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Comment by wirthjason | Hacker News Reader

I consider myself a fairly good tipper — a trait I picked up from my grandfather. However I feel this is tipping culture is nonsense. The calculated amounts at bottom are on the receipt total, including tax —- why am I tipping 20% on that? Then there’s the misc fees. A random X% Covid, inflation, health insurance cost.

It’s not that I don’t mind paying. I look at the total bill and shocked by the the difference from what it was to what was advertised. That puts a real damper on an otherwise good time.

Consequently I vote with my wallet and stopped going out almost altogether. I much prefer cultures where the price advertised is what you pay. I hope the silver lining to excessive tipping results from backlash and the movement to a non-tip society. My wife is from a non-tip society (Japan) and always asks me why some counties can do it and others don’t. It’s incredibly frustrating.

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The way the culture of tipping has changed in the last 25-ish years is really amazing. It used to be that you'd tip 15% of the pre-tax amount, excluding alcohol, for *good service.* Then, it became 20%. Then, you were supposed to tax on the total pre-tax bill. Then on the post-tax bill. Now, 20% is kind of a 'meh' tip and is viewed as some kind of entitlement by the waitstaff industry and everybody and their grandmother is asking for tips.

"Then there’s the misc fees. A random X% Covid, inflation, health insurance cost."

????

As a muted protest to municipal, county or state mandates requiring employers to pay for employees' health insurance, some businesses -- restaurants especially -- have taken to exposing this cost to the customer in the form of an added fee.

I feel like what's wrong with it isn't the exposure of the price breakdown to customers, but the lack of exposure of the final price until the last moment.

So they mark how much employee insurance is costing them, do they also breakdown their profit? Since business like restaurants often price based on a margin doesn't inflation sometimes increase profits?

I also don't understand protesting inflation a global phenomenon (in varying amounts) that is difficult to solve.

A bunch of places in the US have added additional percentage fees in lieu of raising their marked prices (someone in another thread mentioned an “employee wellness fee”, for instance).

Here’s some news about it.

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.

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