Should tips be eliminated in the United States?

[coachTanthony]

[douride2]

A tip is a reward for good service Also 30% is a ridicules amount for a tip. Good service I will leave a good size tip. Lousy or no service the tip trends downward to nothing.

[douride2]

Thanks for a MHO.

[lilBigPotato]

30% is insane

[Friendlybro79]

Most servers don't expect that. But I would say work for a week in a busy restaurant and see if you could do it if you have never tried. If we don't think people deserve a living wage for this kind of work, I say no one should work at restaurants and let the owners cook and serve the food themselves. Why would anyone work for nothing.

[lilBigPotato]

@Friendlybro79 I don't plan to work for an employer who doesn't pay me properly. That's all what tipping is about, not pay your staff properly so you make more profit or can put a lower price on the menu

[WhiteSteve]

You could try, but the thing is that the restaurants are never going to eat that cost. That WILL be passed on to the customer, to the tune of 100%. I actually managed a restaurant in the past, and the profit margins are RAZOR THIN. You’re scrambling to turn 33%. Like it’s tight enough that they were bent on cutting TIPPED employees when it’s slow. Waitress we were paying like $4.50 an hour or something, I forget what the paid wage was. But it was that tight that we needed to be saving $18 by sending two servers home a couple hours early. So…. not lucrative.

The other thing, although this might be harder to do in 2025…. cash tips were almost never claimed. That was pretty much the routine. If he/she made $75 in debit/credit card tips, and $125 in cash tips, for a total of $200…. they’d claim they made a hundred bucks.

So, I mean, if you care about stuff like that, it’s literally routine tax fraud. Not something I’m going to throw a flag on, I’d rather see Elon and Bezos and them get taxed to the bejeezus and leave us normal people just getting by relatively alone, but I’m just saying the point of taxes is to take X-amount of all of our personal income to fund, you know, living in the most comfortable country in the world. We want all this nice stuff, but no one wants to chip in🤦‍♂️🙄

Anyway…. another topic for another time. But tipped employees get to skate on a LOT of taxes, whether you think that’s good or bad. But again, cash is quickly disappearing from the scene, so it might be a new paradigm we’re in.

The meme is definitely right though. Like it or not, the system is what it is, and if you can’t adhere to the system, don’t utilize the service.

But my original point is that the money is going to have to come from SOMEWHERE, and that place will always —ALWAYS— be the customer’s pockets. Businesses don’t exist to do us favors, they exist to make money off of us. Eliminating the tipping system will only make you pay more. Because, remember…the owner of the business is going to err on the side of the restaurant when determining wages. We can threaten to freeze them out as consumers if the prices are too high, but when there’s no room to give, to alternative for the restaurant owner is going to be board up the windows, not to continue bleeding money.

Having your food prepared for you and brought to you as you sit will always cost money. The way we deliver the money could change, but the cost will not.

Semi-related: we’re all talking about grocery prices these days: one of my best friends is the president of a pretty significant ethnic foods company that has Heinz-Kraft sniffing around them, considering buying the business. Like in 2020, he gave me a two-days early heads up to stock up on meat, he knew the shutdowns were coming, he’s IN THE INDUSTRY.

He was saying a couple weeks ago, with the “hey, I thought we were getting our grocery prices lowered” talk, he said “I haven’t gotten the memo to lower prices, so I’m not lowering prices.” He also said “you have to remember 80-85% of everything is tied up in labor costs. And every year when we do employee reviews, the line of people NOT asking for raises is a lot shorter than the other one. So prices will not be returning to pre-2020 levels, barring a societal collapse.”

The point just being that labor costs money. And this is what it costs to do things domestically. We exploit other countries and their workers to keep our own costs down. I’m sure you’ve seen things before about how if we paid everyone down the supply line fairly, we’d be paying like $27 a cup for coffee. And that’s because America can’t grow coffee. If we could, I wonder if we would, because minimum wage here is exponentially more than the slave wages people get paid in Colombia or wherever else. American coffee at full price would make Starbucks look like the free shit in the waiting room at Jiffy Lube, lmao.

Anyway, long tangent, haha…. but as far as tips…. we’ll still be paying it, they’ll just repackage it, and enough people can’t/won’t cook that we’ll societally accept it, and eventually it will just be normal, because we’ll still be paying around the same. Your $15 meal plus tip is now $20 with no tip, that’s all.

I do like that it would protect servers’ incomes, in that I’ve overheard COUNTLESS scumbags at their tables with the bill, literally trying to find flaws in the meal or the service to justify tipping less. I fully endorse taking the “judge’s scorecard” out of the customers’ hands, because I find they’re usually much more of the problem than the service is.

