment with a mere 15-20% bonus. What extraordinary thing costs just 15% more than the regular, run of the mill normal thing.

Tipping shifts the burden of paying staff from the employer who already derive most of the benefit from the staffs work to the patron who is pressured to pay a large bill than presented to make up for how shoddy the employer pays.

For the most effective and the most attractive wait staff especially white females in the most lucrative or the most inebriated environments they actually may make more than they would if paid a flat rate by their employers.

For the majority they are probably paid less. It's like a tax collected from black, ugly, or fat girls and given to 20 something females with nice boobs.

It replaces a negotiated predictable bargain struck after due consideration between adults with the whims of the odious masses who get to decide if their server gets paid based on whether she has sufficiently kissed their overly broad asses.

In some states they allow the servers to be paid less than minimum wage so long as they "tip out" which is to say they earned enough tips to ensure they earned between both sources the federal or state minimum.

Requesting the employer to make up the difference between tips and minimum even on a slow shift without enough business is a sure route to termination so staff are strongly encouraged to help their employers break the law and ultimately steal from them.

There are so many downsides and so few upsides and the upsides accrue nearly entirely to employers and a fraction of servers its hard to imagine anyone seriously arguing in favor of tipping.

What I found immensely insincere and fake is exactly the European style.

There is this pomp, where initially the waiter is expected almost humiliate themselves, seems like the customer expects to be treated you like royalty, but in fact the waiter is sick and tired of another "royalty" bossing them around, getting nothing for good service, and will screw you over at their first opportunity

In the US the waiter fakes that they are your friend

In Europe the waiter fakes that they are your servant

Prices wouldn’t double at most places, but some waiters at high volume or expensive restaurants make a lot of money, and factoring those wages would be tough on cash flow.

I can’t say double is the right number but I’m sure it’s higher than just the effective 15-30% tip.

All these costs add up and the result will be a much higher end cost for your meals. Restaurants usually have razor thin margins as it is...if they even make it past their first couple of years in business.

Again, I feel like most people complain about the wages, but will then complain about the meal costs when they go up because they misunderstand the costs in running a business.

I know many waiters and waitresses and most make way more in tips than they would ever get if they were paid an average wage.

I think if you talked to most waiters/waitresses, they would want to keep the tipping system.

I can understand people that say that the cost of meals are in fact misrepresented because you are expected to tip. But if that is not factor I don't see what makes it so unbearable to add 20%

b) Of course non-tip countries have many restaurants. The prices are also much higher. I've traveled extensively around Europe and places that have no tips..and the meal price is much higher.