With those tipping screens now seemingly everywhere, Americans think that the practice has “gotten out of control,” according to a new survey.
At least 63 percent of US residents now having a negative view of tipping, up from 59 percent last year, according to Bankrate, a financial publisher and comparison service.
Yet, the number of Americans who have gotten used to tipping has gone up since the COVID-19 pandemic, when it slipped. There have not been significant declines in tips for service providers, the survey noted, particularly for hairdressers and restaurant servers.
So fucking tired of tipping. I’ve read recommendations of 30% these days. That is absolutely insane. The prices for everything has increased substantially already, and we are expected to tip proportionally to it? Not to mention, the tip screens on POS systems are showing up at regular businesses now. So fucking annoying.
Bloody hell! Anyone saying that is trying to take advantage of people.
In the example you give, the business owner increases prices in line with inflation but hey! the workers need a pay increase too, and I’m not paying them more, so the customer should tip more… so the recommended tip amount increases from 10-15% to 20-30%. But this is not in line with inflation, this is an exponential increase.
A lot of people won’t recognize this as people don’t generally understand exponentials that easily.
To clarify, the tip percent shouldn’t need to change since it’s a percentage of the final bill. So, it automatically accounts for inflation already.
If the average bill goes up 10% and customers always tip the same % then the workers would see a 10% increase in tips.
People just need to stop doing it. In my city in France, one restaurant started using the POS with the tip screen and people just choose to not tip and they completely disabled the screen after a few weeks. But still some business do push for it.
Then stop.
Fair point! I guess it’s just so ingrained that I feel like a jerk if I don’t.
ETA: I don’t tip at businesses just because they have a tip screen on their new POS system. I only tip at restaurants.
The employers are the real problem. But without an organized movement, random people deciding not to tip anymore is only going to hurt already underpaid workers and kind of does make you a jerk. Some servers literally don’t get a paycheck at the end of the week if they didn’t get tipped enough because they’re paid so little that it’s all absorbed by social security and medicare taxes. If you feel you can’t afford to tip, just pick up food to go rather than being waited on.
But 100% do not tip at random business that have decided to use a tip screen. Not sure how many people know this, but the companies that make those machines actually get a cut of the tips which is partly why they push tipping so aggressively. These days I just pay with cash everywhere to avoid the issue altogether. Better for my privacy too, and local businesses often offer cash discounts.
Everywhere I’ve lived, employers are legally required to make up the difference if tipped employees made under the min wage (and no, I don’t mean the sub-min or “tipped” wage). If they’re not doing that, we’re back to employers/the culture are the problem.
The real jerks are the employers.
They, as usual, have conditioned workers to work against themselves.
Business owners always get a pass because they’re insulated from the actual work.