[Snakeyes7]

I suppose people just won't be eating at restaurants anymore until they can figure out how to make the prices lower.

[WhiteSteve]

@Snakeyes7 Could be. That’s way better for us anyway, cooking for ourselves. It’s the only way to truly control your diet reliably.

But my point is just that the only way you can eat cheaper is to stiff your server on the tip. Tipping them properly or switching to full wages paid by the restaurant, your cost will be the same. And restaurants, most of them, don’t have room to budge. Like it’s usually a barely solvent business as is. I would NEVER get into the restaurant business, unless I was franchising a Dunkin’ Donuts or something, those are money printers. But any kind of sit-down restaurant…. there needs to be an acceptance that there’s the price of the food materials, that would be the same as if we cooked at home. What you’re paying for is your share of probably $100+/hr worth of kitchen staff. The server doesn’t cost much, hostesses make minimum wage usually. The building and the guys and gals prepping and cooking the food, and to a lesser degree, washing your dishes…. all of whom are deserving of a livable wage…will command said livable wage, or they’ll find somewhere else to work, maybe even another industry, and then there’s no restaurant. And most people I know don’t have the time, the energy, or the know-how to cook themselves 21 meals a week, let alone for any other mouths they’re responsible for feeding. So the leverage is with the restaurants, because we’ll starve if we can’t fend for ourselves. Eating is non-negotiable.

I’d love for it to be cheap to go to restaurants too, but like anything else, labor costs money, it’s not wrong that labor costs money, and we shouldn’t be resentful of that dynamic. We don’t go to work for free, and most of us aren’t providing services that your literal survival is dependent on, so we’re the ones over the barrel.

[WhiteSteve]

@Snakeyes7 We can boycott the industry, but the industry isn’t where it is for any reason other than costs and trying to turn a modest profit. Of all the businesses we could attack for overcharging us, these ones are low on the list, truthfully. You can’t strong-arm restaurant owners into better prices, only into boarding up the windows and finding another way to make money.

You’ll find few people more against price-gouging than I am, and I’m just letting you know that these guys aren’t who you’re after. If anything, the food SUPPLIERS are fucking both us and the restaurants. Depends on the particular item in question, but a lot of this stuff can be sold for much cheaper, and they elect not to. Ditto for oil companies, gas DOES NOT need to be this expensive relative to available supply.

They’re charging us this much because they can get away with it. Then it all rolls downhill from there. We have plenty of oil. There was plenty under Trump, plenty under Biden, there will be plenty under Trump again. Russia is heavily sanctioned because they suck, which affects GLOBAL supply, but the oil exists.

I’ll never forget during Covid, hearing one of the board meetings of Exxon on one of the other big oil companies saying “our priorities remain with our shareholders”, which is suit-speak for “fuck you guys, our investors don’t want their dividend checks going down, so we’re gonna keep overcharging you, and you’re gonna shut the fuck up, spread your cheeks, and take it right in the balloon knot, because —and we can stress this enough— go fuck yourself.”

[Snakeyes7]

Agreed. However, if a business can't afford to stay open without severely underpaying the staff, then they shouldn't be open. It sucks to hear because that makes it harder for new businesses to pop up, but this is purely deception on how much the food truly costs.

I agree that the suppliers are a big problem because the restaurants need to get their hands on the raw materials and if the price of any of those goes up, the consumers will be the ones to eat it in the end. This is why I am against government overregualtion.

You can squash the oil industry in the US, but all they'll do is operate somewhere cheaper and fuck us over with the shipping costs or go to an enemy country like China where they can easily be snuffed out the moment China has had enough of our shit. That's what pretty much every business has done, and that's why Trump wants to move these businesses back to the US.

Oh yeah, those shareholders are dumb as a box of rocks and that is an insult to rocks. They only operate by "line go up" and never by overall customer satisfaction. You'd think that letting people afford more of your product would also do the same thing but these people aren't exactly the smartest either.

[OlderAndWiser]

A tip is a reward for good service, not an entitlement after mediocre service! And any idiot who thinks 30% is a reasonable tip clearly needs to get their head examined.

[Anonymous]

The absolute rage I feel about that poster. We grew up poor, and every once in a while, my parents would scrape up every extra nickel so that we could go out for a nice meal because working day and night just to make ends meet, never going on vacations, never doing anything requiring any money just to save, was f------g depressing, so god forbid they should want to treat themselves. We drank water only, my brother and I always shared a plate, we never got dessert. This was all we could do. We could not afford to tip.

