As DrDeth suggests, these cites are less than convincing, but regardless of how it originated, the practice of tipping in the present day, by and large, is not a classist practice. A consumer has every right to to adjust their tip based on the level of service, and it doesn’t (usually) have anything to do about feelings of superiority, it has to do with whether they are pleased with how they are treated.
Having lived in Asia for decades now, I really like having the restaurant pay the servers and building that cost into the prices.
You don’t like the wikipedia generic. Ok.
Or
Read More: The Dark History Of Tipping In America
It’s true most people don’t think tipping is classist these days. American culture shifted mentality about tipping in the 20th century. Businesses like shifting the part of the expense for workers onto the customers after the negotiated price.
Consider that when the first minimum wage law was written, waiters were left out because of tip culture. And although there have been modifications since to force a minimum wage baseline for these workers, there still is a loophole driven by the same premise of shifting the cost of the workers from the business to the customer after the negotiated price.
Arguments that tipping helps the customer ensure good service are shown to be untrue.
One class of customers are aware of how little servers make and that tips are baked in to their expected pay. Thus many people tip 18% or 20% (the current “average” or nominal tip) regardless of service. Other people don’t like being strong-armed, so don’t tip or don’t tip much.
But research shows how much costumers tip is based more on other factors like sex or age or hairstyle of the server. A pretty young woman makes more in tips than an older, dumpy woman or a man. Cleavage gets more cash.
Now what jobs get tipped? Restaurant and bar servers, hotel and airport porters, taxi drivers, hair stylists, yard workers, newspaper delivers, and massage therapists.
Who isn’t tipped? Nurses, physical therapists, dental hygienists, auto mechanics. Why not? They are doing personal service, too. Their pay is part of the negotiated or pre-stated bill. Their quality of service is expected. Their employers hold them accountable.
We don’t tip our doctor, lawyer, dentist, or pilot. Don’t you want to ensure they will do a good job? Education, professional, blah blah blah. How about class?
We don’t tip grocery store checkers. Admittedly that’s a shrinking profession as stores have found a more effective way to shift the expense onto the customer - self-checkout.
Tipping is an unfair system. It’s unfair to expect customers to pay more than the listed price. It’s unfair to expect workers to rely on clueless customers to ensure they get fair pay. It’s unfair to tell business owners to ensure their employees get minimum wage when the majority of that pay can be a cash transaction that the employer never sees. It’s unfair for employees to bust their ass and still make less than the person next to them that slacks off because she is a pretty teenager. It’s unfair to a waiter to start serving a table and their shift end before the bill is paid. Sure, if the tip is added to a card it can be traced to the right person, but some people prefer to tip in cash.
Yep, those sort of writers. They dont like tipping, so they made up a bogus link to tipping.
I think you’re maybe being too sweeping in your skepticism here. There seems to be little doubt that, for instance, at the start of the 20th century when the US public controversy (and legislative regulatory attempts) about tipping reached a peak, the perception of tipping was very heavily racialized, although its practice in commercial establishments in the northern US originated in imitation of European customs.
The journalist John Speed wrote in Lippincott’s Magazine in 1902:
It’s a fact that in much of the post-Civil War US, especially in the agricultural South, there was strong economic and political pressure to restrict Black employment opportunities and keep Black workers’ wages low. The prevailing Southern economic model didn’t flip from slave labor to a free labor market overnight, or even over the course of decades; legislation restricting Black workers’ autonomy helped artificially depress their wages. And employment where they were dependent for much of their compensation on individual tips helped keep their workforce docile and deferential.
So there seem to have been two significant trends in the entrenchment of tipping customs in the early 20th-c. US, possibly with regional spheres of influence. One was the postbellum and especially post-Reconstruction efforts by the white majority in the South to keep Black Americans as a low-paid and tractable workforce primarily in agriculture and service jobs; and the other was the spread of European social and commercial customs, strengthened by the influx of European immigrant workers especially in Northern cities.
Read your cite. It started in Europe, where there was little history of slavery in those nations. There was tipping in colonial America.
