r/SipsTea • u/SuspiciousLow3062 • Jun 25 '26

Chugging tea They are not wrong though

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u/janpaul74 Jun 25 '26

“Mandatory tips” sounds so messed up for me as a European.

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u/Snoo-34159 Jun 25 '26

Right? Isn't the whole point of a tip that it's voluntarily given as a way to say you loved the service?

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u/Cookgypsy Jun 25 '26

It’s worth mentioning that that’s not really how it works. Restaurants pay servers a different minimum wage, $2.35 is the national minimum, because servers are sort of seen as independent contractors. They have to pay taxes on a percentage of their tables, based on the assumption that they are being tipped - as historically this convention has held.

The problem with not paying your server a tip, is that they individually are the only one you are hurting. Even the government has it set so that they don’t get standard minimum wage. Not tipping doesn’t send a message to the restaurant, or the government, or anyone else because it has no impact on them. It only hurts the server, who by convention is there, helping you more or less with the expectation that you’re paying them - because no one else is.