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Has Gratuity Culture Reached a Tipping Point?
Paying extra for service has inspired rebellions, swivelling iPads, and irritation from Trotsky. Post-pandemic, the practice has entered a new stage.
Before screens, tipping, like a marriage proposal, was a private affair. Tips can reveal hidden values or the rumblings of the subconscious. A waitress’s breast size, for instance, correlates positively with tip size. “Mad Men”-era husbands tipped more when dining with someone else’s wife than with their own. The grief-inflected gratitude of the post-pandemic period introduced new tipping behaviors. Etiquette experts studied the so-called guilt-tip boom. The gratuity, like everything else, has gone contactless—the swivelling of the iPad. In the past three years, according to data from the payroll company Gusto, tips in bakeries and cafés are up forty-one per cent. Apparently, we now tip assistant sports coaches (up three hundred and sixty-seven per cent) and theatre-box-office staff (up a hundred and sixty-one per cent). Do you tip the cashier when all she’s done is ring up your salad? Don’t, and you’re a cheapskate. Do, and you’re a sucker.
When Leon Trotsky was living in the Bronx, eating his meals at a Jewish dairy restaurant, he refused to tip, and encouraged others to do the same. Soon he was having soup spilled on him.
One solution is to ban the tipped minimum wage. A gratuity is supposed to be an expression of gratitude, not a compulsory subsidy.
Has Gratuity Culture Reached a Tipping Point?
Paying extra for service has inspired rebellions, swivelling iPads, and irritation from Trotsky. Post-pandemic, the practice has entered a new stage.
Before screens, tipping, like a marriage proposal, was a private affair. Tips can reveal hidden values or the rumblings of the subconscious. A waitress’s breast size, for instance, correlates positively with tip size. “Mad Men”-era husbands tipped more when dining with someone else’s wife than with their own. The grief-inflected gratitude of the post-pandemic period introduced new tipping behaviors. Etiquette experts studied the so-called guilt-tip boom. The gratuity, like everything else, has gone contactless—the swivelling of the iPad. In the past three years, according to data from the payroll company Gusto, tips in bakeries and cafés are up forty-one per cent. Apparently, we now tip assistant sports coaches (up three hundred and sixty-seven per cent) and theatre-box-office staff (up a hundred and sixty-one per cent). Do you tip the cashier when all she’s done is ring up your salad? Don’t, and you’re a cheapskate. Do, and you’re a sucker.
When Leon Trotsky was living in the Bronx, eating his meals at a Jewish dairy restaurant, he refused to tip, and encouraged others to do the same. Soon he was having soup spilled on him. One solution is to ban the tipped minimum wage. A gratuity is supposed to be an expression of gratitude, not a compulsory subsidy.
While I agree, and complain as they do about wages, I'd wager that most tipped restaurant minimum wage employees actually don't want this to happen. Why? Most of them are making out better than what the standard minimum wage as a general matter. Worst case, they are getting the prevailing minimum wage as their bosses have to ensure that under the law. Simply put, there's little upside to doing away with the tipped minimum wage for most who are under this system.
While I agree, and complain as they do about wages, I'd wager that most tipped restaurant minimum wage employees actually don't want this to happen. Why? Most of them are making out better than what the standard minimum wage as a general matter. Worst case, they are getting the prevailing minimum wage as their bosses have to ensure that under the law. Simply put, there's little upside to doing away with the tipped minimum wage for most who are under this system.
You may be right, but it seems to me there is such a broad range, from a teen in a small-town upstate diner to an elegant jacketed waiter serving haute cuisine in midtown, that I have no real idea.
I am no cheapskate and am a good tipper. I feel these people deserve to make a decent living because they work hard. My daughter used to break her back as a waitress at a diner and the old people and teens were always stingy tippers. Elderly people would leave loose change for a tip and teens would leave her nothing or just a buck or two on some of her luckier days. The way I feel is if you cannot afford to at least leave a 20% tip you should not go out to eat and stay home. I always give between 20%-25% in tips. My mother brought me up to be kind to those who served us.
Cheap people who don't like to leave a decent tip **** me off. My 79 year old dad and step mom took me and my two daughters out to a restaurant and for 5 people he left only a $5 tip. He said a buck for each of us was more than generous. WTF?! I was mortified because the poor waiter worked his butt off to juggle all those plates running back and forth to bring whatever my dad and his wife kept demanding. This included my step mom sending her food back twice because it "wasn't piping hot" enough too her liking.
When he went to the restroom and was walking out after we ate, I ran back and threw down another $20 on the table. He went back to the table to get something he forgot and saw my $20 on top of his $5 and took it away and said "The waiter needs to go back to college to get a better job and $5 is enough for his skill set". I was pissed and found the waiter when my dad wasn't looking and handed him the extra $20. Cheapskates suck.