As a waitress/waiter, you CANNOT complain about not making a decent wage because you don't get enough tips as if you are the only people who are being underpaid, overworked for what you do if you even bother to do it well. A lot of people are doing the best they can, and even if they are doing well, they are not obligated to tip you. My parents sure as f----g hell deserved a night out 3x a year and to not feel guilty because they couldn't give a tip. What if they said right back, if you can't do your job without depending on tips, work somewhere else! That would be incredibly rude, wouldn't it.

Now we're at a point in society (at least in America) where just to drive yourself to get a drink through a drive through, now everyone needs a tip for that now. Tip your server if you can for good/great service but don't feel like you're a criminal or less than if you can't tip or "tip according to someone elses standards."

[777GgG]

I've always been taught rule of thumb is 10-15 %, ($10.75-16.13) maybe 20% ($21.51) not 30%. 30% might be grat. on a bill for large parties tho. I'm sure servers will disagree with me would love that 30 though but I've never had someone mad at a 10%.

Tips typically aren't mandatory either (though I always give) but they're dependent on how good the service is. If I only see my server once and I have to flag down someone from a different section just to get water my tip becomes smaller.

My problem though is the places that make their people dependent on those tips for a decent take home. How about you pay your people what they're worth so they don't need tips... Yes I know they took that job, but not everyone has the knowledge or the desire to be a doctor, teacher or lawyer.

[Friendlybro79]

@777GgG 10% has never been the norm. For boomers 15-18% has always been normal in the US. Less than that is saying they did a bad job. It's been 18-20% for a long time. Servers are treated like such crap in this country by customers. You don't like tipping them yell at the restaurant owner and demand they pay them enough so they can survive. Oh and by the way if you care about that then it will cost you more than 20% tip if the owner agrees to pay them more on their own.

[777GgG]

@Friendlybro79 my boomer mother taught me 10-15. My cousin is a server and has said 10-15 is perfectly fine. I've asked the girls she works with as well. While 10 isn't ideal they understand that not everyone can give large tips, but that shouldn't exclude them from eating out.
And I acknowledge that servers aren't always treated the best. I work kitchen too, I've seen it, notice I said servers should make more...
Percentage aside, when I dine in I always tip my servers, even when the service hasn't been that great.

[Friendlybro79]

@777GgG I appreciate your reply and kindly disagree with 10%. I'm not sure what part of the country you're from, so I can't speak for all Americans, and to be fair, in the northeast 10% is not a good tip. Sure servers understand maybe you can't do more but it's a bad tip. If they do well 18%-20% is respectable. It has been this for possibly my entire life and I'm 45.

I do question how someone could pay say 100 dollars for a meal and then dispute another 10 dollars to give them a 20% tip. And if you're spending less than that on a meal it's even more confusing to me.

[McLlovin]

Yes the tipping culture is stupid. We are the inly country that does this and if you try to do it in other countries they see as an insult.

basically its the business fault. They use the customer as away to make up for what they dont want to pay there employees.

the sign should say “Pay your employees there wages!!” … im already paying for the service, now i have to pay charity too. And the balls to make you feel bad about not doing so… this country is super capitalistic

[Caroline91]

If someone's gonna be preachy, at least get the math right. I agree with Mr @OlderAndWiser and I tip according to quality of service, but 30% is really pushing it. And this whole tip credit thing? A tip should be on top of the employee's wage, not deducted from it so they are still only earning minimum wage. That's just wrong.

[coachTanthony]

LOL I found that on the internet don't shoot the messenger

[RingOfFire]

Yes tipping is a stupid relic of the past and should be eliminated. You go to a restaurant to relax not to do math and have to worry about taking care of the employees in the restaurant. That's the job of the management.

When an employee is hired a job that currently uses tipping the agreement should be the same as the agreement in any other job. The employer should decide what that employee is worth to them and that employee should decide whether or not the offer is sufficient for them. When they both agree, that's a fair deal for both. The customers pay the cost for the price of the product not through tipping. And that's how it should be.

[Static_In_The_Attic]

As for me I’m aiming towards YES within reason on this one however if the NO TAX On Tips bill is passed I’ll say NO tips shouldn’t be eliminated in the United States. On the other side of things if you go out & the service sucks I like how you have tip control. In addition if tips are eliminated restaurant prices will go up & guess what you will have to pay more sales tax on the increase. This is a tough one.

[Friendlybro79]

@Static_In_The_Attic it will be cheaper for customers to just tip good. Once restaurants have to pay real wages they'll take advantage of the situation to rip off customers.

