Asklemmy

44151 readers

1691 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

322

Visiting the US soon - do I really have to tip? (feddit.de)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

304 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

trouble is that by tipping you are enforcing tipping culture, giving the employers an excuse to underpay. You can't win...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Tipping culture comes from minimum wage laws. Laws need to change before culture could change.

[–] inverimus 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

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.

[–] utopianfiat 2 points 2 years ago

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.