this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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That's the part that is weird. And I live in the U.S.
the average wage with tips is like 20/hour, which is significantly more than minimum wage, and in some places more than double.
hence why people who work in these jobs are against the removing of tipping, because they'd make less money.
what's hilarious is people on lemmy who probably have never worked as a server or bartender going on about tipping and restaurants like they know better than the people who work in them. because in their ignorant opinion they 'know better' than these folks.
Alternately: they could be paid a living wage with menu prices to support these higher wages. This allows for a more consistent (read: reliable) income. While I have not personally worked as a server, I know enough people who have. They have "good nights" and "bad nights."
Another affect of this is that it removes ambiguity regarding which places depend on tips and which don't. This line has been muddied by places haphazardly adding tip prompts to their checkouts.
There's a theme here, and that theme is consistency.
Consider that the comments on this are from the customer side. The increase in places asking for tips and inflation of "suggested" tip percentages hasn't been helping.
I think there might be a theoretical tipping culture that threads the needle of waiters getting a living wage while giving some leeway. Basically: 20% on the total is absurd and a dark pattern for advertising goods below cost; 0% is a hard barrier that can price certain populations out or fails on edge cases.
For example if I walk in with a table full of toddlers I should be socially obliged to tip you for going above and beyond the normal service. If I have a table of well behaved adults I shouldn't be forced to pay the same gratuity for group size. If I do, I'm subsidizing clumsy patrons breaking dishes and making messes.
In a similar vein, ordering something simple and eating quickly shouldn't incur the same payment as chatting for 2 hours while no tables are available. If I'm paying a set price for the implicit use of a table then you damn well better set a timer on the table so I know. All of these variables are impossible to price in and vary wildly with your clientele, which makes tipping an attractive option.
Maybe something like a restaurant enforced hard cap of 5%-10%. Nobody complains about a reasonable company culture of overtime+bonuses, service workers should have the same right to that compensation. Unfortunately, that realistically wouldn't work. Exploitation is baked into our economy, so 0% is our best option.
i consider that the comments are mostly from people outside the USA being whiny something exists here they don't like or understand.
I consider you'd have to be a moron to think those of us who have worked in US restaurants would not see a problem with tipping culture.
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Why would people outside the U.S. who don't work in restaurants want to embrace tipping culture?