Read my post. I acknowledged that tipping became more widespread in the US in imitation of European customs. But it’s also valid to say that the American exploitation of Black workers post-Civil War, partly through irregular gratuity-based compensation in more menial and precarious jobs, played a not insignificant role in bolstering the tip system.
They had serfs and indentured servants. And slaves. Europe didn’t import a lot of slaves from Africa, they preferred white slaves.
I don’t like it either, but if the justification for tipping is to compensate for sub-minimum wages, then counter service is just as deserving of a tip as table service.
Restaurants should stop pretending that tips are for good service
By the way, the last time I was prompted for a tip on the credit card machine, the options were 25, 30, and 35 percent
Except that counter service is generally not paid the sub-minimum direct wage. I’m not going to say that there is no shady employer that does it, but that sub-minimum requires that the person regularly receives tips and that they receive enough tips to bring them up to the ordinary minimum wage. So maybe the person who handles your takeout order in Applebee’s might get that sub-minimum , but the person behind the counter at Subway or the person at a beer stand at a baseball stadium who hands people cans of beer shouldn’t.
See, I don’t agree with that. The customer’s right to decide anything begins and ends with their decision whether or not to return to the establishment on a later date. The moment you step into a place and make your order, you agreed on a price, and that’s the price you pay.
Myself, I always tip according to the custom of the land, never more, never less, no matter how good or how bad the service was. If I didn’t enjoy my experience, that’s my problem. I still got food, so I’ll still pay.
To an extent. If the food/service is awful, you can complain to the manager and ask that a menu item be comped- once we got the whole bill and a free desert comped. But that was the managers choice. Of course the customer controls the tip.
Not to long ago, my buddy and i ate at one of my favorite restaurants - but there was no blue cheese dressing for the salad, his food was subpar, and the usual free breadsticks were now charged for. I complained on their page on Facebook, they IMed me, and they agreed, and send me a gift card that more than covered our meals. Again- my option to complain, their option to make me happy.
Then, THAT is the problem that should be solved. I will say, though, that I find tipping is more palatable when a fixed percentage is added to the bill because then EVERYONE is being taxed equally for tip service.
I generally agree with that, but the tip is outside of that. I pay the price listed on the menu for the food, and there are options to deal with that as noted by DrDeth. The tip is the price I pay for the service of bringing the food, and you can adjust that based on how pleased you are with the service. I don’t adjust my tip based on how good or bad the food is, since that is outside the control of the server. I base it solely on how good the service is.
But it is under the control of the restaurant owner, who hired the chef, so why don’t you do that too?
In other words, why do you have the right to control the quality of the service, but not the right to control the quality of the food? Or the quality of the decor?
Because the price I actually agreed to pay is the one on the menu - I can’t agree to pay a price that I never see. And also, if I tip x% no matter what, that means I don’t tip more for especially good service ( I tip - but I hate the whole concept of it and would much rather the prices went up and tipping was eliminated. Apparently, I’m in the minority.)
As for the food, I think you do to a certain extent. You can complain if your steak is too well done and ask them to make you a new one. You can ask for food to be taken off the bill. You can complain on social media and maybe they send you a gift card as DrDeth stated.
As for decor, you know that going in. It is pretty static and you can either accept it or not when you arrive. If there is dried food caked against the walls and my shoes are sticking to the floor, I’m probably walking right back out after I arrive.
And if you pay a fixed tip, that price is in the menu too, for all effects and purposes.
Besides, I don’t really know what “especially good service” is, anyway. I don’t want servers to bend over backwards for me, and I don’t want the to treat me better than any other customer; that’ll just make me feel uncomfortable. I just want them to show up and do their job, which basically is all I want from anyone.
I think the bottom line is, the servers don’t work for me. I don’t want them acting like they work for me. Tipping just confuses things - muddles the relationship. I’m not their employer, the restaurant is, and their job is to do whatever is best for the restaurant.
no, you’re not walking anywhere. 
15 years in the industry has taught me the tip reflects the generosity of the giver not the attention and professionalism of the receiver. It’s good for big shots who what to flex in front of a crowd of friends or lonely guys looking for any female attention. It’s understandably hard on morale for a small team of broke-ass college kids.
Subway and the like have poisoned the well far more.