[Friendlybro79]

Oh and 30% isn't necessary it's been well established 20% is a good tip. I believe servers deserve a good tip if they're doing a good job as most do. Customers should be taxed more for being rude assholes thinking it's on their right to treat a server poorly to hang over them their tip.

[Anonymous]

No, tips are a very good thing for consumers, but only in the right circumstances.

Here's the thing... when you go to a restaurant and you are taken care of by a server, tipping gives you control over how much you pay. If tipping were eliminated, it would take away your control, but you would have to pay just as much anyway because the tip would be built into the menu prices. You would have no choice but to pay the tip amount.

But with tipping, you get to decide whether your server did a good job and earned their tip. And if they didn't, you don't have to pay it. And that motivates your server to do a good job and do everything they can to make sure you are satisfied with your food and with your experience.

Now, tipping the person who pours your coffee or scoops your ice cream is complete bullshit. It's ruining the reputation of tipping for everyone.

[jennifer_bloom]

A 30% tip is pretty high unless you are tipping for manual labour work and introductory prices are low or additional and previously unplanned work was necessary that undervalued the pay grade originally quoted by the labourers repairing your home who did not realize the job was more difficult than planned.

[bellicose]

15-20% tip has always been customary. That said, if you want to complain about prices at restaurants and tips, just use some common sense and eat at home. You can cook your own food right? You don't need someone to carry your cooked food from the kitchen to the table for you do you? You have arms right? If you don't demand high prices and tips, then they won't supply it to you. If you keep paying, they will keep accepting your money.

[bellicose]

Put them out of business and let Penny Wiggins go pick fruit in the fields.

[bellicose]

Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered...

[Pet68]

No one should be forced to "tip" if they don't want to. Where I live, no one tips. Ever! Some cafes do have "tip jars" near the cashier's station, but it's entirely up to you if you want to put some coins into it, and you get to decide how much (there isn't a percentage requirement).

I've got a much better idea; how about paying your staff enough money to actually live on. Then they won't have to rely upon tips anymore.

[Dongie]

I'll tell you what, gratuity is not something you demand. Pay your fkn waitress better if you need a sign like that. Also 30% is a fkn joke. I tip according to the quality of the service. If the table is ignored no tip. That's why I don't go to the Outback. Worst serve I've ever experienced. Also the only meal we didn't tip.

[Twalli]

Pay food service workers better. Tipping is extremely uncommon in other places, they pay their workers better and tips are rare and in some places they assume it's a mistske. A guy left 5 euros as a tip in Europe and the waiter told him he forgot his money. He had to explain what a tip was. Tips aren't given there because they pay those workers better.

[Summeroflove]

I would say pay them a livable wage but keep the tipping. Servers who give shit service and feel entitled to a tip need to find another job though.

[sage2021]

I think that we should tip the amount that we, as the customer wants. It's not negotiable. Period.

It's not like the game show "The Price Is Right". 🙄

[dustybiker2]

I think online out of state tax should be removed. That made sense.
Tips are a low wage job way of making more through positive attitude and effort.

[AviatorTom]

Tips should be optional, the amount based on the quality of service. Problem in most of the US is that tips are expected, and sometimes required.

[exitseven]

In the state that I live in there was a referendum on the ballot to eliminate tips. The waitstaff, hairdressers and other tipped worker campaigned against this. I am confused.

[blondfrog]

Yes and its funny their boss gets mad at the customer for not tipping their waiter and waitress yet its the bosses fault for hiring them but not having enough money to just pay their waiters they hired.

[Uglygaypoorcoward94]

Tipping someone for doing a service theyre meant to do and sometimes done very poorly lol

[Uglygaypoorcoward94]

Also everything we make or spend is taxed why should we pay someone a untaxed wage

[coachTanthony]

All I can say is that screen name is FIRE bro lol

[Uglygaypoorcoward94]

Ty ty The LORD is my refuge I strengthen myself in my God

[Fantastic-User]

Yes it’s just an excuse to pay workers under minimum wage

[dragoblack]

Yes. Tipping used to just be gratuity, but now it's just a reason for business owners not pay employees a proper wage. Now companies are requesting tips for absolute bullshite or requiring a 20% tip... which just makes it a [buisness profit] tax grab.

[MisterWack]

Solution: Give waiters / waitresses & fast food employees higher wages so they don’t have to rely on ‘tipping culture’.

Once you do that, the average American won’t have to do that unless they feel like it (Holidays for example)

[David318578]

What drives me crazy is when counter service flips the screen around for a tip. I tip for alcohol and a waitress/waiter that's it.

