The problem with tipping culture is that it works.
I read an article the other day about airlines moving toward cheaper air fares, but charging more and more fees for basic things that should be part of the air fare. That trend is accelerating because customers reward it, period.
People only look at the base price of things, and shop around the best base price. Mentally, humans are mostly awful at factoring in extras and comparing one place’s apples to another place’s oranges. The company with the lower base price wins, and shifting prices over toward fees and extras doesn’t seem to hurt them as much as just including those costs in the base price does.
Same story with tipping. If a Moe’s burrito costs $10 but you’re asked to leave a $2 tip, while a Joe’s burrito simply costs $12, then I’m pretty sure the average consumer is only going to look at that $10 vs. $12 comparison and favor Moe’s. It’s dumb. It’s awful. We all say on social media and chat forums that we don’t think that way. But most of us kinda sorta DO, unfortunately.
The result is that generous people end up accommodating the increased tip culture, while less generous people just stop tipping altogether. So instead of employer paying their workers fairly, and spreading the costs among their customers fairly… we get an awful system where the employers still make the same profit, but the workers and customers are negatively impacted. For the employees, the dignity of honest work erodes, as they shift toward being part worker and part panhandler. For the customers, generosity is punished and a selfish mindset is rewarded. It’s an extremely toxic cultural trend, all around.
I don’t know what the solutions are. I fear that there really IS no solution other than changes to law and regulation, but our culture is too fragmented and government too broken for that.
Well said. Such huge culture shifts are hard because of the pain involved in the transition. On the Other side we have employees being paid fairly and predictably and customers not being punished for their generosity. But the in-between will be employees being paid less but not earning via tips which just keeps the status quo.
It’s the excessive individualism that marks our (i.e. USA) culture. This problem is getting worse over time because every single party involved sees it as someone else’s problem, and is just optimizing for their own interests only.
The problem with tipping culture is that it works.
I read an article the other day about airlines moving toward cheaper air fares, but charging more and more fees for basic things that should be part of the air fare. That trend is accelerating because customers reward it, period.
People only look at the base price of things, and shop around the best base price. Mentally, humans are mostly awful at factoring in extras and comparing one place’s apples to another place’s oranges. The company with the lower base price wins, and shifting prices over toward fees and extras doesn’t seem to hurt them as much as just including those costs in the base price does.
Same story with tipping. If a Moe’s burrito costs $10 but you’re asked to leave a $2 tip, while a Joe’s burrito simply costs $12, then I’m pretty sure the average consumer is only going to look at that $10 vs. $12 comparison and favor Moe’s. It’s dumb. It’s awful. We all say on social media and chat forums that we don’t think that way. But most of us kinda sorta DO, unfortunately.
The result is that generous people end up accommodating the increased tip culture, while less generous people just stop tipping altogether. So instead of employer paying their workers fairly, and spreading the costs among their customers fairly… we get an awful system where the employers still make the same profit, but the workers and customers are negatively impacted. For the employees, the dignity of honest work erodes, as they shift toward being part worker and part panhandler. For the customers, generosity is punished and a selfish mindset is rewarded. It’s an extremely toxic cultural trend, all around.
I don’t know what the solutions are. I fear that there really IS no solution other than changes to law and regulation, but our culture is too fragmented and government too broken for that.
Well said. Such huge culture shifts are hard because of the pain involved in the transition. On the Other side we have employees being paid fairly and predictably and customers not being punished for their generosity. But the in-between will be employees being paid less but not earning via tips which just keeps the status quo.
It’s the excessive individualism that marks our (i.e. USA) culture. This problem is getting worse over time because every single party involved sees it as someone else’s problem, and is just optimizing for their own interests only.
My opinion is that hidden and misleading fees have to be made illegal.
We are seeing it more and more in every part of our life (Mobile operators, banking, restaurants, any kind of contract, airbnb&similar…)
Shown price have to be what we pay for, it is not that complicated.