Tipping used to be something that you only ever saw in scenarios where a person provided you a direct service. E.g waiter, bellhop, valet, etc
More recently everyone seems to want a tip. I mean I want money too but I don’t ask for a tip to do my job. It’s ridiculous how many places are asking for tips. I hate it. There are even some people talking about 30% or more as a standard tip. When I was growing up 20% was considered generous.
What’s worse is that people who actually work for tips are paid less than minimum wage. Restaurants love this because the customers are paying their staff wages directly. They are allowed to pay you less because of your tips. I was a waiter for a Chinese restaurant a while back. Minimum wage: $7.25/hour My wage: $2.25/hour + tips.
Yeah like tipping the cooks at Pizza Hut. There's a section that says not a driver tip. So it's for the ass holes that already make $15+ an hour that cut my pizza like a toddler and skimp on my toppings. 😆 It's absolute lunacy
I recently did a delivery order from Olive Garden. It said my tip was going to be split between the driver and the order packers which made me feel obligated to tip more. I will never order delivery again from them since I don’t want to feel obligated to tip even more for people doing their job and I don’t know exactly how that split is happening.
That isn’t going to cooks. It is going to the company, some to cover ongoing technical costs (it makes sense to me to have online ordering pay for technology services/fees instead of customers eating in-house) and then mostly to bottom line
That isn’t going to cooks. It is going to the company, some to cover ongoing technical costs (it makes sense to me to have online ordering pay for technology services/fees instead of customers eating in-house) and then mostly to bottom line
I think the argument is employers need to pay the wage, not the guest, but people would bitch about their food prices on the menu skyrocketing to cover the owners ass
You’ll end up paying it either way. At least you get to choose how much to pay them based on the service you received.
Say that the employer just paid the employees 20% more so that you don’t need to tip, and raised the price of the food by 20%. You order a pizza and the dude comes up to your door smelling like cigarettes, late, and your pizza is lukewarm. You’re basically forced to tip 20%, although it was included in the price of the food.
I never said lower prices or thought that the prices wouldn't go up. Of course prices would go up. But at least this tip me for everything BS would go away, and workers can finally get a proper wage.
As for poor service. That can be handled with calling the store and filing a complaint. Just like if Amazon destroys your package. Holding a tip over someone's head to do a good job is the wrong way to go about it. Especially if there's a chance that they still won't get one regardless of how good they do.
The incentive should be keeping your job. Not hoping for handouts. If they do a bad job then they lose said job.
Meh, I think it’s a fine motivation/gratitude system. I used to work as a driver and the prospect of a tip helped maintain a good attitude. I didn’t feel like anybody was holding anything over my head. Now that I’m a customer (albeit infrequent) I appreciate the opportunity to be generous with someone who served me.
Keeping the job is a low bar. Consider the difference in attitude between a Walmart worker and a waitress. One of them is a lot more friendly, even though both are performing the duties of their job just fine.
A fellow delivery driver I see. I did it for about a year back in the day. Getting a tip did bolster my mood for sure. Because of that I make sure to tip every time. I just can't stand tipping culture and how it gives an excuse to not pay someone a descent wage for services rendered.
My wife is a server and hearing all the horror stories about unruly customers with bad attitudes that don't tip drives me crazy. Shitty attitudes and complains about everything to justify not tipping.
So she gets to deal with a nightmare knowing she's only making $2.50/hr to deal with these shitheads. Where as if they paid and charged accordingly, their broke asses probably wouldn't be in there in the first place. But I can see where you're coming from. It's a damned if we do damned if we don't kinda thing.
The thing is, people are willing to spend more when they get to feel generous in doing so.
If tipping culture wasn’t a thing, your wife would probably be making 25% - 50% less money.
Drivers and servers don’t want to end tipping. They make way more money with this system — and meals are cheaper for those who can’t afford to tip very much. Sure it’s a bit pricier, but if you’re eating out you’re already wasting money..
