So fucking tired of tipping. I’ve read recommendations of 30% these days. That is absolutely insane. The prices for everything has increased substantially already, and we are expected to tip proportionally to it? Not to mention, the tip screens on POS systems are showing up at regular businesses now. So fucking annoying.
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025
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Then stop.
Fair point! I guess it’s just so ingrained that I feel like a jerk if I don’t.
ETA: I don’t tip at businesses just because they have a tip screen on their new POS system. I only tip at restaurants.
The employers are the real problem. But without an organized movement, random people deciding not to tip anymore is only going to hurt already underpaid workers and kind of does make you a jerk. Some servers literally don't get a paycheck at the end of the week if they didn't get tipped enough because they're paid so little that it's all absorbed by social security and medicare taxes. If you feel you can't afford to tip, just pick up food to go rather than being waited on.
But 100% do not tip at random business that have decided to use a tip screen. Not sure how many people know this, but the companies that make those machines actually get a cut of the tips which is partly why they push tipping so aggressively. These days I just pay with cash everywhere to avoid the issue altogether. Better for my privacy too, and local businesses often offer cash discounts.
Everywhere I've lived, employers are legally required to make up the difference if tipped employees made under the min wage (and no, I don't mean the sub-min or "tipped" wage). If they're not doing that, we're back to employers/the culture are the problem.
The real jerks are the employers.
They, as usual, have conditioned workers to work against themselves.
Business owners always get a pass because they're insulated from the actual work.
People just need to stop doing it. In my city in France, one restaurant started using the POS with the tip screen and people just choose to not tip and they completely disabled the screen after a few weeks. But still some business do push for it.
I’ve read recommendations of 30% these days
Bloody hell! Anyone saying that is trying to take advantage of people.
In the example you give, the business owner increases prices in line with inflation but hey! the workers need a pay increase too, and I'm not paying them more, so the customer should tip more.. so the recommended tip amount increases from 10-15% to 20-30%. But this is not in line with inflation, this is an exponential increase.
A lot of people won't recognize this as people don't generally understand exponentials that easily.
A lot of people won’t recognize this as people don’t generally understand exponentials that easily.
Given your example, you're struggling with it as well.
To clarify, the tip percent shouldn't need to change since it's a percentage of the final bill. So, it automatically accounts for inflation already.
If the average bill goes up 10% and customers always tip the same % then the workers would see a 10% increase in tips.
Have never worked a job that earned me tips, but it seems to me that everyone who holds a full time job should not be required to rely on kindness of strangers for their livelyhood.
Regulations should be such that they mandate all employers to pay a liviable wage.
If that causes places to shutdown, let them greedy bastards shutdown. The market will correct itself.
Continuing as it is today is bad for everyone but the employers and capitalists.
The argument told to useful idiots is that servers are encouraged to work harder when they rely on tips.
For the rest of us that aren't dumbasses, we can see that if a server isn't doing their job properly, then they can be fired and replaced.
We can also recognize all the servers that bend over backwards and end up getting no tips or something very small.
As usual, tipping culture only exists because stupid Americans have been conditioned to work against their own interests.
It’s not kindness anymore. It’s peer pressure. That’s why people hate it. If it was true kindness then it would be totally private: i.e. you’d decide whether or not to tip the next day when you’re at home alone, with no one watching.
And there's the crux, right? It's not a kindness, and it never could be a kindness because that's their actual wages. It isnt peer pressure, it is a conscious understanding that the person you are tipping is literally counting on that tip to pay their bills. You're paying them because their boss won't, and that is rightfully starting to piss people off.
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Tip for fellow Americans: tip with cash because owners frequently steal digital tips. Inb4 "that's illegal!" Yup, wage theft is the biggest type of theft.
Why are we never tough on this crime?
The capital class sees it as impossible to prosecute because the violence is alienated and the working class is seen as less than human.
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The worst thing is when they try to export this culture to other countries. Boycotting American gig-economy apps is the best thing you can do to try to curtail this.
I'm not saying you're wrong about gig economy apps, but the tipping culture being described here goes way beyond that. Pretty much anywhere that uses one of the popular point of sale systems like Square has a tip request screen you have to click through in order to finish your transaction
I've experienced that in the US also, but thankfully where I am Square does not display the tip request screen. So far, I've only noticed requests for tips in the gig economy apps, and I appreciate that you're drawing attention to how much more pervasive it is in the US. All the more reason to not have it spread here.
I just stopping tipping full-stop.
Tipping culture needs to die.
I tip when there is actual service. Deliver my pizza so I don't have to drive out to get it? Sure, I'll tip. Making sure I have enough napkins and my coffee is kept topped up? Absolutely there's a tip. Making the food and handing it to me at the counter? That's not service, that's just giving me what I paid for, so no tip.
It would be nice if tipping went away for the service jobs at well and they were paid a proper wage, but that isn't happening any time soon. Long term changes can't sacrifice short term needs to the point where there is no long term left to change, and waiters need to eat.
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So for my 2¢: I'm a massage therapist. I went to school and pay for continuing education and licensing, and that's not even considering insurance or a lease if you have your own practice. I rightfully should be making quite a bit more than minimum wage. Most places will put up job listings with a number around $45/hr, but they don't mention that this is calculating with the average tip that's almost always shorting what you'll actually make.
My industry has been a tipped industry for a very long time and the tipping fatigue hurts. We have MORE shit we need to pay for on our own but people who have never gotten a massage see the prompt for a tip and don't realize that's been the norm for massage since fuckin EVERYWHERE asks you for a tip.
Time to demand a living wage.
Is this the new story that sites write every time they're out of ideas and need to publish something? Cuz I feel like there's eight of these articles every week.
Even our local news station re-ran their genZ/millenial shame piece this week on how they dont tip while gen X and boomers always tip. No point to be made. Just "hur dur yOuNgE pEoPle DoNt TiP."
Nearly half? Are the rest just not paying attention?
Same in Canada. Is that meal (like, a burger with fries lol) really 35$? Nah, add 15% for taxes, and at least another 15% for tips. But be warned, at 15% they might just throw it in your face. And don't you dare leave under 2$ on that 20$ beer, do you think that botte got open by itself?
Dont they get paid minimum wage in Canada tho? I don't get it
People can't handle the social pressure from the service workers and their owners
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I am not American.
When I first dined in US restaurant, I was flabbergasted with the fact that the cashier pulled out a tablet and already have five buttons ready to be tapped - 12%, 15%, 18%, CUSTOM TIP.
That no tip button was below the four prominent buttons.
No, I have never seen this in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and of course Indonesia where I live.
It needs to be outlawed for real
I personally don't even tip anymore.
Just stop tipping?
Unfortunately tipping in North America is a wage subsidy paid by patrons. Employers can get away with paying employees less as there is an expectation that the public will supplement the difference. It wouldn't be enough to just stop tipping, a change to employment practices is necessary.
I think if everybody stopped tipping, a change in employment practices would soon follow, because all those people working consumer subsidized wages would quit.
When the only choice a person has is a little money vs. no money, they're usually forced to choose the former.
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Once enough people who rely on tips complain or look for work elsewhere, then things can start to change.
Right now, the same people removed when they don't get tipped also say "they make more with tips."
Until those useful idiots change, we shouldn't expect the system to change.
I expect to be waiting awhile, perhaps the rest of my life.
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