Restaurant owners love it because it hides costs from customers and allows lower pay for workers (it does do both of these things very well).
Workers "prefer" it because they have stockholm syndrome'd themselves into thinking that drawing a smiley face on receipts will get them higher pay (it won't.)
It's absurd too how it starts to creep it's way into businesses where you don't usually expect to give a tip. I got new tires and an alignment today at one of those chain tire shops and they asked for a tip at the end when I went to pay, starting at 15% minimum going up to 25%. Which is just nuts to me, isn't that what the (pretty hefty) labor charge is for? It just baffled me. I declined but by the peeved look on the guys face and the way he turned the screen to me and waited it was pretty obvious he expected something. I don't understand who the people are paying 50-150$ extra on top of the crazy rates mechanics already charge that are normalizing this.
It became a thing during the pandemic. There was a very visible inequity, where the "essential" workers were making minimum wage while literally putting their lives on the line. A lot of people wanted to assuage their guilt about that.
Once that became a thing, yeah, a lot of other places took advantage of it. It wasn't hard to turn on the tipping feature on your payment processor, so they did -- even if the reasoning was much less clear.
And of course it's a ratchet. Nobody turns it off even as the pandemic normalizes.
And of course it's a ratchet. Nobody turns it off even as the pandemic normalizes.
I guess as long as even some small portion of the population always tips when the option is presented- they don't really have an incentive to turn it off. Like rejecting free money when your competitors aren't. I think for any reasonable attempt to stop these kinds of practices it really has to be stigmatized on the cultural level for people to feel some revulsion when asked for a tip in an inappropriate situation. If there was no option on the processor they'd probably just leave out a tip jar or continue to ask for it in an awkward and roundabout way ie hanging around waiting for you to get some cash out after the transaction is complete.
The payment processor itself is also incentivized to default to having a tip, and to having it at higher default rates, since they're allowed to take a percentage cut of all tips too.
It shifts the risk of slow business onto the employees (servers) since the business is able to shift the lack of revenue onto them. One could argue it also shifts the reward when business is booming. However, that's not 100% fair. Because the business is willing over seat tables and sell food even if they don't have enough servers or kitchen staff to keep up. This results in a poor experience which means servers are working hectically and often reduces their tips (as a percentage per table).
There’s no doubt that waiters make more off tips than they would on a salary/hourly wage. Common in my city for waiters to make $40-50/hr. Comparable jobs make around $30.
Comments
Tipping culture is just an unfortunate mess.
Restaurant owners love it because it hides costs from customers and allows lower pay for workers (it does do both of these things very well).
Workers "prefer" it because they have stockholm syndrome'd themselves into thinking that drawing a smiley face on receipts will get them higher pay (it won't.)
It's absurd too how it starts to creep it's way into businesses where you don't usually expect to give a tip. I got new tires and an alignment today at one of those chain tire shops and they asked for a tip at the end when I went to pay, starting at 15% minimum going up to 25%. Which is just nuts to me, isn't that what the (pretty hefty) labor charge is for? It just baffled me. I declined but by the peeved look on the guys face and the way he turned the screen to me and waited it was pretty obvious he expected something. I don't understand who the people are paying 50-150$ extra on top of the crazy rates mechanics already charge that are normalizing this.
It became a thing during the pandemic. There was a very visible inequity, where the "essential" workers were making minimum wage while literally putting their lives on the line. A lot of people wanted to assuage their guilt about that.
Once that became a thing, yeah, a lot of other places took advantage of it. It wasn't hard to turn on the tipping feature on your payment processor, so they did -- even if the reasoning was much less clear.
And of course it's a ratchet. Nobody turns it off even as the pandemic normalizes.
I guess as long as even some small portion of the population always tips when the option is presented- they don't really have an incentive to turn it off. Like rejecting free money when your competitors aren't. I think for any reasonable attempt to stop these kinds of practices it really has to be stigmatized on the cultural level for people to feel some revulsion when asked for a tip in an inappropriate situation. If there was no option on the processor they'd probably just leave out a tip jar or continue to ask for it in an awkward and roundabout way ie hanging around waiting for you to get some cash out after the transaction is complete.
The payment processor itself is also incentivized to default to having a tip, and to having it at higher default rates, since they're allowed to take a percentage cut of all tips too.
It shifts the risk of slow business onto the employees (servers) since the business is able to shift the lack of revenue onto them. One could argue it also shifts the reward when business is booming. However, that's not 100% fair. Because the business is willing over seat tables and sell food even if they don't have enough servers or kitchen staff to keep up. This results in a poor experience which means servers are working hectically and often reduces their tips (as a percentage per table).
There’s no doubt that waiters make more off tips than they would on a salary/hourly wage. Common in my city for waiters to make $40-50/hr. Comparable jobs make around $30.