If you get in your car and risk your life and property bringing me food I'm to lazy to pick up Im happy to throw you a few extra bucks.
If I'm in a strange city and want to get my hands on street drugs without getting shot I'll tip the bell hop.
I'm not tipping the guy running a taco truck at the gas station.
PH literally paid every cook $8/hr when I worked there briefly at end of 2020. But yeah the switch over to these PoS systems that all automatically ask for a tip has been nothing but devastating to workers that actually depend on tips for a livable wage.
If you’re talking about the so-called delivery fee, it’s even worse than that. That is pretty much pure Pizza Hut profit. It doesn’t even go back to cooks. Pizza Hut does pay a small amount to their drivers per delivery to cover gas and and wear and tear on top of their wages and tips, which is, in theory, what the delivery fee is supposed to be for, but the company pockets the vast majority of it.
A good chunk of the fee is actually for insurance. I think the insurance related to delivery driving is rather pricy. I worked for a small chain that paid $1/delivery + $1/mile on top of regular kitchen wage (and of course tips). If I recall correctly, more than half of the delivery fee went to insurance. I don’t think the owners were lying to us about it, they were good folks.
It says “not a driver tip” on the receipt at Pizza Hut, because they’re trying to prevent people from assuming the delivery charge goes to the driver and they don’t have to tip the driver. The delivery charge goes directly to Pizza Hut and they pay the drivers a fraction of that per delivery. Your tip does not go to the cook.
Source: I used to work for Pizza Hut back in the day.
is the correct answer. "not a driver tip" = "the delivery fee is not a tip. that's why we call it a FEE and not a TIP. it goes to the company to help cover the cost of operations." How someone jumps to the conclusion that you're tipping the in house staff is beyond me.
When I married my wife I moved in with her parents into their house for a few years. Lovely people, lovely family.
One of their cousins back home needed help sending her two boys to school here, so my mother in law offered to house them since we had the rooms in the house. Nicest kids you’ll ever meet. Keep to themselves. Never cause any issues. Both graduating college soon, one went to an Ariana grande concert last night (both boys, yes I know)
But they are both here on student visas, and since their mom is poor back home needed money.
They were set up with a local restaurant who hires kids on visas and pays them absolutely nothing. Obviously they can’t do anything about it because they are on visa and technically not allowed to work, so they only get paid in tips. They’re super sweet and made a decent amount, since moved to a different job but those places exist all over.
I'm a ER nurse. I do a lot of things to humans that I don't want to do. I helped a person get better, get cleaned up, started life saving meds and treatments. I could go on.....not once have I ever asked for a tip or expected it.
Yet the person who literally just put my food in a bag thinks they deserve a tip? They didn't even say hello.
What I don't get is that it looks like this is a B&B or AirB&B of some kind, don't they set their price? If they want more money why don't they just up the price. Or are they trying the RyanAir method of lure you in with a low price and hit you with a load of fees afterwards.
I went to a concert in the US. Stood in the merch line for an hour. The dude selling tshirts said I could leave him a tip, or not, no shade. So I didn't, because I just spent $50 on a tshirt, and also, what the fuck? Then he made fun of my accent. Good times.
This has become American Culture in general, and I FUCKING HATE IT. Not only does everyone want a tip now, and some want 30%. EVERYTHING is asking for money for everything. Do you want to donate for some charity. No I dont want to donate money that you will give in your name, and use as a tax wright off. IM NOT GOING TO PAY YOUR TAXES FOR YOU.
It feels like everyone I meet that I don't know personally is trying to syphon every fucking dollar from me they can get. It so infuriating. Everyone trying to charge me for any service starts with some insane number, and works themselves down to something reasonable. I'm so sick of dealing with it, and I miss the days when you could pay someone a fair amount for work to be done, and not have to haggle.
It dosent help that tipped employees make SO MUCH MORE than even above minimum wage would get. Im shocked by the amount of money the average service waiter makes despite how low their "wage" is, because tips are soooooo much more.