With the increase of inflation I haven't been to a sit down restaurant within the past year. What set me off was a small side order of fries at my local diner was $12! A bare bones breakfast for two was $48 not including tip. All I had was a bagel with bacon and eggs on it with a small side of hash browns and my friend ordered a small plate of pancakes, 2 eggs and toast. All she drank was a small orange juice and I had a coke. I can more than afford to eat out, but I do not feel like paying $26 for a lousy hamburger deluxe at a local greasy spoon diner. The heck with that. I can make my own breakfast, lunch and dinner for now on.
I also barely get fast food anymore which is actually much more healthier anyway. I only eat it like once or twice a year now because it got so expensive. I recently caved in and took my adult daughter to Mickey D's the other day and 6 regular hamburgers and two large fries cost $27.60 without drinks! The McDonald fries were $5 each! WTF? Biden Inflation sucks.
I am no cheapskate and am a good tipper. I feel these people deserve to make a decent living because they work hard. My daughter used to break her back as a waitress at a diner and the old people and teens were always stingy tippers. Elderly people would leave loose change for a tip and teens would leave her nothing or just a buck or two on some of her luckier days. The way I feel is if you cannot afford to at least leave a 20% tip you should not go out to eat and stay home. I always give between 20%-25% in tips. My mother brought me up to be kind to those who served us.
Cheap people who don't like to leave a decent tip **** me off. My 79 year old dad and step mom took me and my two daughters out to a restaurant and for 5 people he left only a $5 tip. He said a buck for each of us was more than generous. WTF?! I was mortified because the poor waiter worked his butt off to juggle all those plates running back and forth to bring whatever my dad and his wife kept demanding. This included my step mom sending her food back twice because it "wasn't piping hot" enough too her liking.
When he went to the restroom and was walking out after we ate, I ran back and threw down another $20 on the table. He went back to the table to get something he forgot and saw my $20 on top of his $5 and took it away and said "The waiter needs to go back to college to get a better job and $5 is enough for his skill set". I was pissed and found the waiter when my dad wasn't looking and handed him the extra $20. Cheapskates suck.
With the increase of inflation I haven't been to a sit down restaurant within the past year. What set me off was a small side order of fries at my local diner was $12! A bare bones breakfast for two was $48 not including tip. All I had was a bagel with bacon and eggs on it with a small side of hash browns and my friend ordered a small plate of pancakes, 2 eggs and toast. All she drank was a small orange juice and I had a coke. I can more than afford to eat out, but I do not feel like paying $26 for a lousy hamburger deluxe at a local greasy spoon diner. The heck with that. I can make my own breakfast, lunch and dinner for now on.
I also barely get fast food anymore which is actually much more healthier anyway. I only eat it like once or twice a year now because it got so expensive. I recently caved in and took my adult daughter to Mickey D's the other day and 6 regular hamburgers and two large fries cost $27.60 without drinks! The McDonald fries were $5 each! WTF? Biden Inflation sucks.
tl;dr-
You hate cheapskates but you are becoming a cheapskate.
I see waiters as tipped employees who ultimately shouldn't be paid by restaurants at all. They are subcontrators working essentially on commission. If they remain in that category I'm glad to contribute 20-25% on a good check.
If they also want standard minium wage ($15+) ontop of that, the role of tipping should be revisited.
I'm more annoyed at the prevalence of pre configured percentages, in some places the options start at 30% and go up from there and all the person did was ring up the order and go back to playing on their phone.
I am no cheapskate and am a good tipper. I feel these people deserve to make a decent living because they work hard. My daughter used to break her back as a waitress at a diner and the old people and teens were always stingy tippers. Elderly people would leave loose change for a tip and teens would leave her nothing or just a buck or two on some of her luckier days. The way I feel is if you cannot afford to at least leave a 20% tip you should not go out to eat and stay home. I always give between 20%-25% in tips. My mother brought me up to be kind to those who served us.
Cheap people who don't like to leave a decent tip **** me off. My 79 year old dad and step mom took me and my two daughters out to a restaurant and for 5 people he left only a $5 tip. He said a buck for each of us was more than generous. WTF?! I was mortified because the poor waiter worked his butt off to juggle all those plates running back and forth to bring whatever my dad and his wife kept demanding. This included my step mom sending her food back twice because it "wasn't piping hot" enough too her liking.
I think we'd all agree that everyone deserves to make a decent living, but I think that each person has to choose the path to that. It was a bad bargain for serving people to be exempt from minimum wage, but they all know that going in, and have the option of progressing to a better-quality restaurant or getting training or schooling from someone else.
Most people tip by percentage, not that flat $5 of your father, and it was always pointed out to me that tips rise as inflation rises, by percentage.
I'm proud of myself. I ordered pick up on an app. They had tip amount included, as high as 22% and low 15%. I changed it to no tip. I'm sick of paying tips for picking up essentially fast food.
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