Hey Folks!
I’ve been living abroad for over half my life in a country where tipping is not the norm. At most you would round up. 19€ bill? Here’s a 20, keep this change.
Going to the US soon to visit family and the whole idea of tipping makes me nervous. It seems there’s a lot of discussion about getting rid of tipping, but I don’t know how much has changed in this regard.
The system seems ridiculously unfair, and that extra expense in a country where everything is already so expensive really makes a difference.
So will AITA if I don’t tip? Is it really my personal responsibility to make sure my server is paid enough?
Yes, you do have to tip. Maybe not if it’s Chipotle or a place like that. But if someone is waiting your table you have to tip. Yes tipping culture is stupid. No, nothing has changed in the US. They do not have a living without tips, so refusing to tip cuts into their living expenses after they have courteously served you your food. It’s rude
trouble is that by tipping you are enforcing tipping culture, giving the employers an excuse to underpay. You can’t win…
Tipping culture comes from minimum wage laws. Laws need to change before culture could change.
Technically, if an employee’s tips plus hourly wage do not meet the minimum hourly wage the employer is required to make up the difference. The problem is the minimum wage is so low in most places that protesting the culture by not tipping would still make it impossible for the worker to live.
Yeah, but you can change that by going to the rare places that have a no tipping policy. Don’t just refuse to tip servers knowing that that’s the only way they get paid.
Refusing to tip wouldn’t change this because the dark secret is that employers wouldn’t pay living wages even if they wanted to. Unilaterally raising your costs without an associated raise in profit is a big no-no unless you own the restaurant’s property. Commercial landlords have a lot of say in how your business is run because they often have revenue sharing agreements.