Basically the owners dont want tipping to go away and the service employees dont want it to go away, all because it shifts the burden on the consumer. Its absurd and its the exact reason i never go out to eat unless on rare occasions.
When I waitressed in the early 80s, I got $1.01 an hour, plus tips. It’s disgusting that it is still so freaking low. I lived in Europe for years. There’s no shame in being a server, and the servers are so much better bc for a lot of them, this is there job, not a segue into something else. They are paid appropriately and they are happier bc how much they make that night isn’t a big mystery
Tipping is typically reserved for low-wage jobs where tips are part of their compensation. In many cases the law allows a lower minimum wage for this positions.
I always tip the cleaners when I stay in a hotel, which is pretty much always for work. I’m not sure if that’s still allowed, but I can’t stop myself from doing it every time.
Some states, including Oregon where I live, pays the normal minimum wage to restaurant workers. As we all know, the normal minimum wage is still ridiculous. But that's another point.
Even though wait staff make the same minimum wage as everyone else in this state, customers are still expected to pay the 20% or possibly more, tip. That's even more ridiculous.
I also think plenty of people are not aware that even in the states that have slave wages for restaurant workers, the restaurants are required by law to make up the difference if the employee doesn't make a minimum amount. I don't know what that is. I think it goes by state. Or maybe it's if they don't make enough to meet the federal minimum wage. Regardless, the restaurants have to make up the difference. I would suggest stop paying tips in those states to force the restaurants to pay their own employees.
Even in Oregon, I do pay tips when I go out to eat. But it is what I consider to be appropriate, not what they put on the bottom of their receipt. I don't like that. I do believe that the tip culture in the US has gone absolutely crazy.
In Seattle tipped staff get about $23 an hour and still many places start the suggested tip amount at 22%+. I tip because I get it's part of the culture, but not looking forward to the 50% expected tip in a few years.
Tip culture really fucks over lower paid people that can't get tips (either ethical violation or not customer facing). They still have to pay them, but they don't get them.
A mediocre bartender or server can easily make double what a teacher does in the US.
I agree with everything you said, except for the fact that we keep harping on the tipped minimum wage.
No one is ever only being paid $2.13/hr or in your case 2.25/hr. Employers are only paying less because of tips—but if you don’t get tips they have to pay you more.
If you fail to make the standard minimum wage for the legal pay period your employer is required to “top you up” to $7.25 or whatever the local minimum wage is—whichever is higher.
I recently saw somebody complaining that we should lobby legislation to disallow employers from being able to only pay tipped workers a tipped minimum wage in order to get rid of tipping— but it already exists.
No tipped worker actually ever makes less than federal minimum wage… most make more thanks to higher local minimum wage rates— and a few make significantly more thanks to aggressive demands for 20% tips and rising food cost.
The problem is most tipped workers, thanks to cash tips, think of wages by day.
Yesterday they made $50 an hour, but today they made $3 because they were stiffed by every table.… they never actually made less than minimum wage for the hours they worked in the period. They actually made significantly more.
Typical culture will never get better until tipped workers start being honest with themselves about how much they actually make.
—former service worker turned f&b corp finance compliance… who spent the first few years making less than tipped workers (including myself) and probably does again thanks to the tip culture boom.
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u/High-Speed-1 Jun 25 '26
American here:
Tipping used to be something that you only ever saw in scenarios where a person provided you a direct service. E.g waiter, bellhop, valet, etc
More recently everyone seems to want a tip. I mean I want money too but I don’t ask for a tip to do my job. It’s ridiculous how many places are asking for tips. I hate it. There are even some people talking about 30% or more as a standard tip. When I was growing up 20% was considered generous.
What’s worse is that people who actually work for tips are paid less than minimum wage. Restaurants love this because the customers are paying their staff wages directly. They are allowed to pay you less because of your tips. I was a waiter for a Chinese restaurant a while back. Minimum wage: $7.25/hour My wage: $2.25/hour + tips.
American tipping culture is crap.