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Comment by projectileboy | Hacker News Reader

I agree, but what is the best path to end this ridiculous custom? Simply not tipping is unethical, as tipped employees generally make less than minimum wage.

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They are few and far between in the States, but some restaurants explicitly ban or discourage tipping and pay their staff a higher baseline wage. A good start would be patronizing such restaurants more frequently.

Here in Ecuador restaurants typically add a 12% service charge to your bill. That seems better than just just increasing the price of the menu items and re-assures the customer that they are paying what would be the tip, and don't need to leave an additional tip.

I think any mandatory charge should be included in presented prices... Maybe that is just coming from country where I don't really need to calculate any of added taxes and so on.

True I think ideally menu prices include everything. However if you're trying to transition away from tipping, calling out service separately reassures customers that they don't need to tip on top of what they see on their bill, and that the overall cost hasn't changed, assuming they would have paid the service charge voluntarily as a tip.

That's common in many places in the UK as well. And, in the US, it's pretty standard for a mandatory 18% to be added to the bill for groups. (The thinking is that a server could be really screwed if they worked all night for a group that under-tipped, as is easy to happen with a big group splitting a bill.)

I don’t think anyone has a problem with that, as it’s clearly stated on the menu that there is an 18% charge.

I wouldn’t have a problem if the menu stated all items will have a mandatory extra 18% charge for gratuity. I would gladly pay it. I simply want it to be clearly stated and transparent.

You've answered it yourself

> what is the best path to end this ridiculous custom?

> minimum wage

Do you really think a higher minimum wage would end the expectation of tipping? Asking honestly, because I just don't see that as a solution to this problem. There's a discussion to be had around minimum wage, but that feels like an entirely separate issue.

There are different minimum wages for people in e.g. restaurant service, which is to me the quintessential tipping experience. If that went away, it could perhaps pave the path to less tipping overall

But I'm not defending the argument, just adding to the debate. I'm fine with tipping, personally, because I think it aligns incentives to encourage good service. That good looking people get better tips doesn't bother me in the slightest—life isn't fair.

Yes, it would. Civilized states have done away with tipped minimum wages, so employees can no longer complain about being taken advantage of by employers not paying them for tip totals not getting them to minimum wage limits.

1. Everyone stop tipping.

2. Greedy enployers can't use the promise of tipping as an excuse so they start to paying minimun wage.

3. Government intervenes making sure minimum wage is paid.

It starts with (1).

I'd say it starts with 3 otherwise all people in tip-funded service industry get screwed by the more wealthy people using their services.

The tipping hasn’t stopped even in states and cities the government has already done (3).

But what to do about all those waiters/waitresses that previously made money like some senior engineer and now get paid only minimum wage?

They wouldn't get even minimum wage. Servers earn less than minimum wage in many places, to compensate for the fact that they get tips.

Starting your movement with "don't tip" is a great way to punish workers without much chance of being successful. It should probably start with the restaurants, or even regulation.

AFAIK almost everywhere there's a law that makes it illegal to pay below minimum wage. And if they don't like it, they're free to find a better paid job for an unskilled worker elsewhere.

There's certainly a lot of path dependency. Freakonomics has done some episodes on this. You can prohibit tipping and increase server wages. That part's easy. But: 1.) Your advertised menu prices are now higher than the competition. 2.) Servers (especially those in demographics who get tipped well and/or working at busy times) are now probably making less money than they would down the street.

I still tip for the reason you mention, but I believe the change either needs to be made voluntarily by restaurants (as some are starting to do) or through legislation.

The west coast of the US has the same minimum wage regardless of tipping, and yet it’s still the norm to tip.

Right, which is why the minimum wage doesn't solve the problem (it may affect other things, but doesn't directly solve any of the issues with tipping). I was referring more to legislation that would limit/discourage restaurants from receiving tips (or at least communicating the expectation of tips).

Vote to remove the ridiculous exception from minim wages in restaurants. It really is an exception to let restaurants count patrons money as wages.

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