Nowadays, tipping serves as a justification for employers to underpay their staff and has become a key part of the culinary economy in America.
Customers are now doing the job employers should be doing.
Tipping has a long history, dating back to the 17th century. In America, it primarily gained significance after the Civil War. Newly emancipated Black women and men were hired by the restaurant and hospitality industries. Still, they did not receive any payment for their labor, leaving them to rely on gratuities for their survival, according to the Shriver Center on Poverty Law.
This means of avoiding paying adequate labor costs persists today. In fact, employers are allowed to pay tip-earning workers less than minimum wage. According to the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, the federal tipped subminimum wage has stayed unchanged at $2.13 an hour since 1991.
With inflation rising by 136% since 1991, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, these stagnant wages are becoming increasingly unsustainable.
Along with the significant inflation we’ve seen in costs, tipping recommendations have also risen to around 20% today.
Not only are these recommendations, but also expectations. Walking into any cafe or restaurant, you can expect to be met with a glowing tablet that swivels towards you, offering the preset options of 18%, 20%, 25%, or some variation of similar amounts.
This is evident even in transactions that involve little human interaction. With the popularity of self-serve spots or fast-casual counters, tipping has migrated from recognizing service to just an extra math calculation to see what you are actually paying for your food.
A Pew Research Center survey found that, among almost 12,000 American adults, 72% feel they are being asked to tip in more places than ever before.
Along with this, these non-sit-down food services have popularized paying before the actual product is received, leaving the tip, which is meant to reflect service, to be expected before any service is provided.
However, the choice of declining a tip is not met with neutrality, but rather seen as a moral failure under the silent gaze of the cashier and the customer behind.
This has become a complicated topic among the discussions surrounding teenagers and their tendency to leave tips.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 22.5% of high school students are employed. That leaves 77.5% of teenagers without a solid means of supporting going out for lunch with friends, or tipping on a $6 coffee.
This often results in a self-fulfilling prophecy of an assumption that teenagers don’t tip, and therefore receive indifferent or dismissive service, making their incentive to tip even smaller.
But this hesitancy around tipping is not only prevalent among teenagers. While it is expected to tip, a survey by Bankrate found that two-thirds of Americans view the tipping system negatively.
Throughout all of this, you cannot ignore the underlying problem that employees’ survival often depends on gratuities. In high-cost regions such as the Bay Area, minimum wage is not sufficient to meet the demands of rent, bills, food, transportation, and more.
The current minimum wage in California is $16.90 per hour, although many Bay Area cities have local ordinances that require higher wages, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations.
With the Bay Area having the most expensive housing market, as well as one of the lowest per capita housing production rates in the country, it is not just difficult, but impossible for someone working a minimum wage job to compete with the housing affordability crisis.
According to a survey by the Joint Venture Silicon Valley, the overall cost of living ranked first at an overwhelming 96% reason why residents were considering leaving Santa Clara County. This was then followed by the cost of healthcare at 73% and high housing costs at 53%.
This results in a suffocating system where customers might feel pressured or even resentful, while workers remain vulnerable.
There are solutions to this; for example, tipping in much of Europe has remained a service gratuity rather than a financial necessity. This is primarily because workers earn comparable wages of over €1,500 per month in countries such as France, Germany, and Ireland, among others, according to the European Employment Services.
In addition, in some countries, automatic service charges are added to bills and then distributed to the waitstaff. This is similar to the large group fees that are added by restaurants in America.
According to translations of the French Consumer Code, a law from 1985 made it required for a 15% service charge to be included in all restaurant and cafe prices. This is a charge that is added directly to menu items and goes towards employees’ wages.
Gratuities are still customary in many parts of Europe, but they continue to serve as a means of rewarding service rather than an expectation.
In some parts of Asia, tipping is simply not part of their culture. It can even be discouraged or seen as inappropriate. Similar to parts of Europe, service fees are included in the price. Additional tips can be seen as creating a hierarchical relationship or suggesting dissatisfaction with the service, according to Tokyo Iroha.
With that in mind, we cannot ignore the differences in culture and customs; however, it is important to note that there are ways to implement better living wages for service workers that could help ease the pressures of tipping.
As long as businesses are able to rely on customers to subsidize wages, that glowing tip screen will continue to carry its significant weight in deciding who bears the cost of someone else’s livelihood.
This editorial reflects the views of the Editorial Board and was written by Caitlin Stehr. The Editorial Board voted 9 in agreement, 2 somewhat in agreement, 2 in disagreement, and 5 refrained from voting.
