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?
I’d say yes. The situation is complex.
It’s clear that tipping culture is out of control. There are many places asking for 20% tips even when ordering from a counter where the interaction takes about 10 seconds.
Unfortunately there has also been a systematic underpayment of wages which has occurred largely on the back of tips. In some states it is even legal to pay less than minimum wage and supplement that with tips. For that reason, it’s not really an option to simply not tip without being the bad guy.
Certainly the system needs to change, but as of this moment in the US, just assume everything actually costs 20% more and tip.
My man you have got to shake this from your psyche, that’s exactly how the employers that aren’t paying their employees want you to feel. You’re offloading their greed and systematic exploitation of working class people onto yourself under the misplaced guise of personal guilt. There may not a way to immediately fix the problem, but I can guarantee it will never get fixed if we dont change anything.
What are you suggesting is changed though?
He’s suggesting “fuck the worker, it isn’t my problem if they can’t pay rent, they should learn to code.” And somehow that will make the business owner pay them a fair wage and not replace them with a machine or a 16yo kid.
In some cases we’re talking about people making $2.13 an hour in a country where you’re easily paying $1,000 a month or even more for a studio apartment. I’d say if you don’t tip you’re the bad guy.
This type of change isn’t going to come from people just deciding that waitstaff should starve and refusing to tip. If anything it will come from unionization of waitstaff or from legislation.
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It’s actually not necessarily the employer’s fault- if they don’t own the restaurant (and most don’t) the commercial landlord can force them to hire at tipped wage because they likely have a revenue sharing agreement.
And by “everything”, you mean “not actually everything, but you’d need a 400 page manual to describe what gets tipped and what doesn’t”.
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