[Date_a_Snob]

Some people feel they are owed a tip as a part of their job rather than seeing a tip as a bonus for a job well done.

[GAGsucksballs89170]

If tips were eliminated, you'd have to give them min. wage, which would raise everything at restaurants, like they're about to be, with this tariff war, that trump just instigated.

[NathanDavis]

any change that's made... whatever it is...

we always end up paying more and more... lol

[Miristheiss]

LOL, times it by 1.5 or 2.

Well, if they do, and the employees get a more regular wage then the price of the food goes up.

Higher food prices... or tip. It is about the same either way.

[DrPepper12]

Of course but raise them to real min wage first then a quick but graduated phase out.

[Friendlybro79]

@DrPepper12 Raise them to really living wages because serving people at a busy restaurant is not easy work. Most people couldn't hack what a busy waiter, waitress or bartender goes through dealing with the general a hole public. They work for less than min wage because they know when they do a good job it can be a career to be in the service industry. Career bartenders or servers that work their ass off deserve to more than min wage.

[DrPepper12]

Ofc your right. I should have said starting with graduated raises. I did it for 3 years. Not for the weak or meek.

[worldscolide]

If restaurants paid a good wage tipping wouldn't be needed. So I support eliminating tipping.

[Snakeyes7]

I wouldn't go as far as eliminated but it should not be brought up by the institution who would be receiving it.

[Nerdvana]

No, there are a lot people who work hard to provide a service

[Staximus]

I'm only tipping that much if I'm going out to eat right before Christmas

[Anonymous]

I'm strictly on the $1-$3 tip plan now to counter this entitlement. If they can't afford to live on it, they need to find a better paying job. 😁

[Wiredone]

I tip according to the service that they give. If I get lousy service they don't get tipped

[Dargil]

They should not. But servers should earn $10 per hour minimum. It's not much but it's better than nothing. But good service should earn good tips.

[Anonymous]

By three? It's always been 20%. When did it change to 30%? by the way I always overtip. So this is not me complaining, just asking.

[Coden7]

I think standard tipping is stupid. You’re supposed to tip according to your service. I think the mandatory tipping expectation is killing the spirit of it all

[Coden7]

Especially the pre-service tipping Ex. Door Dash style service. When there’s a high risk that they steal your food and drive away with the tip

[Bklynbadboy12]

I wouldn't pay that! That's crazy I tip but not that much

[JCT666]

Restaurant owners need to pay their staff proper wages instead of relying on guilt-tripping customers, but of course, 'Merica isn't ready for that conversation...

[LiamJHayden]

Just as they are about to remove the taxes on them? No. Any little win in the battle against the forcible extraction of funds from wage earners is a plus in my book.

[RedThread]

If there were wage laws in place to protect the current workforce then sure.

[RedInnocent69]

It should make America great again. Maybe Trump can legislate it? He hasn’t done anything to cut costs for people so far

[zagor]

Any place that posted that sign would get a tip of 0.

[fish5505_87]

It's getting a little crazy! Although, for the most part I am for tipping.

[SmokinAces2000]

Only if employers are willing to give their servers more money

[goaded]

30%? Are you joking?

[Friendlybro79]

This isn't the expected norm. Remember in america some states pay a min of $2.13 an hour. Tips are their way of surviving in this world and as far as I see it, as long as customers expect to be served, they should be ok with tipping their server well. If not don't go out to eat in America. It's the government's fault for allowing people to be paid so little and restaurant owners are able to get away with slave wages.

[Friendlybro79]

2.13 an hour for tipped servers*

[goaded]

@Friendlybro79 I think the restaurants should be paying the people who deliver their food to the customers. They're their employees, after all.

[Friendlybro79]

@goaded I don't disagree with that at all. I just think they should get paid well enough then to survive just like anyone else. Unfortunately if that were the case, I am pretty sure your tab for your meal will be way more than 20% tip people could pay now and make everyone happy.

It's definitely weird how this is set up here but with it being ok for restaurant owners to not have to pay their staff for this long, I think making it just minimum wage would be a disaster, and a liveable wage would make it too expensive for the customers who are already complaining about the tip as it is.

[StevenMcGarrett]

Yes, too much to worry about.

[Anonymous]

You have the power to do that by yourself.

[SpaceGalaxy]

YES they should

[Fireguy17]

If they earned a decent wage.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I believe so.

[rebelkid]

Absolutely not

[rebelkid]

Tips should stay but should be optional. Let us all be REAL and we should tip depending on how good it bad the server is. This is obviously completely subjective