Why Businesses Can’t Stop Asking for Tips

You could say "what about mandatory tipping on tables of 6 or more?" But in every case I've ever seen, it says so on the menu. That is, you're told what the deal is before you order. Whereas in this case, it sounds like the price was changed after you ordered, when you tried to pay.

Doesn't literally every POS machine violate this? I've never seen the screen ask whom my tip should go to.

Given that this is an IRS rule, it’s probably only illegal if the business reports the income as tip income to its employees, as opposed to a service fee charged by the business.

I suppose I could have, but I was buying food for my daughter, who was with me and was hungry.

It wasn't that much money overall, but the minimum tip amount was a pretty large percentage of the total cost. Five years ago it would have just been bundled into the cost of the item.

I don't think OP is advocating for not tipping at places where you're getting table service. Agree or not that's the standard arrangement and it's a total dick move to refuse to tip in that situation.

What everyone's complaining about is situations where you order at a counter and are offered an option to tip on the payment system. These usually default to having a tip selected, which means you have to change it to "0%" to avoid tipping for counter service.

Seriously though, please don't come to the US and stiff waiters at sit down restaurants of their tip. It's a bad system but that's the system and it's wildly unfair to the table waiter when someone decides they're not tipping due to some sense of principled resistance to the practice.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/1/25/23570024/restaurants-...

An additional 3% fee (for whatever) is common. You can ask to have to taken off, but then I feel like an asshole. I get that things might cost more — rent, raw materials, staff, etc. The business should build that into the price upfront. It feels like a dirty trick to disclose it at the end and puts me, the customer, in an awkward spot that makes me feel bad.

I could see more of a case for tipping at non-self-checkout. At least there, the employee is doing the work. But even there, why has it changed? What's different from what they were doing 10 years ago?

I could also see tipping checkout people during Covid (though I didn't think of it at the time). They were putting their health, and maybe their lives, on the line so that I could continue to eat. That was way above and beyond the job they thought they were signing up for. Tipping then would have been a kind of hazard pay.

Any time Europe does something it doesn't like I always read how it's an "imported" trend (usually from America). Europeans just can't ever accept they are responsible for their own behavior. They're just helpless and twisting in the wind at America's mercy when it comes to these things.

Of course, when it comes to things they're proud of then they're a strong independent people that don't need no America.

A restaurant or a pub, yes, a taxi, yes, a bellhop or another hotel employee, maybe (there, the tip might serve as a borderline bribe for being discreet, e.g. if a married man books a room with an unmarried lady for one night). Literature older than 100 years mentions tipping in similar contexts.

OTOH tipping would look very strange, say, at the post office. Just not done. Perhaps leaving some very small change on the tray, but that's it. Same with most retail shops.

India also has massive degrees of unemployment and poverty, and probably the largest population of beggars. It still doesn't dignify tipping and begging, let alone put the onus of disgrace on customers who don't tip.